Why are some "Conservatives" so Hostile towards Obama?

[dalthauser]

I was reading the comments on cnn.com (yes, old habits die hard) as well as Facebook following the Massachusetts senate race, and I was honestly saddened and sometimes alarmed by the level of venom/toxicity some people were expressing towards president Obama. 

I wonder if any sociologists are studying this because to me it is bizarre and a little scary.  I don't know what to make of it, but I'd really like to understand it.

I decided to brainstorm possibilities:

* Could it be racism - are people exploding with emotion because they are subconsciously racists and must come up with anything they can think of nasty to say about him (save the "N" word). 

* Could these (I assume) conservative people have snapped because they feel so powerless given the liberals ha(d) a super majority and the ability to pass anything they want if they had a mind to (which, apparently they don't have a mind to)

* Could they be acting out so extremely because an administration is in power that believes almost the polar opposite of what they do?

I'd like to have a conversation with some of these people to find out what is motivating their ugliness, but I feel it would be impossible to get them to simmer down enough to allow themselves to really get to the heart of their anger - or be able to express themselves without the raw emotion getting in the way of communication.

or am I just over-reacting....... maybe I'm seeing hostility and hatred where there is none.

Thoughts?

Comments

[walksbeauty.livejournal.com]

I have felt very sad over the obvious h & h... not your imagination. What has also been disturbing is how many people who began as staunch supporters of Obama who are now turning against him. Hello!? What took many years to damage will not be corrected so fast... And, I don't know about you, but I have contact with a LOT Of conspiracy thinkers who are as likely to see evil in Obama as a spaceship of aliens....