Someone is afraid of Barack Obama. Ok. Not just someone but a congregation of self appointed custodians of our collective consciousness. They are afraid of Obama for varying reasons. Ignoring the ridiculous and the incredulous, here are the traditional issues being peddled by those who fear Obama and think he is a risk for the exalted post of the president of the United States of America.

That Obama is a Socialist:

Maybe last century, you can scare people in America by mentioning the word socialism. Not this 21st century. The word is not as dirty as it used to sound.

Apparently, the emergence of Obama is considered such a threat that the right wing does not think that L-word (liberal) can do the job anymore so they dig deeper into their fear-mongering bag to pick up socialist.

To suggest that an individual will ruin America is an insult to Americans. It is a demeaning of the American democracy. It is a dismissal of the core principle of the government of the people. It is like saying that the American democracy has no foundation and can easily be wiped away by an ordinary mortal like Obama.

I can tell you that Chairman Mao or even Putin as American president cannot ruin America. If America survived the crook, Nixon, it can survive anyone.

No one man, talk less of Obama, can destroy the Republic.

Don’t believe all you hear on right wing radio.

Why sensible people suddenly are scared of this skinny black man with big ears is beyond me.

What did Obama do to their confidence? What did he do to their confidence in the great American institutions?

Do they really think that he can get into the White House and destroy the Republic while the CIA, SSS, NSA, SCH, MI, MI3, CCY, PUL, UTR and all the other secret services and spy agencies watch?

Please! Stop kidding.

Not even Bush and Cheney could fool everybody every time. And they had most of the institutions in their pockets.

That Obama Would Tax the Rich and Feed the Poor

In the past, Democrats were known for increasing taxes with the belief that government knows best. But not in recent times. Since Ronald Reagan declared that government was the problem and not the solution, Democrats now tax the wealthy so that they would be able to cut taxes for the middle class. That is what I know Obama will do. But McCain will keep the tax cut the wealthy got from Bush.

Why poor struggling men and women tend to support the Republican argument of, give the rich a huge tax cut and let it tickle down to the poor, is still beyond me. Maybe it is those right-wing mantra that somehow there are a huge poor people who do not want to work and who will benefit from welfare money obtained by taxing the rich.

That is of course a big lie. Many who talk about the welfare checks have never seen one. None of those who grumble about welfare checks can live on a welfare check. The real welfare check is the one that goes to the big companies. It is in billions of dollars.

Meanwhile, the rich never complained that taxes were killing them. They never stopped buying luxuries of life because they were taxed.

Of course, just like Clinton did with Reagan’s deficit, the Democrats will come in and once again reduce the deficit of the Bush era.

That Obama’s Clarion Call for Change is an Illusion

When ever I hear change, I remember Albert Einstein. He once said that, “The significant problems that we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them.” The clamor for change is simply a realization that the best insanity definition that we have is that often quoted one where we keep doing the same thing and yet expecting a different result.

Be it in our approach to medical insurance, dictators, soaring oil price and the environment. William James noted that “The greatest revolution of our generation is the discovery by humans that by changing the inner attitudes of their minds can change the outer aspects of their lives.”

Those who are afraid of Obama are afraid of something else. Something primitive. Something rooted in the lower angel of their lives.