Fellow Americans are not the enemy As Rodney King so famously asked, "Can't we all just get along?"
Last week, I wrote a column and drew a cartoon commenting on the anti-tax tea party protests that were whipped up all over the country. I took a bit of a jaundiced view, questioning the logic of the protesters and the credibility of some of the commentators like Sean Hannity who become cheerleaders for the event. Among the many people who responded to my comments was John Carlson, the well-known conservative talk radio host and one-time Republican nominee for governor of Washington. Carlson wrote:
Here is what I think your blog and cartoon missed about the Tea Parties. I went to the one in Redmond to talk to the demonstrators. I saw hundreds of people waving signs and American flags, who work hard, who play by the rules, and who are saying, "ENOUGH". The spending, the deficits, the debt that were already bad under George Bush are all getting worse today. Why are they getting worse? Because of pork barrel spending and bailouts of people and politically connected companies that made bad choices. The people at the Tea Parties don't want a bailout, and they don't want their taxes going up to bail out other people's bad behavior, either. Half the people I talked to had never been to a protest before. That's important. These tea parties might be the beginning of something that changes American politics like the tax revolts of the late 70's. You made fun of them too, at the time. Remember? John Carslon and I have been acquainted for a long time. We like each other and respect each other, even though we are often on different sides of the issues. I appreciated hearing from him and getting his critique. It was a little different from the message sent by some other folks. A reader who saw the same commentary on the San Francisco Chronicle's web site, SFGate, proposed organizing an advertising boycott of the Chronicle...
When they get hundreds of calls from concerned citizens who want to protest this kind of dismissive reporting and these companies withdraw their advertising support with a unified reason of they don't want to lose the patrionage (sic) of the TEA Party patriots (they are too great in numbers and they need all the customers they can get)... I guarantee the news media folks will change their tune of how they report and will stop making fun of us. Imagine if the owner of these news services see a massive exodus of their advertising dollars (their lifeblood) and they have a choice... pressure their journalist to either do their job as journalist... take the message of the Patriots seriously -- or fire and hire journalist to replace them that can do the correct job. Another e-mailer told me...
Those that have read your columns and seen your cartoons understand that your views are far left, you love Obama to the point of idol worship and you skew everything to fit your far left beliefs. And another suggested...
Stick to cartoons you f---ing idiot!!! ...which was followed by an addendum...
You look like a f---ing cartoon. Well, I could spend time deconstructing such messages. Do I really look like a bleeping cartoon? Are my views really that far left? (A lot of people on the real left would strenuously argue with that assertion.) If someone proposed an advertising boycott of FOX News because Sean Hannity expressed an opinion, wouldn't conservatives consider that an attack on free speech? But I have a bigger point to make.
John Carlson disagreed with me, but he didn't assume I was his enemy. What bothers me about the current level of debate in this country is that it so quickly descends into the kind of invective that should be saved for truly dangerous lunatics like Kim Jong Il. When I see people at anti-tax rallies carrying signs equating the duly-elected president of the United States with Adoph Hitler or calling him a "Kenyan" who stole the government from real Americans, it makes me suspect the protests spring, not from reasoned analysis, but from blind paranoid anger. When I hear Republican Party officials adopting the word fascist to describe Barack Obama's policies because the word socialist is just not potent enough, I wonder what has happened to the concept of "the loyal opposition." When conservative bloggers like Michelle Malkin go ballistic, claiming good conservatives are targets of oppressive government because the Department of Homeland Security comes up with a report on the potential for extreme right wing violence (much like an earlier report about possible extreme left wing violence), I have to suspect it is fake rage in pursuit of page views.
The rhetoric on the right may all be for show or to "energize the base" or vent feelings of frustration in the wake of a bad election loss. But how long can we sustain this level of vitriol in our civic discourse before someone with a deep grudge and a loose purchase on reality feels justified in picking up a gun to save America from some imagined, high level treachery? Is that too paranoid on my part? Do the Oklahoma City bombers have no kindred spirits? Were the knuckleheaded neo-Nazi kids who got caught before they attacked an Obama campaign event utterly unique? I doubt it.
We have a big economic argument going on in this country right now because we have a big economic problem. The situation is as complex as a Rubik's Cube and anyone who believes he has all the answers is arrogant and wrong. Perhaps the bank bailout is a bad and horribly expensive idea. Maybe helping people who took on mortgages they couldn't afford is dumb. The argument that both measures, however distasteful, are necessary in order to save America's financial system could be misguided. Even the smartest economists have been wrong before. I certainly can't claim to be certain about any of it, although stimulus to get people back to work and stricter regulation to control Wall Street pirates seem like good ideas to me. I am pretty darn sure doing nothing will only make things worse, but it's all open for debate.
The one indisputable fact is that Barack Obama was freely elected by a majority of the people. He and his advisors are making a sincere attempt to save our capitalist system using methods that make sense to a lot of mainstream economists. Obama and company could be wrong, but they are not evil. What I'd tell those hard-working Americans that John Carlson saw in the protesting crowds last week is that we are in this mess together. However heated our arguments may get, do not lose sight of the fact that no citizen is more American than another and we all want this country to prosper -- all of us, including Barack Obama.
The one indisputable fact is that Barack Obama was freely elected by a majority of the people.
But was he elected for his economic views, or for social issues? And wasn't it almost as much a backlash against the Bush administration and the Republicans as it was a vote for Obama and the Democrats? I don't think you could count the number of elections that might have gone differently if someone was able to see three, six, or twelve months into the future.
Obama and company could be wrong, but they are not evil.
Yes, because being "wrong" does not equal being "evil". It seems that "wrong" sure looks evil when "wrong" is contrary to one's beliefs:
That column contained nothing of value, and if that's the same kind of crap he was writing for the paper, they deserved to go under.
Were the people who elected Obama "free"? Technically, yes. But it can't be ignored that they were wrapped up in the press orgy the mainstream media had for Obama, evidenced by the fact that no one I talked to or anyone else I was aware of could tell me what the "change" was.
Were the people who elected Obama "free"? Technically, yes. But it can't be ignored that they were wrapped up in the press orgy the mainstream media had for Obama, evidenced by the fact that no one I talked to or anyone else I was aware of could tell me what the "change" was.
Wait a minute, The American public was sold a bag of goods and you are surprised? Tell me when this has not happened, I am curious. Oh and if you are interested, I still have some guaranteed housebroken pet rocks I am putting up for adoption. (with a nominal "donation" fee of course,this is America after all.)
The love is still there brother, I just can't pass up a opportunity like that.
I never said I was surprised. I just wish more people took this kind of thing more seriously, really paid attention to the issues, and really paid attention to what any candidate stood for.
I wish the press was more responsible with their reporting (why was story about 'who is joe the plumber' and not 'Obama thinks it's better to spread the money around'?).
I wish that the people who didn't pay attention didn't vote. My girlfriend has that dowm pat - she doesn't care about politics, doesn't pay much attention to the issues that effect them. She told me that if she were to have voted, it would likely be for Obama, but admits she bascially knew nothing about either candidate.
Most of all, I wish the federal government, DESPITE any party, would start acting and spending as responsibly as they are expecting everyone else to.
Seems to me there were plenty of hateful Bush bashing when he was President - complete with the obligatory Hitler effigies. What goes around comes around.
As for the concern that some right-wing extremist might be whipped up into a terror frenzy, I can see your point. However, how many blacks and eco-nuts have been ginned up on propaganda from the far-left and made to commit acts of violence against whites and SUV dealerships. Free speech has consequences.
Are we doomed to a less than happy lifestyle in the near future,than what we all have been used to? I think we are by the time the taxes and administration fees as well as costs of goods and services takes a strangle hold of our disposable income. We have a sensational abundance of pointless jobs to make up for all the jobs lost to imports of neart everything we touch. Who builds TVs/electronics? (There was a BIG plant locally,now gone forever). What happened to the packing plant people that spent money freely wherever they went because they had well paying productive jobs?(There were three big plants locally that are gone forever to plants with cheap immigration labor).Where are all the steel industry workers ? Who makes our clothing? Where does all this plastic crap come from? And on and on and on. Why could I easily go out to supper and not see it as expensive when I had a WAY poorer paying job,a house payment,a car loan and a credit card bill that were all under control...as compared to today with my way better paying job and practically no debt?......and I now see a night out for supper as a treat. Where is all my money going? A little here, a little there and it all adds up that I am paying way too much in hidden costs because of pointless ,non productive jobs,stupid regulations and stupid shit that doesn't make sense. It costs money to have Braille signs on our restroom doors at work..........yet impossible for a blind person to even get to the point of choosing a door to the restroom. We never had a HR person at work a mere ten years ago.....now it just adds to the final cost of our goods.Why was health insurance "not an issue" all my working life until just a few years ago?A broken arm is a broken arm....just the same today as it was then....and Doctors were just as well paid.........WTF? Why are all the cracks in the sidewalks at the state fair grounds and the local school painted hot pink? Why do I not have a hunting license the last several years.........when I had one for 35 years in a row and rarely used it?Why do I not get the Sunday paper anymore and enjoy the relaxed Sunday morning read? Why is there a picture of a child on the side of a five gallon bucket..with his head in the bucket and a circle and slash? Why are guns and ammo so high priced anymore?An accident is still an accident and a murder is still a murder. Everything you do,everything you buy is affected by pricing because of those that are not responsible for themselves,greed,theft and lack of motivation. People getting something for nothing and the forces that allow that to happen in all aspects. I can not throw a wolf whistle at a cute woman on the street,yet I can wear a T-shirt that sez "F@ck you!" in big letters..? We have to stop creating pointless jobs and create productive jobs and end all the warm and fuzzy rulings that supposedly makes everybody equal. Everybody is not equal....but nobody wants to hear that. But I could be wrong............(NWS)[list] [/list]
"When I see people at ... rallies carrying signs equating the duly-elected president of the United States with Adoph Hitler ... it makes me suspect the protests spring, not from reasoned analysis, but from blind paranoid anger." So, did Horsey react this way for Bush or for Obama's presidency? Does it matter to him which adminstration he criticizes? Apparently so.
obama won the election because the constant barrage of Bush hate worked. The only thing obama had going for him was charm, looks and color. No record or noteworthy achievements.
It was the perfect hollywood movie script of a minority rising up to the challenge and triumphing amid the corrupt and racist American system.
Then there were those like my elderly neighbor and wifes moms mom who are truly racist and didnt like obama but wanted free healthcare.