"My God, I have no country left!"

[Dave Taylor]

I'm worried at the number of people in this nation who are channelling Booth in that they are explicitly and vehemently blaming a figurehead for perceived personal wrongs. I had a chat last weekend in Gettysburg with an owner of a shop who was quite anti-Obama. We are all entitled to our own opinion, of course, but what concerned me is how she viewed the President with a distinct wrath as if he was her personal arch villian.

Now, I was in high school and college G. W. Bush was in office and I remember disliking the man at the time, however, I never doubted that as President he was working to the best of his ability for the betterment of the nation. This lady in Gettysburg was talking about how, as a secret Muslim, Obama is trying to destroy the United States, wants to start a race war, etc. She honestly scared me. While she is an extreme case, I worry about how certain modern movements and rhetoric are directed towards blaming a figurehead rather than attempting to fix the problem.

To me, much of our personal circumstances are the product of our perception. If you expouse that the country is going down the tubes and that you can't get ahead because of this person or that person, then of course you're not going to be able to rise up. When we start blaming someone specific for our own situation and we start obsessing over the perceived blame we put on them, that's when assassins are born.