This week some of my friends have been reading their emails too closely and have determined that not only is President Obama a Muslim, but he cancelled the National Day of Prayer and approved a Muslim Day of Prayer. He deferred to Muslim leaders even.
I especially care about one of these friends and together we worked through the truth about Obama’s background – his schooling, the National Day of Prayer, the need for respect for Muslim leaders, and so forth. But no matter what response I had, she seemed to dig deeper to find something wrong: Okay, he didn’t call off the National Day of Prayer, but he didn’t hold special services at the White House. It didn’t seem to matter that she had been told a lie as long as something was wrong about what he did.
This is one of the kindest and most giving friends that I have. I just don’t understand this gullibility or will to find him in the wrong. She is in all other things very bright.
I know I haven’t been in this debate to date, but really – if you have to resort to 45-year-old tu quoque to respond to your opponent’s points, you lose.
Sorry, I just really hate this style of “debate”, and I see it every day, usually from Republicans on the topic of Southern Dems/racism, LBJ/Vietnam or FDR/internment camps or more general abuse of the executive. We’re not debating history that’s older than I am; we’re debating what’s going on now.
That was not a tu quoque, it was a reminder of history. One of the many wounds of Vietnam was convincing Americans that we could wage war and have a huge military without paying for it in real time. During WWII we had war bonds, we had scrap metal drives, we had shared sacrifice. Starting with Vietnam, we hid the cost of the war. Now that we are using an all-volunteer military, we hide the costs from most Americans even more.
Now, if you would like me to update this - fine. In most recent years, Pelosi, Reid and Obama have continued to mortgage our future for futile wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. They continue the poor policies of waging war without asking current voters to pay for it.
No, just responding to a silly attack on a small part of an earlier post of mine. I despise Bush the Younger and his idiotic advisers for the craptastic hole they put my nation into, and have stated that multiple times around here (and while playing SDMB - The Home Game too!)
My Mom is like that. She’s got a HUGE amount of common sense, but since she married my Step-Dad, who is so conservative he thinks there are two parties, Republican and Communist, she has just been agreeing with whatever he says.
They both watch Glenn Beck like he’s the Messiah (they have been Mormons since the 80’s) and continue to vote against their own best interests.
The main problem is that the unemployment rate has gone up since Obama was inaugurated.
Since the New Deal there has been a segment of the population that longs for a return to laissez faire capitalism. Since the signing of the civil rights legislation there has been a segment of the population that longs for a return to racial discrimination. Since the end of the War in Vietnam there has been a segment of the population that has blamed America’s defeat on the presumed treason of the anti war movement, and the Democrats.
If the economy was doing well, most of these people would be keeping their resentments to themselves. The fact that the economy is not doing well brings these people out from under their rocks, and gives them an audience.
You know, it’s really interesting to see how outlook depends on the background. By Scandinavian standards, the whole of the Democratic party can be regarded as moderately conservative.
They Hate him because he is black. The infamous THEY are extremely angry that he does not know his place. This is Sad but True. This country was train wreck waiting to happen long before he was elected. The company I worked for laid me off in 2008, It is Obama’s fault. I sucked all of the equity out of my home to take cool vacations, before I was laid off now it is in foreclosure. It is Obama’s fault. I have racked up an unbelievable amount of credit card debt that I cannot pay back, because the company I worked for laid me off in 2008. I used the equity in my home to take cool vacations, oh and pay off the first round of maxed out credit cards. It is Obama’s fault.
I hate him because he protects torturers, persecutes whistleblowers, desires the power to imprison people indefinitely without trial and uses the power to murder people without oversight.
In short I hate him because he is evil, and because his apologists give him power anyway.