President Obama’s remarks Wednesday that Republicans are “hating all the time,” sound like a junior high school-level taunt, according to Missouri Republican Sen. Roy Blunt.
At the Kansas City, Mo., speech Obama complained that Republicans refuse to work with with him to address the nation’s issues.
“We could do so much more if Congress would just come on and help out a little bit,” Obama said. “Stop being mad all the time. Stop just hating all the time. Let’s get some work done together.”
In response to the dig, Blunt, a Republican, told reporters that Obama’s remarks were “the kinds of things that happen in junior high, when you say that somebody else is a really bad person.”
“That is no way to begin to work with that person,” Blunt said, according to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
The word “hating” is commonly used in pop culture, but the slang term has rarely been uttered in the political realm. According to Urban Dictionary, an online resource which provides definitions for slang and other words typically used by young people, “hating” is defined as “when one puts down the success or fortune of others due to jealousy.”
Pointing out “haters” and “hating” has become a popular trope and has been used in songs and on T-shirts vehicle bumper stickers. Two popular phrases, “haters gonna hate” and “somebody’s drinking their haterade” are common knocks on so-called haters. “Haterade” is a play off of the sports drink Gatorade.
By calling attention to “hating,” the object of the alleged outrage portrays a certain aloof demeanor meant to indicate that he is above the pettiness of it all.
Obama invoked the slang when he was asked how he deals with his critics at an event earlier this month geared toward young people.
“Who gives you constructive criticism because they’re invested in the same things you are but maybe can see the things you can’t, versus folks who are just — what’d someone say — hatin’? Somebody just hatin’, just haters?” Obama said at the event, which was held for a youth minority outreach program called My Brother’s Keeper.
Obama has increasingly painted Republicans as roadblocks to his political agenda. Republicans have in turn criticized Obama for acting unilaterally and not heeding congressional input.
