Originally published on Facebook July 22 2013, in response to Republican anger President Obama’s comments on the killing of Trayvon Martin. Still broadly applicable.
Answering rising tensions in the wake of a Florida Court case involving discrimination against disabled individuals, President Franklin Roosevelt made a deeply emotional speech about his personal experiences with his disability.
He spoke movingly of knowing what it’s like to be trapped outside buildings without wheelchair access, being considered less equipped for the job because of his disability, and having people make assumptions about him on sight.
President Roosevelt’s critics on the right wasted no time slamming the speech.
“I’ve said it before and say it again,” blasted Rush Limbaugh. “This President was only elected because he’s in a wheelchair!”
Lou Dobbs said, “The fact of the matter is, he’s well out of touch with the vast majority of Americans. There’s no reason the majority of us have to dial 1 for English, and no reason we have to tolerate a privileged few getting special parking spaces.”
“He has a deeply rooted hatred of able-bodied people!” slammed Glenn Beck.
“He’s supposed to be the President of all the people!” said Sean Hannity. “Not just people in wheelchairs! By making THIS speech at this point in history, he is showing once again that he is only interested in payback for inaccessible rest rooms! This is not the time for that kind of rhetoric!”
Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino referred to a recent case where a man in a wheelchair was caught shoplifting cat food. “You never hear THAT kind of story from this President,” she said. “By focusing on the relatively small number of cases where people in wheelchairs are inconvenienced, and never once condemning the crimes committed by people in wheelchairs, he is arguing for a double standard. It’s proof that this President really has nothing else but his sense of victim-hood.”
Columnist Ann Coulter said, “Republicans have disabled people too! That’s what’s never talked about! The liberals love to parade around their Franklin Roosevolt and Max Cleland and Tammy Duckworth, but our gimps are better than their gimps! Lots of people in mobility scooters vote for Republicans! But they’re the only ones with sense! The big mistake we make is trying to go after all those votes, and cater to all their special demands, because if they won’t vote for us, who needs them?”
Coulter also made a statement echoed by the majority, that the election of an openly disabled man to the highest office in the land clearly established that we live in a country that has effectively and totally resolved all past issues of discrimination against the disabled. Those problems, she said, no longer exist. The true oppressed population in this country is the able-bodied, who are made to feel guilt for the crimes of the past.
“That’s their answer for everything,” said Brian Kilmeade. “’I’ve Fallen, and I Can’t Get up.’ It’s not our responsibility to help them up. Look at me. I’ve never had any trouble getting up. That’s proof it’s a false issue.”
Michele Bachmann said, “I never said disabled people shouldn’t have rights. They should have the same rights as able-bodied people do, the right to climb up stairs and work in warehouses lifting heavy boxes and everything. The fact is, being disabled is something they CHOOSE to be.”
Donald Trump joined the naysayers, while professing himself a great friend of the Cripples. “The Cripples love me,” he said. “I’m a great friend of the Cripples. But this President isn’t even a real cripple. I have photographic proof that for most of his young adulthood, he was able to walk. The Cat-Scans we keep seeing are duplicates and not acceptable evidence. You want me to believe that this President is really a disabled man? Put him at the top of a tall flight of stairs and push him. If he falls, then, maybe then, I’ll believe you.”
“One thing’s for sure,” concluded John Boehner. “The President has made some of the most divisive remarks ever uttered by any American.”