Being the President is a much harder job than I CAN B PRESIDENT Barbie and the movie First Kid make it seem. In fact, one of the occupational hazards of the job are near-constant death threats. And — SURPRISE — the same President who inspires billboards more racist than a cartoon version of Birth of a Nation starring the cast of Loony Tunes has also moved tens of thousands of people to make threats against the First Family’s life. How many, you may ask? Try around 30 a day. Or about 40,000 since Barack Obama first began receiving death threats, back in 2007.
According to a super depressing report linked from The Daily Kos, the Secret Service doesn’t even tell the President about the threats on his life out of concern that knowing the precise level of crazy out there would distract him from all the important Presidenting he has to do.
A dubious-looking petition site claims Obama has received more death threats than any other President, and while the head of the Secret Service says the organization doesn’t comment on the exact number of threats that face the head of the executive branch, multiple news reports have characterized the number of threats against Obama as “overwhelming” and “unprecedented.”
But the threats haven’t stopped at Barack; in 2009, a woman who knew the Obamas’ Hawaii vacation itinerary and threatened to “blow away” the First Lady was arrested a mile from where the First Family was staying. Others have threatened the Obama girls, Sasha and Malia.
Threats against the President, First Family, the Vice President, and visiting heads of state are taken seriously by the Secret Service. Which means that no matter what fairy tale your militia-based home school told you about what “free speech” means, no one gets to say they’re going to kill the President. That kind of shit (even if it’s a “joke”) will likely get you a visit from some very exhausted — and likely cranky — Secret Service agents.
Emboldened Twitter users, take note.