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It Was an Outrage, All Right
John Moore / Getty Images
Conservatives had nothing to complain about. But Obama's school speech was an affront to liberals—borrowing heavily from their nemesis, culture warrior Bill Bennett.
“There are no facts,” Friedrich Nietzsche famously wrote, meaning that reality is composed of competing stories about reality. As in a courtroom trial, the strongest, most believable story wins.
But reality is buried under there somewhere—unlike his fascist followers, Nietzsche believed in the existence of truth—and often the strongest story is a flat-out lie. Take the deceitful uproar over Obama’s speech to schoolchildren. The speech wasn’t “socialist.” It wasn’t even liberal. It was squarely in line with 20 years of profoundly conservative thinking on how to raise a child. Diehard liberals should be appalled:
“When we strive to help our children become responsible persons we are helping them toward maturity.”
“And that's what I want to focus on today: the responsibility each of you has for your education. I want to start with the responsibility you have to yourself.”
“No one's born being good at things, you become good at things through hard work. You're not a varsity athlete the first time you play a new sport. You don't hit every note the first time you sing a song. You've got to practice.”
“We can enlist the aid of trainers, therapists, support groups, step programs, and other strategies, but in the end, it’s practice that brings self-control.”
“At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents, and the best schools in the world and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities.”
The speech wasn’t “socialist.” It wasn’t even liberal. It was squarely in line with 20 years of profoundly conservative thinking on how to raise a child.
This is the conservative line laid down by William Bennett in his Book of Virtues, and used by one conservative politician after another to justify a bootstraps mentality that scorns any type of federal intervention in the lives of its citizens, from Headstart to cost-of-living increases in the minimum wage to the barest Welfare entitlements. Your well-being and fortunes in life are your responsibility; don’t expect a governmental helping hand if you stumble.
• Mark McKinnon: Flunk the Far Right Imagine Obama warning the bankers and the businessmen that they could only be bailed out if they fulfilled their responsibilities. But he didn’t hesitate to tell that to the kids. Bennett and his heirs would be proud.
In fact, I took two of the five quotes above from the Book of Virtues itself. The rest are from Obama’s speech.
It’s hard to recall now perhaps, but Bennett’s 1993 bestseller was a watershed in American politics. Published in the first months of Bill Clinton’s first presidential term, the book stressed the qualities of rugged individualism over government’s benevolent intervention. It was the beginning of what you might call the Republican Party’s government-in-exile. Unable to work the levers of government, conservatives began—as left-wing socialists had always prescribed—to shape the contours of popular consciousness.
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Jacob Bernstein is a senior reporter at The Daily Beast. Previously, he was a features writer at WWD and W Magazine. He has also written for New York magazine, Paper, and The Huffington Post.
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Lloyd Grove is editor at large for The Daily Beast. He is also a frequent contributor to New York magazine and was a contributing editor for Condé Nast Portfolio. He wrote a gossip column for the New York Daily News from 2003 to 2006. Prior to that, he wrote the Reliable Source column for the Washington Post, where he spent 23 years covering politics, the media, and other subjects.
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Jeff Madrick is a contributor to the New York Review of Books and a former economics columnist for the New York Times. He is editor of Challenge Magazine, visiting professor of humanities at Cooper Union, and senior fellow at the New School's Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. He is the author of Taking America, The End of Affluence (Random House) and The Case for Big Government.
Obama, the Un-decider
Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
Leave Palin Alone
Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
Obama's Dangerous Obsession
Lee Siegel has written about culture and politics and is the author of three books: Falling Upwards: Essays in Defense of the Imagination; Not Remotely Controlled: Notes on Television; and, most recently, Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob. In 2002, he received a National Magazine Award for reviews and criticism.
I think the hue and cry was more about bigots afraid to have their children see a black President.
Certainly seems that way, doesn't it? The stated reasons of the "I'm keeping my child home!" crowd sure seem to be missing something.
Poor kids man.
Imagine how embarrassing it will be for little johnny arriving at school the next day and having to explain to his friends "I wasn't here yesterday because my mom watches FOX"
LOL
I'm ashamed that all the faces I saw on TV saying they wouldn't send their kids to school because of this were white. It IS about about these people not wanting their children to see a black man in authority over them.
No one here, so far, has addressed Siegel's thesis in the article, that somehow Obama's talk was "an affront to liberals". Quite a stretch, Lee, to tie Obama to Bennett. Siegel, in his own way, is as hysterical as the right-wing opposition. Obama's talk was an attempt to motivate our nation's students, nothing more, nothing less, nothing dark and sinister, no matter one's point of view.
Regarding the racial angle, perhaps that was part of the negative reaction of some wingnut parents, but I suspect they would have done exactly the same thing if it had been Hillary instead of Obama. The right has declared total war against a Democratic president and any progressive change, and they will oppose everything he does, no exceptions. They are prepared, and happy, to scorch the earth.
Dead on, kid. It's a lot more than racial animus involved here.
We must be very careful with charges of racism, especially when there could be other plausible explanation. The perception of playing the race card, even when there's some racism involved, inevitably destroys one's argument. It's a no-winner, which actually makes the racist seem like the offended party.
The Obama team got nailed with it early in the campaign against McCain. They've never charged anybody with racism or race-baiting ever since. Very smart.
i agree with oakely that yours is the most rational take on this. the hue and cry from the far right during clinton's first term employed many of the same epithets and canards we're hearing now. the difference is they have become better at pushing it to the front and they have many more outlets.
Racism definitely is more than a small factor, but you are definitely right about the scorched-earth attitude of conservatives. They would deny their own neighbors decent health care, destroy the environment that sustains us all, promote war, turn a blind eye to savagery and starvation around the world . . . whatever it takes to promote their self-centered agenda.
I swear, they often appear to believe that altruism is a social disease.
There seems to be an uninformed, oblivious, paranoid group mind among Republicans. Like a pack of emboldened, maddened dogs, they act as if convinced that someone's out to steal some of their bones. That conviction appears to have been aroused by those pandering the baser aspects of human nature by preaching that the only way to defend one's peace, serenity and material possessions is to attack anyone representing any sort of imagined threat. Too bad so many seem to have an intelligence more akin to George Bush's than Barack Obama's. Take Glenn Beck and others on Fox News, for example . . .
Isn't it "patriotic to debate and disagree with any administration"?
Well said cvillekid.
There is a huge difference between saying personal effort is indispensible to success and saying that it is the only factor responsible.
Who in their right minds would object to teaching kids to assume personal responsibility? If more adults took personal responsibility for their beliefs, there would be fewer nuts out there.
Oh....wait. I guess it is a political speech because if kids learn to think, they would not be so easily manipulable by political special interests.
"No one here, so far, has addressed Siegel's thesis in the article, that somehow Obama's talk was "an affront to liberals". Quite a stretch, Lee, to tie Obama to Bennett. Siegel, in his own way, is as hysterical as the right-wing opposition."
I think that the reason no one has addressed Siegel's thesis is because they probably believed that Siegel was floating that theory with his tongue firmly planted in his cheek.
I couldn't have said this better myself. I was reading this, thinking..."What is wrong with learning to stand on your own?" I mean, if our safety nets run out of money and collapse, well, we'll have to rely on ourselves, won't we? These are good principles to instill in all kinds of people. LOL!
I also partially agree with your 2nd statement, but I would not be at all surprised if there were a racist element to it. Some days, I'm ashamed to be white. :P
Cudmaster asks, "Isn't it 'patriotic to debate and disagree with any administration'?"
Yes, it is patriotic to debate and disagree with any administration. However, like it wouldn't be patriotic to physical injure a member the cabinet, there are things that are acceptable, and things that aren't. Do we really need a list of no-nos?
Sorry, as a teacher I have to agree with Siegel. President Obama's speech was not at all about race. It was a conservative approach to education. Obama said, "No one is born good at anything." Wrong. Athletes and scholars are both born with talent. It is shameful to see a cripple trying hard become an athlete because someone said, "If you work at it you can do it."
Students do need to persevere; more important they need to think for themselves rather than believe some idiot teacher saying all you need to do is try harder and you can do anything. It ain't so!
I love and support Obama but he doesn't know diddley about education.
I don't know where you extracted the points you made, but you need to re-read his speech. It was a motivational speech to take personal responsibility for one's life. It was not about whether Obama knows about "education" -- except for the inspirational impact it had on his own life. Don't be such a nitpicker and look for the good in what he said.
I'm more afraid of my children reading bigoted comments like these on this website.
I love that clowns like Perry said they found the speech "disturbing" before they knew the content -- not unlike Bill Frist's diagnosis of Terri Schiavo from a video!
I'm sure the always present, in their demented minds, race factor was the case with some of them, especially from our proud, infamous and shamefully backward white South, but I think that the politics of it is more like the broader reason for this pathetic and nonsensical hysteria that seemed to have possesed them. I bet they don't feel too smart and proud about themselves now that they have heard the speech - if they did, that is. Have they no idea how stupid and ignorant they sounded with all the rabid, hysterical fear and political paranoia about the President's speech? Probably not - for idiots never admit to themselves or to others that they acted like idiots.
Edsel:
When George H.W. Bush spoke to school children on October 1, 1991, he said, "Let me know how you're doing. Write me a letter. I'm serious about this one. Write me a letter about ways you can help us achieve our goals."
Idiot... were you complaining then??
On November 14, 1988, Ronald Reagan addressed and took questions from students from four area middle schools in the Old Executive Office Building. The speech was broadcast live and rebroadcast by C-Span, and Instructional Television Network fed the program to schools nationwide.
While much of his speech was innocuous, the president went off on a tangent at one point about the importance of low taxes - telling the students that lowering taxes increases revenue. This sounds pretty political to me, and I'm sure there were a lot of parents who personally disagree with his goal.
Idiot... were you complaining then??
Isn't it funny how the immediate accessibility of facts on the internet can mess up you arguments?
Facts: The bane of conservative reality.
One thing abouy the stupid lunatic fringe... they do not even know enough to be embarrassed.
The Democrats denounced George Bush for the speech and insisted on a Congressional investigation. You forgot to mention that Mozart.
I wonder if a day will come where we stop litigating the culture wars of the 80s and 90s and move into today. The toothless congressional hearings happened 18 years ago, for christsake. Move on.
I though they just threatened hearings..... I didn't realize there were any. The point back then was that it was just before the campaign and was government funded....
penscott
They did not denounce Bush for the speech he gave-- hearings were held about the cost of the camera op. and ELLamer gives you the reason.
I have no problem with any of that except trying to tell children that lowering taxes increases revenue. That is simply junk science and has never happened in the history of the United States. Assuming the Laffer Curve isn't a bunch of supply-side nonsense (which it is, see Eisenhower administration), their own junk science even proves them wrong: we have never been on the other side of the curve.
Supply-Side economics is the biggest economic farce I can think of. Even George H.W. Bush, an economist, called it "voodoo economics." Reagan wasn't a god among men, he was a D-list actor and a snake oil salesman who did some good things but ultimately set the country back in so many areas and paved the way for George W. Bush to be elected.
Don't forget the Iran Contra Affair and the debt Reagan left behind. So many people were 'seduced' by his rhetoric, but that doesn't make him "great". He just talked a good game and didn't get anything done on health care though he talked about that too.
no one had to complain about Bush's 1991 speech, the democrats were spending thousands of dollars to investigate it--and the liberals think the conservatives are crazy and paranoid!
MOZART: I wish I'd said this myself!
The hue and cry was generated by the arrogant and stupid Dept. of Education flyer asking students to write letters on how to help the President.
Spotted, you and others like you are true bigots for countering all criticisms of the President with accusations of racism. It is getting tiresome and you make yourselves ridiculous. Van Jones has a word for people like you, but I won't use it.
The hue and cry was generated by Fox News and various talk radio hosts, Limbaugh, Beck, etc. That is who generated the hue and cry.
I and the other commenters are lobbing these charges of racism because that's the only rational explanation we can come up with.
I think one could also say that fat cats fear for the ill gotten gains and are willing to throw anything in front of the Obama reform train, including their own mother, in order to slow it down. I don't think its all racism.
ElLamer, I agree. The call obviously went out -- kill the reform.
The "hue and cry" was started by Fox talking heads, GOPers up for re-election who enflamed birthers and tea party attendees with time on their hands now that both of those debunked protests had run out of steam. A flyer doesn't incite to disrespect the president. People do and people did, and a lot of their motivation was racist. Spend some time on some right-wing Web sites and you will trip over racism tied to Obama on every page. (And I'm white but think that we are a racist country with much to be ashamed of, including racially motivated attacks on Obama, of whom I am very proud.)
If Republicans hadn't been so quick to dismiss this speech, and actually listened to it, they might have had the chance to re-learn much of what they had forgotten about conservative values. Sounds like more than just schoolchildren needed to listen to this speech.
lol good point!
as to liberal outrage: who says William Bennett was wrong about everything? I think all those quotes are perfectly fine. I don't see how any of that can justify the injustice of our health care or minimum wage situation.
Agree. Siegal trumped up a controversy over the content of Obama's motivational speech and has tried to politicize it by comparing it to Bennett. I disliked Bennett while he headed Education, but that doesn't mean that he doesn't have something worthwhile to say.
I agree. I thought I was one of the only ones to catch it. We have in the US today a law that allows Microsoft to import workers into the US. In some groups they only hire H-1B workers because they have "preferred vendor lists" which happen to just be H-1B visa houses.
For the past two years I have not seen one US citizens resume. I have friends who are more than qualified. But their resume will never get into Microsoft, well not to my desk.
There is a bipartisan group (including Grassley) who want to reform H-1B. But Obama isn't allowing it on the agenda.
So Obama is supporting federal laws that make it nearly impossible for US citizens to get jobs *in America* and he is telling kids to study harder to get the job...its a sick lie. He should have said "work as hard as you want, I will just increase the quotas on engineer imports and crush your wages."
This is what I always said about this speech, and I have heard it many times before from Obama, almost word-for-word. It is strictly a Mom, God and apple pie speech that any Republican could have given, and is full of dull platitudes, cliches and truisms that have been heard a million times before.
For progressives like me, they are all misleading slogans, having little to do with the reality in this world. It is not true that people can do anything, or that opportunities are unlimited. No socialist like me would ever believe that. No one who has been in many places around the world would believe it.
The fact is that most people die in the social class they are born in to, which means that most will die poor. Republicans automatically call this whining, wimpishnes, class warfare and so on, and tell people to move to China, Cuba, France or wherever, but it does not change the basic truth of this proposition. I can see why they don't like any facts that say all individuals have an equal and unlimited opportunity in the great capitalist game of life, but the social class system and racial CASTE system in this world ensures that only a very few people ever move from rags to riches, and only a minority even move up one class rung from the one they were born into.
Telling kids otherwise just prolongs this laissez faire mythology much longer than it should be prolonged, especially under the circumstances we find ourselves today.
Actually, a person who has been in many places around the world (as I have), would believe it. This country has very few barriers to upward mobility, which is why people still want to emigrate here. Obama's achievements are a sure example of that.
In fact, a message of individual responsibility is what's needed to counteract the limitations of economic class and the repression of majority expectation. The laissez-faire mythology is that other people will give you what you want - when, in reality, they'll only give you what they want.
why do they progressives call themselves progressive when they don't believe in progress?
i would agree your statement "that most people die in the social class they are born in to". you go on to say that only a very few move from rags to riches and only a minority move even on step. that is exactly what this is all about, the opportunity, the chance to be one of those. if "very few people" in this country of 300 million is say...1% that's 3mm people, say its 0.1% that's still 300,000 people! what qualifies as "only a minority"? technically that's anything less than 50%, but let's err of the small side, say 10% (a very small minority); that would be 30 million people! thats the population of an entire country or more than the entire population of Texas or almost the population of Canada!
a little perspective is required here. opportunity is clearly not unlimited, but that is no reason to tell school children, "hey sorry, you're outta luck. this is your lot in life, so accept it." opportunity is available to more people and in greater scope than anywhere else.
Obama has every reason to want to lift up and uplift kids in our country. I just learned a scary financial statistic from the feds: the top 1000 people in this country earn the SAME amount as the bottom HALF of the U.S. No one is begrudging the rich their riches, but this statistic says that our middle class is in jeopardy. Education is part of how people work their way up in society. Let's use all means possible to support those who strive. That's neither liberal nor conservative: it's human.
I didn't know there was a conservative and liberal way to raise a child!
No need to politicize everything.
Isn't that the truth?
Some people just enjoy making a fuss about being offended. They like the attention, it makes them feel important. And it gives them wide-eyed, fist-pounding leverage for making unreasonable demands of others.
Excellent point, MurraryAbraham! Perfectly said. Mr. Siegel, your rant here polticizes the speech with almost as much uptightness as the conservatives BEFORE they heard the speech. Good God, ya'll. Can't a speech be a speech?!
Mr. Siegel, from reading your article it seems you would rather have head Obama launch into a Chomsky-esque dissertation (complete with droning boring polysyllabic verbosity eternally lost on the proletariat.) That would have gone over great with gradeschoolers.
Obama's speech was fine as it was. Sheesh. Note to history: think twice before telling kids to get educated and be self-reliant, and think three times before trying to help others secure access to healthcare.
Yahoo. Thank you. Agree 100%. If you want kids to succeed and be self-reliant, all parts of the political spectrum should agree with that. Except the Fringe of course.
The Left fails to remember that when President George H.W. Bush spoke to students, the Democrats (Gebhardt and Schroeder) initiated an investigation and hearings. The Republicans in Congress are not doing that. Some conservative pundits make remarks about President Obama's speech to school kids and the left gets its panties all twisted.
BTW, I thought the speech was pretty good and hopefully will inspire the students who need it.
The Republicans in Congress have no authority to do that because they don't have power. But really, why are we bringing up crap that happened 18 years ago? Let's all grow up and move on.
Ozone doesn't admit why the hearings went on, apparently it was a flap over federal funding of what was considered a camera op by Bush before the campaign. Not the speech to the children.
Kids Didn't Hear Obama, But Will be Bussed for Bush
The Arlington Independent School District, which passed on airing President Barack Obama's live classroom address, has announced that some students will be bussed off campus to hear a message from former President George W. Bush on Sept. 21.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Kids-Didnt-Hear-Obama-But-Will-Be- Bussed-for-Bush-57827022.html
Ok Ozone-let's see how the "radical left" responds. Let's see how many are pulled from school that day, let's see how the "liberal media" instigates the rabid leftists.
If we see the same level of panic-striken hate I will find you (online) and apologize.
Schools in Georgia had a mixed bag of, it is ok to show it, it is ok to show it with parental permission at a later date. What BULLS..! All school systems in Georgia should use every tool at their disposal to increase student awareness, considering that Georgia for the most part is near the bottom of the scale for accademic excellence. This is nothing short of Republican hysteria. Oh, don't let the Liberal black boogieman talk to our kids. My wife, who teaches in Cobb County, will be showing the speech on Friday. She has received overwhleming approval from the parents of her students to use the speech as a teaching tool.
This outcry was whipped into a frenzy by the Conservative right because they still cannot give into the fact that they lost in a remarkable landslide this past November.
Ozone69: You are correct, two members of Congress tried to make political hay from the Bush speech, it went no where. There was no feeding frenzy, initiated by anyone, as we have witnessed in the last few days. The fires of discontent have been fueled by those Conseravtives who have microphones and their loyal listeners who have not been able to see the benefit of their kids perhaps being inspired by someone who just a few years ago had no chance of success in this country because of his skin color.
I think we have too many pundits who get paid to make a big, fat, furry deal about everything. On this subject, Bennett was right and Obama is right. And everybody,regardless of political affiliation, wants their children to work hard and do well in school - even the liberals who Siegal hopes to enrage with this article.
duh! of course we all want our children to work hard and do well in school.
The speech was a cure for insomnia, nothing new, no attention grabber for kids, they've heard this already. Obama was like, "eat your broccoli and be good"....the speech was a real ramblin mess.
What inane baloney! I guess it is true that libs eat their young. I am really tired of you glass-half-empty people.
This bull was started by liberals, I think not.
tarryh: Are you sure you're not talking about conservatives? Moderate Republicans don't seem to last very long these days. Arlen Specter, for example...
When all you listen to 24-7 is some pundit telling you that the President is a 'Socialist' ' Marxist' and a 'Communist'. What do you expect except ignorant people who spew venom for the sake of spewing it???? After all isn't that what the right wing pundits have been doing for years???? The type of people who complained are the least educated in this country. We know it was about racism. We also know this know this group of people is noted for their unbridled venom toward anyone who is different from them. They hated Clinton with a passion too and still stick it to him any chance they get. It's also about their having lost an election. It kills them to think of a black man over them. They are very immature people who can't take any loss gracefully. It was an outrage all right but not like the author is trying to portray. It was an outrage because Obama did nothing wrong. These people made a mountain out of nothing. The bigger ass they make of the themselves the more people like myself are turned off. They are only hurting themselves and their cause in the process.
The hue and cry about this speech in my direction came from the local Catholic church leaders, who demanded that Obama not be seen either in their schools or the public schools. They pretty much showed here their allegiance to the Republican party, a party that had George W. Bush, who signed an executive order giving immunity to the Pope in abuse lawsuits, as it's leader.
All of these presidents should have given their speeches during prime time, NOT INSTRUCTIONAL TIME.
Would have diffused this arguement real fast too...
Who is this clown?
Just because Bill Bennett is a Van Jones Republican doesn't mean Bennett's message isn't sometimes valuable.
Who argues against responsibility?
Dumb.
I wonder what these adults who kept their children out of school for fear of a black man speaking to them...just how do they explain to their children? what do they say regarding the president? Do they tell them that sarah palin is president and their teachers and school mates are lying about Obama's presidency? I feel really sorry for their confused children.
The outrage has been that the Republican Party has been claiming that they were the party of 'virtue' for years. That is why when their leaders were shown to be as human as the rest of us it makes a big splash in the media. The Democrats support the virtues of hard work and personal responsibility, we just think that someone who is working hard should not have additional road blocks thrown in their way.
additional road blocks? such as more draconian taxes? Yes, that's what the Democrats support. Hard work and personal responsibility? Guess the auto companies are proud of the huge bailout, knowing that failed sales paid off.
Kids Didn't Hear Obama, But Will be Bussed for Bush
The Arlington Independent School District, which passed on airing President Barack Obama's live classroom address, has announced that some students will be bussed off campus to hear a message from former President George W. Bush on Sept. 21.
http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat/Kids-Didnt-Hear-Obama-But-Will-Be- Bussed-for-Bush-57827022.html
That seems like an abuse of taxpayer funds.
Are you talking about Arlington, TX? (Your link doesn't work.) If so, the distrcit doesn't have any reference to the bussing event on the 21st on their calendar. Be clearer so we can tell the right school district what we think.
It is Arlington, TX.
"The Arlington Independent School District, which passed on airing President Barack Obama's live classroom address, has announced that some students will be bussed off campus to hear a message from former President George W. Bush on Sept. 21."
Go to http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local-beat and scroll down to get to the headline and link to the story.
"Your well-being and fortunes in life are your responsibility; don't expect a governmental helping hand if you stumble."
Huh?
What he said is that there are governmental provided opportunities to help us get on our feet (starting with a public education) but it's ultimately up to each of us to find the inner resources to make the most of them. We can be given everything and still screw up.
I've experienced that, I've seen it in others.
I think it's silly how conservatives attempt to 'own' responsibility, patriotism, fiscal responsibility, the American flag, etc. until I read something like this. Don't give them the satisfaction of taking the other side just to be on the other side.
And Glenn Beck tries to 'own' Thomas Paine. The dude was about as liberal as you can get. He's called the father of liberals.
This writer thinks that Liberals don't believe in personal responsibility. That's ideological crap.
The problem with the "outrage" over Obama's Education speech is simply that Conservatives hate Obama. Period. End of story.
And why are we letting Conservatives (i.e., the lunatic fringe of the GOP) set the agenda for what the media covers? Where does the First Amendment leave off and slander start, for example? How do we display outrage at the racism directed at Obama?
I'm sure hoping that the FBI has ample surveillance on the lunatic fringe, but we need to understand how witless we look to the rest of the world. Other countries think that we made huge progress in electing a smart black man, but our treatment of him since he took office is nothing better than traditional bigotry in this country.
Each and every day I tell my 5 kids that it is up to Uncle Sam to see they are fed and clothed and washed and dicipilined and educated. I tell them not to bother momma for anything and on the fridge I have a direct line to the Office of Childcare Services when they need stuff.
Yes as a progressive, I was applalled. I chose to have those kids to make my life easier when I am old, but hell and damnation it is up to my friends and neighbors to see that my kids are looked after in a proper fashion.
te da, de. I am off to the drugstore to get me some of that nice K=y Jelly so me and the dude can make us another little retirement package, paid for by state.
I'm hoping you are aiming for satire because otherwise your posting is scary...and you sure aren't a "progessive", unless it's in the mis-used sense that Palin uses that word.
It think sallyma is either mad because Hilary is not President, or she is misusing the word in Palin's sense, because all her posts reflect some big anger issues, and she does deny being a conservative, cause she let go on Pres. Obama twice today and I called her on it, and got the answer back that she was no conservative, because she was pro life, baby. Go figure that one out.
correction --pro choice
Clearly, you think you are being amusing. Unfortunately, this is what passes for 'humor' with conservatives. No doubt you believe in the myth of the welfare-queens driving around in their Cadillacs and the union workers getting paid $70 an hour to do nothing. Now, because the president gave a good, reasonable speach that didn't jive with all the hysteria you heard on Fox News you are reduced to trying to make the same old tired conservative 'welfare state' lines. Sad, really sad.
actually i am a progressive card-carrying pro-choice woman. my post was partially humor, but only aimed at the hysteria on both sides. i deal daily with women who have children they barely care for--and i mean that down to the fact they can't be bothered to change their diapers in a timely manner, let alone prod them to do homework once they get to be school aged.
The Left is terrified of kids being told it IS up to you in the context of school work and effort and the Right is terrified of having to support children from cradle to grave. Both sides need to take a breath and get a clue.
That hardly explains the nasty comments you made about the President and Van Jones, nor does it explain your accusation that the President fraudulently collected campaign funds. It makes me cringe to think that women like you who work in social service have your attitude. So please spare us the progressive label you attach to yourself. Oh, and as far as your apparent satisfaction re Jones resignation, maybe you should concern yourself with the appt. of Alexia Kelley to HHS if you think both sides don't have a clue, and you think that these problems can and should cure themselves. Because you really are not funny in the least.
Sallyma
You have quite a political hit list. Yes, Alexia Kelley on the face of it is a terrible appointment and should be watched.
What "Left" are you talking about? Are you eavesdropping on ACORN or ANSWER meetings, do you have Michael Moore's phones tapped, what? Or are you just whining about some lazy mothers? How does that equal "the left" just because some of us believe in a basic safety net?
No "left" parent would say anything to their child that is substantively different than Obama did. You make no sense whatsoever and you definitely don't know any real "leftists" whatever that means in the first place.
Typical moronic stereotype. You show me one 'progressive' who truly believes Uncle Sam owes him and his kids food and clothing etc. and I'll show you a Conservative who can deal with actual facts and lives up to their Christian principles of loving and caring for their fellow man.
Guess what? In 2009, neither of these things seems to exist.
Foolish complaints from the lunatic fringe about how terrible it was to have the President of the United States speak to the students in this country about being loyal, hardworking, and persevering through getting a good education.
Then , in this mornings paper I read where in Louisville, Kentucky, a school Coach
organized a field trip for some teen age students, which actually turned out to be a REVIVAL MEETING
and the Pastor from the Franklin Crossroads Baptist Church, in cahoots with the coach, had all the students baptized. Immersion and all that this entails.
No permission slips were required for this "field trip" No information but "this was going to be a field day." Sports, and such.
This is just one of the outrages that are taking place in this country these days.
I wonder if the Kentuckians involved in this charade know that this is a criminal act.
We better stop laughing at the lunatic fringe and start taking these goons seriously.
We need to stop this madness... NOW.
I think we are making a HUGE mistake in labeling everything that comes from the president as either 'liberal' or 'conservative'. Surely we can all agree that self-discipline, having goals and sticking to our education is a good thing for all kids, without having to brand the content.
That the moronic Right is so afraid of Obama's influence that they tried to kick up sand in their children's faces speaks volumes about how ignorance is dominant in a sector of our population. But their case against the president speaking directly to motivate kids was puerile, given that both Reagan and Bush #1 did so.
Let's face it. The GOP strategy is to grab ANY straw in the wind to impugn Obama, but they haven't figured out yet that without substance their plans look dumber than dumb....and hence attract only the Fringe and racists who hate a smart black man in the White House.
It is sad that we cannot disagree with someone without it being a racial issue. Are we not allowed to express our opinions without the stigma of being called a racist?
Raggedyann, there are many ways to disagree with people or policies, but sometimes you have to call something what it is.
When the President's opponents attack him for things that many other Presidents have done with no problem, or when people of the same political persuasion circulate pictures of him made up as a witchdoctor with a bone through his nose, or the White House surrounded by a watermelon patch, what would you call it?
I call it what it is, and to do otherwise is to live in dreamland. It's much sadder when people refuse to see racism when it's right in front of their faces.
Thank you.
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