“The Obama Haters is a compelling look at the profit-driven political opposition ‘industry’ that threatens civil discourse and rational solutions through lies, half-truths, and exploitation. It’s a must read for anyone who cares about what’s ailing our democracy and worries about the divisiveness and partisanship that’s tearing it apart.”—Edward G. Rendell, former governor of Pennsylvania
“The value of this volume is in its calling out hate mongers before they encourage more political violence such as the January 2011 tragedy in Tucson. In effectively countering vicious lies about President Obama, John Wright makes a strong case for recognizing and marginalizing potentially dangerous hate speech thinly veiled as free speech. The words we choose to use color our world and perceptions and influence our behavior. Even when there is an absence of incitement to violence, there are those whose inner psyches are stimulated to ethnoviolence by such rhetoric.”—Anthony Cortese, professor of sociology, Southern Methodist University, and author of Opposing Hate Speech
“John Wright exposes how Obama's detractors have created a caricature of the president as a turban-wearing, Mecca-praying, Kenyan-born communist who learned his politics from bearded little men clutching hissing bombs. As Wright points out, what makes Obama’s self-appointed enemies different from haters of past presidents is that they will invent any tall tale to promote the lie that Obama is not a real American.”—Edward McClelland, author of Young Mr. Obama: Chicago and the Making of a Black President
“Many Americans, myself included, wonder what happened to our public discourse in the last few years. This book tells that story more vividly than any other I’ve read. If you want to know how the conservative media went off the rails and why elected representatives started calling Obama a traitor and a tyrant, John Wright is the perfect guide.”—U. S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva, Arizona’s Seventh District
