ManicDDaily

In their treatment of Obama, some members of the Republican Party lately remind me of a really angry spouse following an acrimonious divorce.  (Odd, as it’s not clear that there was ever a marriage there.)

Most of us have seen an Angry Spouse (hopefully not our own, or in a mirror).  But ex-spouses do sometimes go through these phases, when things haven’t worked out as planned, and when they are so furious, so cheated-feeling, that they are a bit out of control.

Frustrated, the Angry Spouse resorts to taking it out on the children (the “children” in this case being the U.S. populace.)

By taking it out on the children, I mean, badmouthing the other parent (you know who) to the children; undercutting his/her authority;  denigrating him/her with knee-jerk, snide, negativity.

It doesn’t really matter what Parent No. 2 (the non-angry parent) suggests; the Angry Spouse will put it down.  So, Parent No.2  urges the child to wear a bicycle helmet; the Angry Spouse goes on about how controlling that parent is.

So, Parent No. 2 wants to give the child an allowance; the Angry Spouse criticizes the allowance as either incredibly spendthrift or ridiculously paltry.

So, Parent No. 2 wants the child to do some chores; the Angry Spouse, muttering about child labor, tells the child he doesn’t have to.

So, the child has a behavioral problem about which Parent No. 2 expresses concern.  What? explodes the Angry Spouse, proceeding to blister the air with comments about labeling and low-expectations.

Maybe, says Parent No. 2, the child should take better care of his teeth.   “A little candy never hurt anyone,” snorts the Angry Spouse, buying a case of lollipops.

“Be respectful,'” instructs Parent No. 2, ” especially when visiting another country.”    ‘Absurd,’ growls Angry Spouse.  ‘Who made them king of the world?’

What’s always troubling in such situations is that the Angry Spouse, though perhaps well-meaning, has lost sight of the true goal, which is to help the child grow and thrive.  Rather, he/she, obsessed by fury and disappointment, literally throws out the baby with the bathwater.

A real life child, stuck in such a sorry situation, quickly learns to play one parent off of another, and sometimes ends up a pretty troubled kid. I’m not sure what happens in the case of a country.

This entry was posted on November 18, 2009 at 11:40 pm and is filed under news, Obama. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.

Tags: acrimonious divorce, baby with the bathwater, manicddaily, Obama, political posturing, Republican critics