The core of what liberals just don’t get.
A journalist named Bob Herbert, who is black, wrote a piece everyone’s talking about so I will too. Basically, he said that Obama shouldn’t have called Pennsylvania voters bitter, he should have called them racists, because that’s what they are. That’s not the part I’m really hung up on, but it is interesting how he contradicts himself on that point. At the top of the article, he says:
Except for people who have been hiding in caves or living in denial, it’s pretty widely understood that a substantial number of those voters — in Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia and elsewhere — will not vote for a black candidate for president. Pennsylvanians themselves will tell you that racial attitudes in some parts of the state are, to be kind, less than enlightened.
At the bottom of the article, he says:
No one has an obligation to vote for Mr. Obama, and it’s certainly not racist to vote against him.
Mmkay. He also says:
…the senator can make it clear that it is wrong to dismiss a candidacy out of hand solely because of the race…of the candidate.
Yeah? Kinda like all the people who are voting for Obama because he is black and de facto dismissing the candidacies of Clinton and McCain because of their race (not black)?
Anyway. Whatever. The sentence I want most to bitch about is this one:
One of Mr. Obama’s strongest points early in this campaign was his capacity to make people feel good about their country again.
And that right there is the molten core of what liberals so badly misunderstand about average Americans who are decent. (Which is a whole other post subject in itself, needing to distinguish between decent or not, because the fact is that a lot of average Americans are total douchebags.) Here’s the deal:
If most of us do not, in fact, feel good about our country (which is a whole other question again), the source of that lack of good feeling stems almost completely from the results of liberal/progressive thinking and behavior. In other words, it’s people like Obama who make us feel bad about our country.
For me personally, 100% of my bad feelings about America are rooted in the horror and disgust I feel about the rampancy of unwed mothers, unwanted children, abortion, the sexualization of children, the horrible way public schools are run, the lack of appreciation for the military, the theft of my money via the IRS to give to people who make bad decisions, the government’s bloat and inefficiency, the Marxist attitudes of so many elitist assholes, the hypersensitivity that surrounds every discussion about race, the labeling of anyone but white men as “victims”, and so on.
Those are the things that make me not feel so great about being an American.
And the very last thing that would cure any of those problems is an extreme leftist liberal like Obama as president.
This might be another great time to point out that I’m not even a conservative, and I still feel this way. It seems that guys like Herbert and Obama want to think that anyone who’s against him is some sort of uneducated redneck Bible thumper. Time to get a clue. Not nearly as many people are buying what you’re selling as you think.
Holy Crap! Am I first? All I have to say is AMEN Rachel. I can’t wait till you rule the world - common sense will prevail!
April 15th, 2008 at 11:18 amRachel,
The main page is a different font than the comments page…it is kinda ‘bolded’ and big…
very odd.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:19 amKinda sums it up nicely for me!
April 15th, 2008 at 11:21 amI honestly don’t think I could agree with anything more than this post. Not only are you smart, but kinda sexy (in that “Have to wear a retard protection helmet” kind of way.)
April 15th, 2008 at 11:30 amA lot of what makes you feel not-so-great makes me feel the same way. But I think we need to disentangle some of it, because I don’t think it all comes from the same place, or can be blamed on the one group of people.
Sexualization of children, unwed mothers, and abortion aren’t caused by liberals. I’ll grant you that a lot of liberals do leap to the defense of these things, sometimes directly but sometimes indirectly, by standing up for freedom of speech (even if it’s entertainment conglomerates doing the speaking) and freedom of choice (even if they’re self-destructive choices–and I know, liberals can be very selective here: have the freedom to choose abortion, but not smoking).
But I don’t think liberal defenses of these issues keep them alive, really. It’s the appetites of EVERYone in this country, redstater or blue. It’s not just liberals who have abortions or unwanted children, and it’s not just liberals who watch porn, or reward companies that sexualize children in order to sell us shit. If these things thrive, it’s because way too many of us want them. If we didn’t want them, the suppliers would stop handing them out. Any good free-marketer should believe in that: don’t attack the supplier; work on the demand.
And if government is bloated, it’s because we ALL want gifties from them. I don’t buy that conservatives, en masse, are rejecting government entitlements. We’re all taking as much as we can, all the time.
It feels, sometimes, like both liberals and conservatives talk about The People as though they are some group separate and distinct from themselves. But they aren’t. As Pogo once said, “We have met the enemy, and he is us.”
April 15th, 2008 at 11:40 amJeez, another bullseye. Clarity, brevity, wit, sarcasm, all capped off with a stylish retard helmet. It baffles me that so many of my fellow citizens are so easily bamboozled by the Left’s endless rainbow parade of promises, funded by those of us who work our butts off. Happy Tax Day, everyone!
April 15th, 2008 at 11:41 amDammit, Anne, you beat me to it.
Rachel, I don’t know how you got the gift to be able to get right to the core of a concept. The first paragraph that Anne quoted is, by far, the most concise description of the problem we face today. Our country could be running like a well oiled machine if there weren’t so many assholes throwing sand in the gears.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:41 amWell this is a lot like the old saying “when all you have is a hammer everything starts to look like a nail.” The basic narrative that Obama and race mongers in general buy into is the one that says “It’s not your fault. It’s just the Man trying to keep you down.”
April 15th, 2008 at 11:49 amPeople in PA Not voting for you? Must be because they’re racist. (Not because they are offended to be told that bitterness drives them to church instead of faith, or that bitterness and ignorance are signified by owning a weapon)
Obama is selling the same tired old crap that Rev Jackson, Rev Wright, etc have been selling, but they are peddling it to a different market. Hillary’s been trying to peddle the same ideas with a slightly different feminist twist, but because the press has abandoned her, with notably less success.
As folks who have both hammers and screwdrivers, I think we should say “Don’t hammer them, screw them!”
Best,
Sluf
PS That’s one sexy bitch on your title line.
The lady in the helmet ain’t bad either…
Like Chris said,a good day when Rachel rules the world! You’ve got a great voice, thanks for using it!!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:12 pmRachel, I say this with the utmost respect. You need to break down and admit that you are a Conservative, or at least broaden your definition of Conservative to include good people such as yourself.
Don’t worry, you’ll never end up looking like this
April 15th, 2008 at 12:23 pmReno beat me to it.
Rachel, perhaps you’re not a conservative, but you sure know how to bash liberals with the best of them. Fantastic post.
The truth is that in the past, during the rise of modern American conservatism, there was a pretty strong alliance between conservatives and classical liberals (what we now call libertarians.) That’s fallen to pieces lately, and more’s the shame. Sometimes I think Frank Meyer, one of the founding fathers of the National Review, was correct - a fusion of the two camps is crucial to the future of both movements as well as America in general.
Your worldview is about as close to that fusion as you can get. Rachel for President!
April 15th, 2008 at 12:32 pmI hope Rachel never calls herself a Conservative. To do so would just allow the uneducated, incurious and uninspired to either dismiss her or accept everything she says without question.
Why would someone so talented with words choose to label herself with such a useless moniker? One that describes so many different thoughts that it is barely descriptive at all?
We can blather about dictionary definitions all day, but in the end, words mean whatever the reader decides they mean. And for too many readers, conservative just means ‘not liberal’ in the dumbed-down, one-dimensional axis of political non-thought.
Keep us guessing, Wachel. It makes us think.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:56 pmRachel:
You are a wise and beautiful person. And I particularly like that you used the word “douchebag” when referring to those who are that.
April 15th, 2008 at 12:57 pmPerfectly stated Rachel. Again.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:01 pmAndrew, I can see where you’re coming from. I don’t think the entire societal ill pile can be laid at the feet of liberalism/progressivism. I do think they’ve accelerated and exacerbated its negative consequences, though.
Who promotes the destruction of family? Who, decades ago, decided it might be nice to put whatever they wanted into movies–basically breaking the unwritten moratorium on sex, etc. in films? There are appetites, as you note, for sure–but in a society where the foods that feed these appetites are not available, do you think the eater might go find some healthier way to sate the hunger?
If you add in media influence, breakdown of traditional societal values, dissolution of families due to a myriad of reasons, you end up with what we’ve got here. I think RL is right on when she points to “liberal” or “progressive” thought as being the foundation of the weakening of this nation.
Take a peek at Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” and you’ll get a nice picture of where it really got going in the U.S. I think the quote from Wilson’s administration of the need to get the kids out of the home as soon as possible is quite telling. Of course, better for you if you run those re-education camps…er…schools. You’ll also find a whole new list of people whom Rachel could refer to as “douchebags.”
April 15th, 2008 at 1:10 pmSelf: Is that you?
April 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pmShe’s no liberal, she’s no libertarian, she’s no conservative; she’s a Rachelliterative.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:24 pmNicely done, Rick.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:41 pmIt’s a tough one: do you blame the restaurant chain for only offering crappy food, or do you blame the customers who tend to enrich the restaurant chains that offer only crappy food? Which is the chicken and which is the egg? You can argue that Hollywood is to blame for making garbage, but let’s face it–when they make quality stuff, it sells less. It just does. Are they liberal for promoting value-free, lowest-common denominator entertainment, or just craven cash-whores? Probably both, but I think the latter is more to blame for what’s on TV and in the multiplexes.
What’s most to blame, as far as I’m concerned, is the idea that parents aren’t responsible for instilling values, virtues, and ethics in their children–the idea that some underpaid schoolteacher who can barely teach Math should be responsible for making them into Fine Young People…or, worse, that it’s the responsibility of some wolves in NYC or Hollywood.
All I’m saying is, SO much of what Ms. Rachel is angry about lives at the person level, personal choices, for each and every one of us. I think that’s why she resists the Conservative label. It’s not about politics at the macro level; it’s about the choices WE are making, a thousand times a day, every day.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:41 pmCosmo, I think you’re absolutely right. I personally could care less if some chick gets herself pregnant without, at the very least, being in some sort of stable relationship. This is not a recent phenomena. What does bother me to no end is that in the liberal mind these women are “victims” and deserve our help. Which has exacerbated the problem. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, I shouldn’t have to pay for somebody else’s mistake. I’ve actually been told by a liberal that I should help pay for birth control for people who can’t afford to buy the pills themselves. Um, no. I’m not the one putting myself at risk of pregnancy and various other undesirable consequences of unprotected “casual” sex. Why should I pay because some people can’t keep their pants zipped even if they can’t afford the basic protection. I want to go skydiving but can’t afford it right now. Does that mean I can make somebody pay to take me up and let me use their parachute? Let me reiterate, I don’t care what people do, but I shouldn’t have to pay for them to do it in any way, shape, or form.
I get ribbed a lot because I’ve never drank alcohol, smoked, or had sex. Liberals would have you believe that I’m a slave to my religion when I should just be doing what makes me feel good. But really, religion isn’t the main reason I don’t do any of those things. The main reason is that I just don’t want to. I’ve spent a quarter of a century not doing any of those things and my life is just fine. As a matter of fact, how many people nowadays can honestly say they’ve never been so drunk they can’t remember what happened or that they’ve never had to worry about being knocked up?
I’m not looking down on anybody. People will do what they want and I have friends from all walks of life with varying standards. But one thing I’ve noticed is that conservatives are a lot more forgiving of people, particularly those who have a moral code and stick to it. And most libertarians don’t seem to care one way or the other, as long as it isn’t interfering in their lives. But to many liberals, even hinting at thinking that you think anything is wrong with any of those things, even if it’s just by not participating yourself, you’ve created the grievous sin of not being tolerant, which of course makes you a bigot. Which can only mean that you are a right-wing nutjob that turns to guns and religion because you’re obviously too stupid to realize everything is relative.
I know, this has gone off into left field, but it makes sense in my head. So there.
April 15th, 2008 at 1:50 pmAs a guy who wear’s ACU’s everyday, I really want a Commander-In-Chief who I wouldn’t mind taking orders from. Rachel for Prez. Maybe you could change the uniform so that it doesn’t have velcro on it anymore, LOL.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:14 pmOn a side note- This country is in need of a seriously huge enigma.
Overall, Andrew, I kinda, sorta agree with you in that I don’t think that all of societies ills can be laid at the feet of liberals/progressives (although I do think they have a tendency to be greater enablers of said ills as a result of their tendency to want to shield people from the consequences of their actions).
However, you, sort of, speak as if all people are either liberal or conservative, when most are really neither. True enough, it’s not just liberals who have abortions or unwanted children or watch porn or reward companies that sexualize children, but it’s more likely liberals that defend these things, which is really the point.
When liberals and conservatives talk about “the people” they aren’t talking about themselves, generally. They’re talking about people who aren’t particularly political. And these people are the vast majority, which is something I think blog readers and writers sometimes tend to forget.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:14 pmLikewise, never smoked or had sex and the last time I was stupid drunk (and got molested) was the day Nelson Mendela was released from prison. When people tell me there is freedom in doing what makes you feel good, I said, “no, you’re being a slave to your penis.” The mortifying thing was I repeated this on a job interview. And I got the job. At Antioch College. You might have heard about this uber liberal private college, it’s pretty much defunt now.
Liberals certainly are not the root cause of the unwed mothers, unwanted children, abortion, the sexualization of children, etc, but they certainly DON’T help in the matter. It burns me that there are people of sound mind and body who constantly demand entitlements while my mentally disabled sister truly does need assistance to remain part of the community. She receives government assistance and the family shell out the rest. A former friend from Europe was actually shocked that I pay for her piano and horseback riding lessons and physical therapies, he kept ranting that Bush should be paying for those. I kept telling him family should take care of family members. Concept was totally lost on the guy.
April 15th, 2008 at 2:36 pmRachel - I’m right there with you, albeit with Andrew’s addendum. A lot of the issues that we’ve been dealing with have been around for a long, long time - abortions, porn, unwed mothers, and more have probably been around in some form or another for about as long as there have been people. I will point out that the old days weren’t that great about some of that stuff, either - do we really want to go back to the days of the Hays Code or the various other bits of censorship around back in those days? I doubt it - it would probably end up applying to our fearless leader here, too.
I think part of the problem with conservatism is that many soft-l libertarians like myself are stuck in a bit of a quandary - we don’t want to support unwed mothers, we don’t want to pay for other people’s birth control (I’m cheap, damn it), and we’re not gung-ho about abortion, but we also don’t see what the big problem is with porn and things of that sort, and, even if we did, we certainly don’t want the government deciding for us what is “unacceptable” and what isn’t. The sexualization of children seems to be more of a parenting issue than a cultural issue - if parents stopped letting their kids dress and act like Paris Hilton, maybe we’d have fewer Paris Hiltons. South Park already touched on that better than I ever could. In the words of Mr. Slave:
April 15th, 2008 at 3:00 pmWay to go, Obama. Cast yourself as the victim, and ordinary citizens as racist rednecks if they don’t vote for you. If everyone is a victim in our country, I guess it makes sense for the President to be the biggest victim of all.
Waaaah, vote for me, waaaaah, or you’re a bad person. Um, let me think that one over for a second, here… okay, no.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:10 pmI feel very good today… because I am celebrating the birth of a very-much wanted baby! My brother and his wife just had baby girl #2 (big sister is 25 months old). Baby girl is very healthy, 6 and 1/2 pounds, and was born at Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri. My brother is a Captain in the Army (he’s an MP) and has served two tours in Iraq. He missed his first daughter’s birth because he was in Iraq, but he was there today!
So yes, there are many things that suck about America, but I am too happy to think about them today.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:14 pmBy a show of hands- How many Racheliteratives are here?
April 15th, 2008 at 3:16 pm*counting*
Hey! I said hands. Please keep unmentioned body parts to yourselves.
April 15th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Sorry, Obama - I’d have no reservations about voting for a black man (or woman). You’re just not the one. If J.C. Watts or Michael Steele were on the ballot I’d be firmly behind them.
So what have they got that you don’t?
April 15th, 2008 at 3:39 pmCharacter. It really does count.
Principles. Ones that we don’t have to guess at.
They say what they mean, and they mean what they say. I know where they stand on the issues. Nobody knows where you stand on anything. Where’s the beef, Hussein?
Good for you Deanna! Give that baby, her Moma and Daddy a big hug. They earned it and You have reason to feel good about the day.
Meanwhile, Rachel - YOU NAILED IT!
April 15th, 2008 at 4:11 pmWhich he accomplished by looking pretty and saying absolutely nothing of substance. As long as he kept his ideology hidden, i.e. while his color was the one thing people actually did know about him, he was a pretty popular guy — that’s racist???
April 15th, 2008 at 4:34 pm…Obama’s Black??!!!!
April 15th, 2008 at 4:44 pmRachel, I couldn’t have said it better regarding any negative feelings about my country….bravo
April 15th, 2008 at 4:45 pmIt was only a matter of time before the Obama campaign actually vocalized what they have been inferring the last 15 months.
“If you don’t vote for Obama, it can only be for one reason, you’re a racist.”
I’ll tell you what, if Liberals can be considered a race, then , yes, I’m a racist. I don’t trust them, I don’t believe them, and I surely don’t want one as my Commander-in-chief.
douchebags indeed
April 15th, 2008 at 4:50 pmWhen I vote against Obama, it’ll not be because I’m racist. It’ll be because after the ten presidential elections since I achieved my majority the Democrats finally managed to field a candidate who made his Republican counterpart look good.
April 15th, 2008 at 5:06 pmFrom Denise Preager; to the degree that you do not ascribe to these, you may be a conservative or more likely a libertarian. Maybe a Rachelliterative? Personally do not fully fall into the “conservative” line on these.
You say you are a liberal.
Do you believe the following?
1.Standards for admissions to universities, fire departments, etc. should be lowered for people of color.
2.Bilingual education for children of immigrants, rather than immersion in English, is good for them and for America.
3.Murderers should never be put to death.
4.During the Cold War, America should have adopted a nuclear arms freeze.
5.Colleges should not allow ROTC programs.
6.It was wrong to wage war against Saddam Hussein in the Gulf War.
7.Poor parents should not be allowed to have vouchers to send their children to private schools.
8.It is good that trial lawyers and teachers unions are the two biggest contributors to the Democratic Party.
9.Marriage should be redefined from male-female to any two people.
10.A married couple should not have more of a right to adopt a child than two men or two women.
11.The Boy Scouts should not be allowed to use parks or any other public places and should be prohibited from using churches and synagogues for their meetings.
12.The present high tax rates are good.
13.Speech codes on college campuses are good and American values are bad.
14.The Israelis and Palestinians are morally equivalent.
15.The United Nations is a moral force for good in the world, and therefore America should be subservient to it and such international institutions as a world court.
16.It is good that colleges have dropped hundreds of men’s sports teams in order to meet gender-based quotas.
17.No abortions can be labeled immoral.
18.Restaurants should be prohibited by law from allowing customers to choose between a smoking and a non-smoking section.
19.High schools should make condoms available to students and teach them how to use them.
20.Racial profiling for terrorists is wrong — a white American grandmother should as likely be searched as a Saudi young male.
21.Racism and poverty — not a lack of fathers and a crisis of values — are the primary causes of violent crime in the inner city.
22.It is wrong and unconstitutional for students to be told, “God bless you” at their graduation.
23.No culture is morally superior to any other.
Those are all liberal positions. How many of them do you hold?
April 15th, 2008 at 5:15 pmsorry Andrew, I’ll have to disagree with you. It wasn’t conservatives that gave us the War on Poverty. How’s that total breakdown of black society working out for you? Sure, it serves to keep hordes of public “servants” employed, but what else has it accomplished?
April 15th, 2008 at 5:25 pmFunny how crime is way down since conservative values about public safety began to replace all the “criminals are victims of society” liberal twaddle.
Yes, all the permissiveness in the media IS the fault of liberals … who keep defining standards downwards. I guess they do that so they won’t stand out?
The great obamawhamma is gliding along right now muttering the liberal mantra — change. It never seems to matter to liberals what the change is … cause change MUST be good. Well, as we’ve seen from a cetury of liberal fascism in this country … all change is not good, some is damned dangerous, and change without any thought or reins gives us 9/11. Yeah … I blame 9/11 on you liberals and the effect you’ve had on how we’re perceived out there in not-so-great-land. Liberals all seem to feel we’re “hated” out there because of conservative “intelerance” … whereas the real reason we’re hated is Sex in The City and all that sort of crap we export around the world. It’s liberal lack of values that are deplored, not the standards and values of those with morals and scruples.
And yeah, I just finished Goldberg’s book a couple of weeks ago and despise liberals even more than I did before. There’s no way back from this path you’ve put us on, and that’s sad. I’m sad for my grandkids, ’cause they’re going to pay the price.
*Crack!!!* - Going, Going, Gone!!! Another one right out of the park!
April 15th, 2008 at 5:46 pmHey Barry…I don’t need YOU to feel good about America…I just have to look at the examples of Michael A. Monsoor, Danny Dietz, and all the other great Americans serving this country abroad. I need only look in the mirror and see my brother’s face in my own. I need only look up to the example set by honorable men like Gen. Petreus and fantastic journalists like Michael Yon. THOSE are the people who make me feel good about America. People who degrade middle America and sponsor hate-mongers like Rev. Wright…they make me feel…other than good…about America.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:36 pmAndrew said:
I couldn’t agree more that parents are responsible for instilling values, virtures and ethics — not schools. My problem is that the schools didn’t seem to get the memo about not overstepping their bounds. (One of the reasons I’m against anything more than biological sex education in public schools is that I don’t want anyone inculcating my children according to their sexual agenda.) The progressive left teachers seem to outnumber the centrist and conservative teachers these days, and public schools are a bastion of PC. I don’t want the “schoolteacher who can barely teach Math” attempting to instill her loopy political ideas and ethics in my kids.
By the way, I have the utmost respect for the many dedicated and ethical teachers who understand that they need to teach students how to think, not what to think.
April 15th, 2008 at 6:59 pmExactly. When did self control become a negative thing? Seriously, if you spend your whole life going by the “it feels good so I should do it” mantra there’s a whole can of worms that ends up being opened. Where does it stop?
I still say (for the most part) to each his own. I would feel much better about the country if there weren’t a whole bunch of people that vocally disapprove of people who have standards and actually stick to them.
For the record, I absolutely, positively, 100% WILL NOT vote for Obama. And no, it’s not because he’s black. To him I may just be some redneck Idaho native, but I’ve got more experience with diversity than he can claim and I’ve personally seen the havoc socialist policies wreak on both economic and social fronts.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:03 pmThis is the latest Pennsylvania poll from Rasmussen:
Clinton leads by twenty-seven points among White Voters while Obama attracts 78% of the African-American vote. If that doesn’t tell you that African-Americans are voting on the basis of skin color,I don’t know what will.
As for the Hays code, yes, I’d like to have it back. They put it in place for a reason. And while you may not like censorship, you could at least view some entertainment without being subjected to pure filth. I do tech support and it’s appalling the kind of junk that is sent out in emails these days. They don’t care who gets it and there’s no way to block it. People are really getting tired of having their rights violated to protect pornographers.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:03 pmI think that’s what ticks me off the most about Obama & his wife. Despite the things that need to be fixed in the good ‘ole USA, I’ve always been thankful to be born here. Nowhere else that I want to live. There’s so much good here and a lot of goodwill.
You can’t lead the team to success by degrading its participants.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:12 pmGreat post!
April 15th, 2008 at 7:15 pmOne of the things that really pisses me off about all this is that if I don’t vote for Obama I’m a racist and if I don’t vote for Hillary I’m sexist.
No doubt voting for McCain proves I’m a homophobe as well.
Just found this - I”m sure the numbers can be criticized - studies always can be, but it ties in nicely to the recent posts about single parenthood and society having to pick up the tab on supporting someone else’s kids.
April 15th, 2008 at 7:18 pmGood test to take to see just where you fall on the political spectrum http://www.madrabbit.net/webrabbit/quizshow.html
April 15th, 2008 at 7:26 pmThat test is a joke. I don’t trust the CIA or the US Postal Service. I don’t trust professional athletes or team owners…
Here is the real test. Go over to your parent’s house and grab their automatic blood pressure gizmo then drive back home. Once you’ve settled in take your blood pressure and record the reading. This is your baseline.
Now get on the interweb and surf over to Zombietime and start clicking on the links and looking at the pictures. Give it maybe 15 minutes. Take your blood pressure again.
If it’s Higher than your baseline you’re a conservative if it’s unchanged you’re a liberal. If you spent all 20 minutes looking at the Folsom Street Fair pics and your blood pressure is higher you’re going straight to hell.
April 15th, 2008 at 11:31 pmRachel,
Quite.
Message to Obama: I paid over 100k in federal taxes this year. I am not bitter because Washington forgot me; I’m bitter because they remembered.
April 16th, 2008 at 5:00 amClassic cult of personality nonsense.
Only a liberal would be so arrogant as to claim that they, personally, were responsible for people feeling good about their country.
April 16th, 2008 at 7:19 amDear Mr. Herbert:
“One of Mr. Obama’s strongest points early in this campaign was his capacity to make people feel good about their country again.”
Let me hit you with a ClueBat. I feel good about my country. Even with all its problems, it’s the greatest country ever founded on the planet. No other nation has created more wealth, more opportunity, more class mobility, more freedom (both within and without its borders) than the United States of America. It’s not perfect, but then again, I’m spending all my time and money trying to raise a family and and frankly don’t do a whole lot of navel-gazing about whether I “feel good” about my country. I love my country.
If you “Feel bad about your country”, its because you’re a whining, sniveling loser who still thinks
Al Gore won is 2000, that Evil McChimpyHitlerBurton is both the stupidest man alive and at the same time able to mount a global conspiracy to plan and carry out 9/11, that the problems in the economy can be solved with more taxes, that socialized medicine would actually work, that the solutions to crime involve disarming the law-abiding, and that welfare’s problem is that not enough people are on it.
You’re an arrogant, elitist snob who cannot fathom that other people may actually disgree with you, and that the only reason they do is because they’re knuckle-dragging bible-thumpers who won’t just shut up, pay their taxes, and let their betters run the country.
We don’t care what color Barack Obama is, what we care about is that he’s a shallow, manipulative political hack who talks about change but can’t tell us what it is; who talks about being post-racial, yet attends a church led by a racist, antisemite whack-job. He’s the most liberal member of the Senate, and has told us he will surrendur to our enemies in Iraq.
Hint: We don’t like that stuff.
If you don’t feel good about your country, it’s your fault, not ours. The mere fact that a smooth-talking empty suit like Barack Obama can actually be THIS CLOSE to winning the highest office in the land (Hell, the WORLD), is proof enough that you should “feel good about your country”.
As one of America’s great Saturday Morning Philosophers once said, “What a maroon.”
April 16th, 2008 at 8:25 amBest post EVER!!!
Thanks Rachel
April 16th, 2008 at 9:01 amThis is the particular paragraph I find both offensive, and enlightening about Senator Obama and his patrons.
No group of people in this country can be disinterested in characterization; the lables get hammered into our skulls from day-one of school. Additionally, the guilt that follows being characterized as middle-class, white, and even male, follows us around through college and into employment.
The author suggests that we all just want to be led. What a patronizing, fascist statement. No, sir. We, that is, the voters and citizens of this country want to be represented. If we wanted to have our hands held and dragged along everywhere, then we’d just install a Mussolini into office, and abdicate our entire Bill of Rights.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:38 amWell put!! I think those values establish you as a centrist and what I tell my friends is that Liberal doesn’t equal Left. We are not all communists, Marxist idealogs. Just people who want to change things for the better. I don’t need Obama to tell me how I feel about my country (or Hillary or John for that matter). Just tired of 8 years of the idiot-in-chief at the helm.
April 16th, 2008 at 10:19 pmDavid
Nothing to add here, but a big back-slappin’ A-FRICKIN-MEN SISTAH!
(So when does the “Draft Rachel for President” campaign begin?)
April 17th, 2008 at 12:55 am