Of all the presidents America has elected over the past couple of hundred years, why was this one, this president Barack Obama, subjected to the kind of aggressive opposition of a type and degree that would apply to the worst kind of pariah? The official Republican position was established on the very day of Obama’s election. “We do not want you as president and we will do everything in our power to destroy your presidency.” It cannot be described any other way. Every action, every utterance of the Republican Party has followed that policy to this very day, even after he has left office. As for the total effect on the country as a whole produced by this mysteriously hateful attitude, that is beyond our ability to measure. The Republican strategy worked. The Obama presidency was effectively negated. We will never know how much better off the country would be today were it not for the party of NO, people who call themselves “Republicans”. But why? The easiest answer would be his race. But surely, surely we have moved beyond that as a nation and as humans. Or have we ?