If you are thinking about what to get ex-President Barack Obama for his birthday, you cannot go wrong with some self-awareness.
According to his party’s own rhetoric, the birthday party he threw for himself at his $13 million Martha’s Vineyard oceanfront house should not have happened.
No, it was not because Obama told us that sea levels were rising so fast due to global warming that they would soon consume his sea-level home. Rather it was because the Dems have been telling us not to gather in groups bigger than a Biden rally (12 people max) until no old and sick person is dying of COVID.
Celebs like to have big parties with their friends and enjoy themselves too. You see, celebrities are just like you and me, only they are dumber and condescending. They fly private jets to a private party on an island and still have the chutzpah to lecture us on global warming. Even the modern-day Al Gore, “Climate Czar” John Kerry, acted like he was taking the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard, but reportedly flew in his wife’s private jet, Air Ketchup (Gulfstream tail number N57HJ).
This maudlin Daily Beast headline, “COVID Doc Flees to Florida as Gov. Kristi Noem Sends Sturgis Death Cult Into Overdrive,” was a two-fer. It took a shot at GOP up-and-comer Kristi Noem, the hottie governor of South Dakota, and at freedom loving, middle-America motorcyclists. The media headlined story after story about the Harley motorcycle rally in Sturgis, South Dakota, calling the riders “selfish,” “dumb,” and a “danger to society.” They are outside, on motorcycles — pretty safe. They might avert the left’s scorn if they name the next motorcycle rally the “Obama Birthday Throw Down in the Dakotas.”
Yet there they were in Martha’s Vineyard, where leftists can do anything they want in a Massachusetts vacation paradise. Kennedys can kill people and walk away, Obamas can party during a COVID surge and Hillary can wear that bathing suit. But the hypocritical lefties shame us for planning a family reunion around relatives we probably don’t even like.
The Massachusetts island is the enclave for rich, woke, liberal elites. Most of the natives inherited their money or married it, and are so distant from the grandfather GOP/ SOB who made it that they do not even dare speak of him. Each year they have a Nativity Scene in the Martha’s Vineyard town square portraying the Birth of Obama — and it is just Obama because they can’t find three wise men. But they do have four lobbyists bringing him gold and frankincense (but mostly gold).
The CDC ripped the Sturgis, SD bike rally but said nothing of Obama’s indoor birthday bash. Politicians, government agencies, and especially preachy leftists believe their rules are for you, not themselves. Those who think politicians and their apparatus big government love them are the same folks who believe a stripper they patronize loves them.
With the outbreak of the delta variant of COVID, Obama should have set an example and just ordered in pizza for his birthday. Scientists and pundits warn that the new variant is more resistant to vaccines and causes people to gain weight. I believe the NIH/CDC are calling it the “Delta Burke” variant.
Now I am not here to question the judgment of the Obamas. You know they make good decisions, like Obamacare and setting their daughter up to intern for Democrat mega-donor Harvey Weinstein. It was their decision to host this big party. You only turn 60 once (unless you are Nancy Pelosi). But do not preach, shame and scorn us, the average Americans out here in “flyover country,” whom you call idiots and “deplorables” and tell us how bad we are. Washington and Hollywood elites almost always do the opposite of what they tell us to do.
These are the same “woke” folk who encourage residents of Atlanta and Chicago to wear masks and stay inside when they shoot people until this deadly virus leaves us.
One person not invited to the Obama birthday bash was President Joe Biden. That spared everyone the awkwardness of Biden calling Obama “Denzel” and then later handing his empty champagne glass to Obama and asking for another. At least that was good judgment.
Ron Hart is a syndicated op-ed humorist, award-winning author, and TV/radio commentator; you can reach him at Ron@RonaldHart.com or Twitter @RonaldHart.