America the melting pot is having a meltdown.
Attorney
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When it comes to labeling the opposition for the sake of votes America needs to get a reality check.
Brian Smith posted about the lawsuits being filed concerning Barack Obama’s birth certificate. The posts about the lawsuits are fine but the comments look like diatribe right out of the McCarthy Era that gripped this country’s conscience from the late 1940’s to the late 1950s. Because Communism is dead in most of the major countries that appeared to be a direct threat to American during the Cold War, America is now searching for a new enemy hidden somewhere amongst us. Politicians see it and exploit it to the nth degree.
In past elections the trial lawyers in general were vilified until the general public figured out they needed the lawyers to protect what was theirs; the same group Wall Street hired to steal their retirement savings. Today we have a new boogie man. Americans are substituting liberalism with communism. The pundits say the word liberal as if it implied some hidden danger to America. But really is this fair and does it make any sense at all. Take a minute and ask yourself what is a liberal or a conservative anymore? Can we just identify a major party and that alone proves how the party would tend to act in running the government? I don’t think this kind of simplistic thinking works any more. Let us look at a recent post by Brian Smith and you’ll see just how wrong the assumptions of most comments are.
If we look at Brian Smith’s post, Second Citizenship Lawsuit Filed Against Barack Obama, and examine the comments we can demonstrate this point. Here are some of the arguments being made through comments that remind me of the McCarthy Era propaganda and have little relevance to picking the next President or solving our country’s problems. The conclusions the commenters would like the reader to believe are that the boogie man is coming and that one candidate or the other should be loathed for some unstated reason but just because of whom they may associate. The use of buzz words alone and name calling is assumed to be conclusive proof of bad intentions on the part of a candidate. You can never trust a communist or for that matter a “liberal”.
Argument Number One: If you don’t think like me then you must be a Communist. This takes two opposing views. Many blacks just assume that if you’re not supporting Obama or think the birth certificate issue should be proven; then you must be racist (a commie lover). On the other side of the coin is the white person who can find everything and anything wrong or who find hidden meaning with everything about Obama while denying they are a racist. These opponents’ knee jerks at anything Barack Obama states without first allowing time to reflect on the merits of what he proposes. I will say that the Obama supporters brought some of this on themselves by charging racism against Hillary Clinton and to those who opposed him during the primary race. McCain and Palin have sat back and egged prejudice on for the sake of getting votes. Palin continues to make the boogie man argument by innuendo and through divisive labeling of voters in certain parts of the country. Labeling those who might vote for the opposition as un-American is no different than persecuting someone who was only thought to be a member of the communist party or for being a Jew. It’s an old worn out tactic that conquers through division. The main vehicles of this argument are buzz words and phrases that evoke fear and hatred.
Argument Number Two: Intelligent people aren’t to be trusted - Basically this argument is that because Obama speaks well in public he doesn’t understand the common man’s problems. The facts are that he’s an intelligent man who graduated from Harvard law school. A school I might add we could all hope our children would be worthy of attending. Are we jealous that this man, of poor means somehow accomplished this when most of us, including McCain and Palin were unable to accomplish?
Argument Number Three: Better dead then red! – In this argument the person doesn’t care about the facts, like deficit spending under the current Republican Administration, even though they claim to be fiscal conservatives. Being Republican is enough for me to lap up all that McCain and Palin might say no matter how illogical. The same can be said about Obama supporters. If you disagree you’re racist. Because one candidate belongs to a certain party is meaningless. But those who adopt this argument want us to believe party affiliation means simply that his or her traditional leanings are enough reason to disagree with everything the candidate may state. A person using this argument never listens or stops to think about the merits of what is being proposed. Palin wants us all to believe disagreement is un-American. She wants us to follow her lead like lemmings. Those who follow without question seem to have turned off their ability to think and reason like an intelligent human being. Have they done that or is it a conscience decision finding motivation in the fact they themselves have not been very successful in life and want the rest of the country to be as miserable as they are. My mother referred to this as misery loves company crowd. Let’s face facts, if you’ve spent every dime you make and have not saved money for retirement what do you care about the DOW JONES average? You could care less if the government goes bankrupt because you’ve got nothing to lose.
At this time people seem more gullible about what they are being told by candidates. I don’t want to pick on John McCain but his speeches are full of contradictions. I’ve asked myself how an intelligent man who’s been in public life for so long says some of the things he says knowing he’s previously said something contradictory. John McCain had a good solid reputation prior to this campaign and from my perspective he’s nearly destroyed it.
It takes a lifetime to build a solid reputation and only seconds to destroy it.
Voters for and supporters from both campaigns seem ready to jump to conclusions before they hear all the evidence. In writing this piece I’m not for or against any one candidate. I’m presenting a point of view that seems all too obvious. In doing so, I’m asking people to stop accusing those who are smarter, have a better vocabulary, or because they are a member of one of the major political parties that somehow they can’t act otherwise or by their conscience. Remember it was Bill Clinton’s Administration that balanced the budget and created a surplus. Need I remind you of his party affiliation? As a Democrat he was supposed to spend us into oblivion. It was Nixon who opened the doors to trading with China. As a Republican he was supposed to fight the communists to hell and back. Leaders of either party are capable of doing what is right by the American people.
And if they don’t find solutions, then vote them out of office. Instead of voters asking for naïve promises start asking for solutions.
Argument Number Four: He’s black and I’m not voting for a black man, no matter how intelligent he may be. Of course this argument takes place under hushed conversations but it’s nevertheless being made. We all know it but none of us want to admit to it. The fact is Obama is neither black nor white. He’s somewhere in the middle. Remember his mother was white and his father black. So he’s neither white nor black. This is a bothersome issue and one that Obama has played in both directions. Early on he spoke of “us” and “we” while referring to issues mostly identified with the black population. I never did like listening to being excluded because of my being white. McCain on the other hand has run hot and cold on holding his supporters in check. While he’s spoken up against his supporters who incite racial hatred he’s allowed Palin to use language charging non-supporters as being un-American. Fact of the matter is Obama as either black or white, you choose; is probably more intelligent than McCain and certainly more intelligent than Palin. Likewise for Joe Biden. What this argument reminds me of is Nazism and hatred of Jews just because they are Jews. It’s a way of thinking that is destructive of the foundation of our Constitution.
The entire liberal/conservative party dichotomy argument is tired, worn out and based on false hopes and dreams.
All of these arguments have as a basis some flaw in their underlying premises drawing one to a false conclusion. Probably the most obvious are the labels “liberal” and “conservative”. The entire liberal/conservative party dichotomy argument is tired, worn out and based on false hopes and dreams. Republican’s spent the deficit up to over 10 trillion dollars. Probably will be 15 trillion by the time Bush leaves office in January. The government has ballooned under eight years of Republican leadership. The deficit alone, but coupled with the ballooning size of the government will require raising taxes and spending less. Due to “greed” or whatever cause they want to attribute to the financial debacle more government regulation will be needed and further deficits. I have to wonder if the deficit would be lower had we maintained the old regulatory framework that deregulators took a weed whacker too. This has all been brought to us by a Republican controlled Congress and White House. Conservatives? Fiscal conservatives? Obviously not.
Here are the words of self-proclaimed conservative Mitt Romney at the Republican Convention:
Minute 7:26 “Take a weedwacker to excessive regulation and mandates. ” (Wait a second; isn’t that what set the stage for the multi-billion dollar bailout of major companies founded on capitalism? So do Republicans believe in capitalism on the way up and socialism on the way down? What kind of conservative fiscal policy is that?)
“We need change alright. Change from a liberal Washington to a Conservative Washington.” (Wait a second; haven’t the “conservatives” been in the White House for eight years?)
“Take work requirements out of Welfare” (Why would a conservative not want welfare recipients working?)
“It’s time to stop the spread of government dependency and fight it like the poison it is” (Well Mr. Romney isn’t this exactly what the Republicans have created over the past two Presidential terms and what they just handed to Wall Street Financial Institutions to the tune of how many billions of dollars?)
“It’s time for the party of Big Ideas, not the party of Big Brother” (Huh? The party of Big Ideas? Didn’t the Republican’s nominate Bush and Palin and produce Jack Abromoff and whole assortment of other criminals? The only thing I can think of is a question. “What’s the big idea you morons? You let your own party down. You allowed the Republican party to be hijacked.”)
Mr. Romney uses all of the key buzz words to invoke prejudice while ignoring the reality of his own party’s actions over these past eight plus years. Claiming Republicans are fiscal conservatives is as much of a worn out concept as is that Joe the Plumber should be used only to negatively label Mr. Obama. Joe the Plumber could have asked that same question of the McCain team. So continuing to assert that Democrats will run up the deficit ignores reality. We need to get real with what we are being told. You can’t keep spending endlessly and borrowing to support a lifestyle that we can’t now afford to pay for. In either household yours or mine, deficit spending leads to bankruptcy. That’s the reality folks. That’s a time tested conclusion founded on a solid mathematical premise. Two plus two does not add up to six and saying it does or believing it does because one candidate of the other tells us it will, is crazy. But let’s get back to the reality of labeling each other.
Claiming Obama somehow has an ego that will force him to do or say anything just to be President ignores the real John McCain. If you doubt it just visit www.therealMccain .com. Palin claims to be just like us and McCain does as well. Most of us don’t own five or more homes or spend $150,000.00 on a wardrobe. Obama claims to be like us, but depending on the audience he may not include you and me because it wouldn’t be popular with blacks. Each position ignores the reality of their lives. Palin claims living near an adjacent country somehow qualifies her for the Presidency. That’s ridiculously simplistic and a fourth grader could make a better argument. Looking at Palin’s educational accomplishments wouldn’t lead one to believe she’s qualified to be a day care worker, let alone President of the United States. If you doubt it examine her educational accomplishments.
“Palin attended several colleges and universities. In 1982, she enrolled at Hawaii Pacific College but left after her first semester. She transferred to North Idaho community college, where she spent two semesters as a general studies major. From there, she transferred to the University of Idaho for two semesters. During this time Palin won the Miss Wasilla Pageant, then finished third in the 1984 Miss Alaska pageant, at which she won a college scholarship and the "Miss Congeniality" award. She then attended the Matanuska-Susitna community college in Alaska for one term. The next year she returned to the University of Idaho where she spent three semesters completing her Bachelor of Science degree in communications-journalism, graduating in 1987.”
We have to stop generalizing with the whole liberal/conservative dichotomy and demand real ideas and results to get this country back on track. If things don’t change we need to throw out all the incumbents. In other words clean house. What we don’t need are lofty ideas. What we do need are realistic goals and practical solutions to get this country back on track and maintain our greatness in the world stage.
Just because a candidate talks like Joe the Plumber doesn’t mean he’s on our side and will propose laws and regulations and a budget that has priorities making the common man’s life better. Just because a bills title says it’s to save the environment doesn’t mean that is what is intended. We are all too naïve about what we are being told by the candidates and our Congressman. We aren’t listening and asking enough questions. Listening is more important than is talking. Thinking is right up there with listening.
Just because Obama is a Democrat doesn’t mean he isn’t a fiscal conservative. It might mean he’s a conservative liberal who is more Joe the Plumber than we might appreciate. On the other hand just because John McCain was a POW doesn’t mean he can run this country. Vote for whomever you believe to be the most qualified and who will make us all proud to be Americans. And pride has nothing to do with being a Republican, a Democrat or the color of a person’s skin. It has to do with being an American and living right – living within our means. Looking for the boogie man won’t solve this country’s problems; but it may distract us from finding the right candidate who has the best solutions. Talk issues not about each other.
Is it too much that we should set an example for the younger people who will be future voters by listening more than speaking? Have we lost the ability to stop and to think about what we hear and say before we label someone for their ideas or their associations? Perhaps by my writing this piece some will see me as a liberal and some as an enemy of the people. Others will view me as conservative and an enemy of Joe the Plumber. I can tell you this; I have found myself contemplating if life in another country would be a better proposition for retirement.
The labeling of groups as un-American for the sake of hate is such a far cry from what I learned in law school about freedom of speech and association. Freedom of thought was one underpinning taught by my constitutional law professor Mary Winslow. What is going on in this campaign is really disgusting and a development that should concern us all. If you doubt this consider how you would be treated if the majority were a group who opposed your ideas or who belonged to the “other group” that considered “your group” to be un-American just because they think differently.