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HAWORTH: Michelle Obama’s Convention Speech Was Dishonest, Disrespectful, and Deceitful

For people who claim to hate division, the Obamas are experts at fueling it.

   DailyWire.com
In this screenshot from the DNCC’s livestream of the 2020 Democratic National Convention, Former First Lady Michelle Obama addresses the virtual convention on August 17, 2020. The convention, which was once expected to draw 50,000 people to Milwaukee, Wisconsin, is now taking place virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Handout/DNCC via Getty Images)
Handout/DNCC via Getty Images

The position of First Lady (or First Gentlemen) is not an elected one. With that in mind, the general expectation is that they perform a ceremonial role. During the 20th century, this has grown to include the promotion of causes which are deliberately chosen to avoid political divisiveness. For example, Melania Trump has focused on the prevention of cyberbullying, Michelle Obama fought childhood obesity, and Laura Bush advocated for women’s rights and childhood literacy.

By nature of their marriage to the President of the United States, the First Lady or Gentleman has a difficult line to tread. On one hand, their close association with and support of an outspoken political figure will result in some level of unavoidable partisanship. On the other, they are not elected by the populace, and so have no electoral support to provide them with ideological or legislative authority.

This balance becomes ever trickier during the “apparent institution of First Lady addresses to national party conventions.” After Eleanor Roosevelt spoke at the Democratic Party convention in 1940, it was 32 years before another First Lady spoke at a national party convention when Pat Nixon, the wife of Richard Nixon, addressed the Republican Party convention in 1972. Neither Betty Ford nor Rosalynn Carter followed suit. However, since Nancy Reagan spoke at the Republican convention in 1984 and 1988, “every sitting FLOTUS (First Lady of the United States) has addressed the party convention,” in addition to “aspiring” or past First Ladies and Gentlemen.

As spouses of currently elected officials, there is an element of freedom which allows them to use their position to promote their partner’s political platform. However, once their spouse is no longer in power, such ideological “wiggle room” rapidly recedes. Not only were the First Lady or Gentlemen never elected in the first place, but they now hold no relevant duties relating to the office of the President, and therefore should not be given any political authority. If anything, the continued assumption of authority based on one’s past tertiary connection to power is, frankly, uncouth.

Enter Michelle Obama, the wife of former President Barack Obama, who has become a celebrity in her own right. She is lauded as a potential successor to the throne of the Democratic Party left vacant by her husband, she is a social media superstar with tens of millions of followers on Instagram, and her memoir “Becoming” was a global phenomenon, with millions of books sold worldwide. Netflix even commissioned a documentary about her “Becoming” book tour, released in May of 2020.

None of these achievements are in any way objectionable. Michelle Obama is, without a doubt, intelligent, talented, and charismatic, with Michelle and Barack Obama representing the very definition of a “power couple.”

What is objectionable is Michelle Obama’s use of her popularity due to her unelected and (traditionally) non-partisan role as First Lady to further deeply partisan objectives.

In a stereotypically Obama-esque fashion, she used her speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention to launch an open and direct attack on Donald Trump and the Republican Party. The speech was divisive, inflammatory, and ironically unbecoming. Her decision to use the popularity garnered by her unelected position as political leverage demonstrated a complete disregard for the traditionally bipartisan behavior expected in such circumstances.

While her speech, which lasted over 18 minutes, was lauded by a loving media, it was replete with subtle partisan aggression, cynical premises, and outright lies. First, there were the multiple indirect jabs at Donald Trump, promoting the Democrats’ binary argument that Trump and the current GOP are all that is “bad,” and therefore the alternative must be all that is “good.”

“Who we choose as our president in this election will determine whether or not we honor that struggle and chip away at that injustice and keep alive the very possibility of finishing that work.”

Then, building on the bizarre notion promulgated by Barack Obama that the President exists as a paternalistic source of sincere “caring,” Michelle Obama argued that Donald Trump and Republicans in general are devoid of the empathy and compassion the Left falsely claim to have in abundance. Michelle Obama even dismissed the fundamental conservative pillar of individual rights and human values by painting the GOP as an immoral entity which views American lives as worthless.

“The job is hard. It requires clear-headed judgment, a mastery of complex and competing issues, a devotion to facts and history, a moral compass, and an ability to listen—and an abiding belief that each of the 330,000,000 lives in this country has meaning and worth.”

Next, Michelle Obama directly attacked the electoral college by using the word “lost” while describing the legitimate victor of the 2016 election. This choice of language is deliberate, designed to move the needle away from the system designed by the Founders to avoid mob rule, and towards the type of “majority” rule which Barack Obama himself openly desires. Apparently, undermining our very system of government doesn’t fall under the Left’s umbrella of concern for election interference.

“Maybe they thought the outcome wouldn’t be close. Maybe the barriers felt too steep. Whatever the reason, in the end, those choices sent someone to the Oval Office who lost the national popular vote by nearly 3,000,000 votes.”

Then there were the lies. Delivered with style, as is expected when an Obama meets a camera and a microphone, but lies nonetheless. Ebola was compared to COVID-19, despite the fact that they are completely different diseases with different symptoms, behaviors, and transmission methods. Michelle Obama decried the “horror as children are torn from their families and thrown into cages,” ignoring the fact that her husband’s administration built those cages. She echoed the “peaceful protesters” cliché to criticize Trump for using “pepper spray and rubber bullets” for a photo-op. Lest we forget, Barack Obama was himself a fan of photo ops.

Finally, true to the style of racial division which Barack Obama fueled during his time in office, Michelle Obama drove her argument home by falsely claiming that an endless list of innocent people are murdered solely because of their skin color, and that such actions are dismissed by the current executive branch.

“And here at home, as George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and a never-ending list of innocent people of color continue to be murdered, stating the simple fact that a Black life matters is still met with derision from the nation’s highest office.”

Indeed, Michelle Obama even preempted criticism of her outrageous speech by accusing her future critics as racist.

“We live in a nation that is deeply divided, and I am a Black woman speaking at the Democratic Convention.”

She is a black woman, but she is a phenomenally successful black woman who is married to a black man who was elected twice by large margins as President of the United States. To continue to bang the drum of racism when it is convenient, while ignoring that she continues to stand as a blistering counter narrative, requires an almost impressive level of arrogance and gall.

The most shocking, and in many ways, most subtle moment in her speech were the claims made before she lauded the morality and competence of Joe Biden a man her husband refused to endorse until there was no other option.

“You know I hate politics. But you also know that I care about this nation. You know how much I care about all of our children.”

This line spits in the face of reality. The first sentence is a lie. How can someone “hate politics” while actively and repeatedly inserting themselves into the political conversation while making millions of dollars in the process? This lie is dwarfed only by the statement that she cares about the nation. This only holds a shred of truth when we understand that Michelle Obama’s view of the United States is whatever it needs to be to gain the most political advantage at any given time. Right now, the version of America she cares about is the alternative image she’s presenting in opposition to Donald Trump. In 2008, she stated that the success of her husband’s presidential campaign made her proud of the nation “for the first time.” Isn’t it fascinating how, for so many on the Left, pride and caring coincide all too often with opportunities for power?

If Michelle Obama was a Republican, the mainstream media would have scorned her dishonesty, her deceit, and her disrespect for the occasionally hallowed legacy of the presidency by using her former role as First Lady to launch a divisive attack on her former opponents.

Her actions were truly unprecedented in the worst of ways. Nancy Reagan was applauded for her speech’s lack of partisanship when she addressed the Republican National Convention in 1996. Speaking in 2008, Laura Bush’s only reference to the Democratic Party was a lighthearted joke regarding Obama’s campaign phrase “change you can believe in,” and even Hillary Clinton, who was running for Senate in 2000, made no mention of the Republicans as she announced her support for Al Gore and Joe Lieberman.

In response to such arguments, some will simply repeat Michelle Obama’s own implicit claim that any criticism of her shameless partisanship is motivated by racism, sexism, or both. We must not only reject this familiar and absurd defense, but also recognize that defeating the Democrats in 2020 depends on the successful defeat of those who still run the show.

Barack and Michelle Obama are blessed with an incomparable and insurmountable level of authoritarian privilege by the mainstream media, who continue to gaggle adoringly at their feet. With their support, the Obamas can continue to run the Democratic Party from beyond the electoral grave. If we wish to push back against their illegitimate and un-adjudicated reign, we must point out that Michelle Obama’s targeted partisanship did a disservice to the office she claims to love, disrespects a large proportion of the American population she and her husband continue to look down upon, and does nothing to fix the division she claims to abhor.

For people who claim to hate division, the Obamas are experts at fueling it.

More from Ian Haworth: Why The Democrats’ Claims About The USPS Are Political Nonsense

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