The nexus between law and politics really isn’t that hard to understand, but easily subject to manipulation. The Drudge Report leads with a Youtube video to prove that Obama will usher in a new socialist society. Some realize that this is just manipulation of those who don’t get it. Others buy into it blindly, to the point of not comprehending the basic message. We see what we want to see.
Regardless, as George Will opined yesterday on “This Week,” socialism has been a component of our economy for a long time. What do we think sugar subsidies are all about? It’s just a matter of who’s getting the benefit, businesses or regular folks.
95% of what the government does is redistribute the wealth. it operates on the principal of concentrated benefits & dispersed costs. case in point, we have sugar subsidies. costs the American people billions of dollars but they don’t notice it, it is in such small increments. but the sugar growers get very rich on this. now we have socialism for the strong, that is the well represented & organized in Washington, like sugar growers, but it is socialism none the less, and it is not new.
But who wants to listen to George Will when you’ve got Drudge whispering screaming in your ear?
It’s not like it really matters that much. Minds are made up. People who want to see evil will see evil. What remains isn’t parsing economic policies, but the vilification of the presidency, because that is what turns the office holder from someone with whom you disagree into illegitimacy, and then there is nothing left but visceral hatred.
This is why a phone call from my mother-in-law, usually not the most interesting event of my day, struck me. Having moved south to North Caccalacca, the in-laws experience a different reality than I enjoy in New York. They are the targets of political outreach that has long been missing in the northeast, where our political leanings are a foregone conclusion.
A call came in from an unknown telephone number, so she let it go to the answering machine, monitoring the message. It was from a McCain campaign worker (a live person) asking if she knew that the reason Obama went to Hawaii was to destroy records that would prove that he was not an American citizen.
Come on. It can’t be this bad. John McCain is worthier than this. He is a better man, a better Senator, a better presidential candidate, then to be hyped by such ridiculous nonsense. He has much more to offer and deserves to be shown greater respect by his own party, his own workers, then this.
In the final week of the 2008 Presidential Campaign, the two candidates seeking our vote could do more to harmonize the future of this nation then all their claims of inclusiveness together if they would put a lid on these desperate, stupid efforts to win at all costs. I refuse to believe that John McCain wants to win by spreading lies like this. It’s too late to put a stop to the innuendo of Ayers, which demeaned him before many conservatives or the gimmick of Sarah Palin that lost him some of the most significant conservative voices in America.
But lets have a final week of dignity. If not for the two individuals running, for the office itself. We have way too many problems to address to tolerate gutter politics. If we have a brighter future, a concept that has yet to be proven but seems historically reasonable, let’s spend this last week discussing how to achieve it rather then lying to each other or hyping ridiculous videos designed to confuse and delude.
If we deserve better than this, we need to be better than this.
More on the Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii but is really a Kenyan contention at Court-o-Rama.
BREAKING NEWS: Via the AP, ATF has disrupted a plot by skinheads to assassinate Barack Obama and 102 other blacks. And you still think that this campaign hasn’t gotten the fringe element all worked up?
Oh yeah, and Alaska’s Republican Senator Ted Stevens convicted of seven counts of making false statements on his disclosure forms.
Ha, I finally woke up earlier than you did!
Uncle. You win!
As sad as it is, the best inference is given in a quote from HBO’s “The Wire”: “Americans are a pretty stupid people by and large. We pretty much believe whatever we’re told.”
Campaigns spend their money on things that work, hiring the likes of Frank Luntz to assess just that. If inane accusations such as these weren’t effective, they wouldn’t spend money making them.
And I can’t help but think how it affects our stature in the eyes of other countries as they watch this unfolding circus…
ATF has disrupted a plot by skinheads to assassinate Barack Obama and 102 other blacks. And you still think that this campaign hasn’t gotten the fringe element all worked up?
I don’t think you can blame McCain for that. I think we can safely say that neo-nazi skinheads are not fans of any major political party.
It’s not McCain’s fault at all, but perhaps a by-product of the gutter politics that’s become so pervasive.
It’ll be interesting to see how this story plays out.
Obviously, I’m glad the plot was rolled up; as bad as I think it’ll be if Obama becomes President — and I do — I think it would be worse if he were assassinated to prevent him from getting the gig.
That said, the few details released don’t exactly make these two Neonazis sound like criminal geniuses — according to the AP the FBI says their “plan” was to first rob a gun store, then shoot 88 black people, and decapitate 14, and only then (presumably because they didn’t figure that sort of activity would draw much attention attention?) assassinate Obama.
They were initially rolled up by local authorities, apparently, which suggests that in addition to stupidly planning evil stuff (and, hey, if people are going to plan mass murder, the stupider the better), both a lot of talking and alcohol were involved, rather than PATRIOT Act bugging.
The original AP bulletin was very sketcht. No doubt as more becomes known, these fine fellows will have proven their worth many times over. After all, it comes with the assassination territory.
But the real question is whether Sean Hannity will inform us that this is a sinister Obama plot to make us feel sorry for him. Aha!
Oh, I’m sure that there are those who will “question the timing.” Since these guys were apparently arrested by local authorities on Friday, and the news released today by the FBI, I’ll probably not be among them, at least not unless there’s some reason to be.
Oooh! “Socialist”! Scary! Those nasty socialists like those in Sweden, you know they possess those nasty things like tasteful inexpensive furnishings (IKEA), ABBA, a first class health care system and educational system, a happy healthy population that is generally happy with their government and their lives, and a diversified economy that keeps most people employed in jobs that pay a living wage. How *dare* someone threaten to bring those things to America! Why, if the average American were not unhappy about his government, his job, and his life, the terriers might win. Or something like that.
Sad to say, it is easy to laugh at all the bizarre conspiracy theories that are all that the Republicans have left (i.e., all the reporters that have touched Obama’s birth certificate physically and reported on it? The U.S. State Department’s passport office that verified the birth certificate and granted a U.S. passport to Obama and etc.? All part of the conspiracy!), but a sizable portion of the U.S. population will believe these bizarre conspiracy theories. Perhaps the official McCain supporter head gear during the current silly season should be the tinfoil hat?
But this, alas, is what passes for politics in America today. It’s all about slinging around ideological nonsense and bizarre conspiracy theories about your opponent, while never talking about the pragmatics of how you will govern. And the truth? Well. The American people don’t want the truth. They say they do, but any politician who dared tell the truth would not get elected. The truth is that over the past 28 years or so we’ve managed to run this country into the ground by believing we could have something for nothing and it’s going to be a long hard slog to get this country back on an even keel, and we’re going to have to discard ideological nonsense like natterings about “socialism” and “capitalism” that are just so much fiddling while Rome burns and get back to pragmatics about “what works” if we want to fix things. Sad to say, I don’t know if folks are going to give up whatever ideology they’re clinging to just because it’s necessary to save the nation. These are going to be some interesting times we have ahead of us in these next few years…
Not to minimize the allegations made against the two skinheads – they need attention from law enforcement – but the fringe element is always out there election or not. Some will always want to harm public figures no matter what is said or done. They just don’t always make the news. These two skinheads just happened to make the news. They could very well have pursued their same plan even if this had been a more subdued campaign.
I also don’t believe that heated exchanges or strong feelings will ever be removed from politics involving powerful positions.
What got my attention was the sweet deal that sugar growers are getting. Wus up wit dat?