Skip to main content

Obama and the Resurrection of the Know-Nothing

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
  • 493 Accesses

Abstract

Just as presidential candidate John F. Kennedy had to confront the concerns many Protestants had over his practice of Catholicism in 1960, Barack H. Obama had to overcome some white voters’ fear of the first African-American president. As conservatives cringed at the eight years under the presidency of George W. Bush, their anger at a growing deficit and federal government boiled over into an anti-everything-Obama attitude. The rise of Know-Nothing Party ideals was back in full force with the American voter heading into 2016. Now, after one year of a Trump presidency, many of these same concerns are coming to fruition.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.

Buying options

Chapter
USD   29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD   44.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD   59.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Learn about institutional subscriptions

Notes

  1. 1.

    Dan Balz, “Bush Wins Second Term.” The Washington Post, November 4, 2004, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19510-2004Nov2.html.

  2. 2.

    Gabe Wildau, “Media echoed conservative claim on Bush ‘mandate.’” Media Matters for America, November 4, 2004, https://mediamatters.org/research/2004/11/04/media-echoed-conservative-claim-on-bush-mandate/132246.

  3. 3.

    Ibid.

  4. 4.

    Ibid.

  5. 5.

    Fox News, “Rush Limbaugh’s Shocking Words for President Obama.” FoxNews.com , January 22, 2009, http://www.foxnews.com/story/2009/01/22/rush-limbaugh-shocking-words-for-president-obama.html.

  6. 6.

    Mark Preston, “Jindal defends those who want Obama to fail.” CNN Politics, March 25, 2009, http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/25/jindal.defense.obama/index.html?iref=nextin.

  7. 7.

    MSNBC.com News Services, “GOP Leader’s Top Goal: Make Obama 1-Term President.” November 4, 2010, http://www.nbcnews.com/id/40007802/ns/politics-decision_2010/t/gop-leaders-top-goal-make-obama--term-president/#.WP0wDoWcGhc.

  8. 8.

    Matt Gertz, “How Years of the Right-Wing Media’s Obama Hatred Paved the Way for Trump.” Media Matters for America, January 20, 2017, https://mediamatters.org/blog/2017/01/20/how-years-right-wing-media-s-obama-hatred-paved-way-trump/215059.

  9. 9.

    Kimberly Amadeo, “Stock Market Crash of 2008.” The Balance, April 3, 2017, https://www.thebalance.com/stock-market-crash-of-2008-3305535.

  10. 10.

    Ibid.

  11. 11.

    Janet Hook, Peter Nicholas and Josh Drobnyk, “Obama to visit Capitol to meet with GOP.” The Chicago Tribune, January 27, 2009, http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2009-01-27/news/0901260691_1_stimulus-bill-stimulus-plan-republican-lawmakers.

  12. 12.

    Ibid.

  13. 13.

    John Avalon, “The Brawl Over the Stimulus.” The Daily Beast, January 26, 2009, http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2009/01/26/the-brawl-over-the-stimulus.html.

  14. 14.

    Angie Drobnic Holan, “E-mail ‘analysis’ of health bill needs a check-up.” PolitiFact, July 30, 2009, http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2009/jul/30/e-mail-analysis-health-bill-needs-check-/.

  15. 15.

    Brendan Nyhan, “Why the “Death Panel” Myth Wouldn’t Die: Misinformation in the Health Care Reform Debate.” The Forum, 2010, Volume 8, Issue 1 Article 5, pages 4–10, The Berkeley Electronic Press. http://www.dartmouth.edu/~nyhan/health-care-misinformation.pdf

  16. 16.

    Doug Porter, “The Return of the Faux ObamaScare Death Panel.” San Diego Free Press, August 12, 2013, http://sandiegofreepress.org/2013/08/the-return-of-the-faux-obamascare-death-panel/.

  17. 17.

    Bob Bryan, “A bunch of House Republicans admitted they didn’t read the GOP healthcare bill.” May 5, 2017, http://www.businessinsider.com/gop-house-republicans-didnt-read-ahca-healthcare-bill-2017-5.

  18. 18.

    National Center for Education Statistics. https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=372.

  19. 19.

    Emma Brown, Valerie Strauss and Danielle Douglas-Gabriel, “Trump’s first full education budget: Deep cuts to public school programs in pursuit of school choice.” The Washington Post, May 17, 2017, https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/trumps-first-full-education-budget-deep-cuts-to-public-school-programs-in-pursuit-of-school-choice/2017/05/17/2a25a2cc-3a41-11e7-8854-21f359183e8c_story.html?utm_term=.b542999eb6fc.

  20. 20.

    Gregory Kristof, “Louisiana Lawmakers Object to Funding Islamic School Under New Voucher Program.” The Huffington Post, June 14, 2012, https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/06/13/louisiana_n_1593995.html.

  21. 21.

    Isaac McKenna, “Betsy DeVos : Uneducated in Education.” The Communicator, March 1, 2017, https://www.chscommunicator.com/voice/2017/03/01/betsy-devos-uneducated-in-education/.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2019 The Author(s)

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Volle, J.J. (2019). Obama and the Resurrection of the Know-Nothing. In: Donald Trump and the Know-Nothing Movement. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78334-5_5

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics