Full Version: Election Year Politics
I realize real questions are not as exciting as conspiracy theories, but ...
This is an election year and voters need to consider the important issues that are at stake. That would include the economy, whether or not to build a pipeline, whether to trim military or social spending, etc. E . J. Dionne had an excellent opinion piece on this a little more than a week ago in The Washington Post.
Questions for debate:
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
Edited for cosmetic reasons.
This is an election year and voters need to consider the important issues that are at stake. That would include the economy, whether or not to build a pipeline, whether to trim military or social spending, etc. E . J. Dionne had an excellent opinion piece on this a little more than a week ago in The Washington Post.
QUOTE
They say that President Obama is a Muslim, but if he isn’t, he’s a secularist who is waging war on religion. On some days he’s a Nazi, but on most others he’s merely a socialist. His especially creative opponents see him as having a “Kenyan anti-colonial worldview,” while the less adventurous say that he’s an elitist who spent too much time in Cambridge, Hyde Park and other excessively academic precincts.
Whatever our president is, he is never allowed to be a garden-variety American who plays basketball and golf, has a remarkably old-fashioned family life and, in the manner we regularly recommend to our kids, got ahead by getting a good education.
<snip>
True, some of this is driven by cable television (a venue in which I acknowledge regularly participating). Attacks designed to gin up the conservative base are quickly recycled to gin up outrage within Obama’s own base. Moreover, Obama is not the first president caught up in the rank unpleasantness of this particularly unforgiving political moment. A quick Google search will unearth references to George W. Bush as a “Nazi,” and Bill Clinton’s Republican opponents went so far as to impeach him in a shameful episode of extreme partisanship.
<snip>
But there is something especially rancid about the never-ending efforts to turn Obama into a stranger, an alien, a Manchurian Candidate with a diabolical hidden agenda. Are we trying to undo all the good it did us with the rest of the world when we elected an African American with a middle name popular among Muslims?
We are blessed with the freedom to say whatever we want about our president. But those who cast Obama as something other than one of us don’t understand him and don’t understand what it means to be American.
Whatever our president is, he is never allowed to be a garden-variety American who plays basketball and golf, has a remarkably old-fashioned family life and, in the manner we regularly recommend to our kids, got ahead by getting a good education.
<snip>
True, some of this is driven by cable television (a venue in which I acknowledge regularly participating). Attacks designed to gin up the conservative base are quickly recycled to gin up outrage within Obama’s own base. Moreover, Obama is not the first president caught up in the rank unpleasantness of this particularly unforgiving political moment. A quick Google search will unearth references to George W. Bush as a “Nazi,” and Bill Clinton’s Republican opponents went so far as to impeach him in a shameful episode of extreme partisanship.
<snip>
But there is something especially rancid about the never-ending efforts to turn Obama into a stranger, an alien, a Manchurian Candidate with a diabolical hidden agenda. Are we trying to undo all the good it did us with the rest of the world when we elected an African American with a middle name popular among Muslims?
We are blessed with the freedom to say whatever we want about our president. But those who cast Obama as something other than one of us don’t understand him and don’t understand what it means to be American.
Questions for debate:
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
Edited for cosmetic reasons.
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
Por que no las dos?
It really depends on how you define "legitimate" as to whether or not it's legitimate. It's obviously a distraction, though.
It's "legitimate" in that it is legal, and under the "all's fair in love, war and politics" mantra.
It's not "legitimate" in that it is a lie, in that it generates heat rather than light, in that it is a fairly shameless effort to pander to prejudice.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
It drives an informed electorate in that it shows the electorate exactly to whom the Republicans engaging in this tactic are pandering.
It hinders an informed electorate in that it attempts to inject false information into the national debate and it appeals to the basest instincts (fear and prejudice) to curry support.
Por que no las dos?
It really depends on how you define "legitimate" as to whether or not it's legitimate. It's obviously a distraction, though.
It's "legitimate" in that it is legal, and under the "all's fair in love, war and politics" mantra.
It's not "legitimate" in that it is a lie, in that it generates heat rather than light, in that it is a fairly shameless effort to pander to prejudice.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
It drives an informed electorate in that it shows the electorate exactly to whom the Republicans engaging in this tactic are pandering.
It hinders an informed electorate in that it attempts to inject false information into the national debate and it appeals to the basest instincts (fear and prejudice) to curry support.
Questions for debate:
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
It is a legitimate election year tactic if the Republicans win. Victory justifies everything.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
An informed electorate? You're funny.
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
It is a legitimate election year tactic if the Republicans win. Victory justifies everything.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
An informed electorate? You're funny.
QUOTE(barnaby2341 @ Mar 2 2012, 04:43 PM) 
An informed electorate? You're funny.
No. As has been the case for years, your cynicism is what is funny or perhaps not so funny.
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
Distracting the electorate IS the tactic.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
I know that it is disgusting to some Republicans who aren't running for office.
I think it hinders the uninformed who get sidetracked on titillating stories that smack of scandal. For the informed electorate, it is a nuisance. Most of us want the economy to recover faster and to see many more jobs in the near future. We also want to see a speedy end to the war in Afghanistan, to see loved ones come home.
I do believe that there is a racist element to refusing to recognize Barack Obama as our legitimate president. I also believe that there are people who never got over John McCain losing back in 2008.
The Republicans have demonstrated that they are ruling out nothing when it comes to schemes to bring down President Obama, and Senator Mitch McConnell's was the clarion call when he said that making Obama a one-term president was his first priority.
It reminds me of the saying, "Let's throw it up against the wall and see what sticks."
Distracting the electorate IS the tactic.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
I know that it is disgusting to some Republicans who aren't running for office.
I think it hinders the uninformed who get sidetracked on titillating stories that smack of scandal. For the informed electorate, it is a nuisance. Most of us want the economy to recover faster and to see many more jobs in the near future. We also want to see a speedy end to the war in Afghanistan, to see loved ones come home.
I do believe that there is a racist element to refusing to recognize Barack Obama as our legitimate president. I also believe that there are people who never got over John McCain losing back in 2008.
The Republicans have demonstrated that they are ruling out nothing when it comes to schemes to bring down President Obama, and Senator Mitch McConnell's was the clarion call when he said that making Obama a one-term president was his first priority.
It reminds me of the saying, "Let's throw it up against the wall and see what sticks."
1. Is painting Barack Obama as something other than “real” American a legitimate election year tactic or a distraction?
It's desperation due to the Republicans having three candidates worse than Sarah Palin and one who (sorry) looks like a stiff breeze will blow him over.
The tactic didn't work the first time around, and it won't work the second. Ah well, I guess it's all over before it begins.
Heh, they really can't figure out his economics either because they are stuck on voo-doo econ and don't know diddly squat about it. It is faith-based economics that led to the Meltdown of 2008 and the grand spectacle of big capitalists crawling, defeated, to the public trough. Nobody wants to go through that again, and yet not enough has been done to avoid it.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
An informed electorate sees right through this trash. With the Internet growth and ubiquitous access to it, lies and innuendos last about as long as a may fly. Well, less time than that. A few hours at most.
It's desperation due to the Republicans having three candidates worse than Sarah Palin and one who (sorry) looks like a stiff breeze will blow him over.
The tactic didn't work the first time around, and it won't work the second. Ah well, I guess it's all over before it begins.
Heh, they really can't figure out his economics either because they are stuck on voo-doo econ and don't know diddly squat about it. It is faith-based economics that led to the Meltdown of 2008 and the grand spectacle of big capitalists crawling, defeated, to the public trough. Nobody wants to go through that again, and yet not enough has been done to avoid it.
2.How does this drive , or hinder an informed electorate?
An informed electorate sees right through this trash. With the Internet growth and ubiquitous access to it, lies and innuendos last about as long as a may fly. Well, less time than that. A few hours at most.
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