Comments from an Obama voter (not trolling ) You've had your fun, ZOT!

Traviswf

[Traviswf]

Hi there. I voted for Obama, but have been reading a lot of Freerepublic lately to see how the other side is reacting. I'm not trying to troll here - honestly - but if you feel I am, that's understandable. I just wanted to offer a perspective on this that I think may be interesting to some of you. Oh, and this is much longer than I intended. And I'm fairly certain I'm not posting this the right way...for which I apologize.

When Bush was elected in 2000, I was upset. And yes, I whined about him "stealing" the election. I don't really think that's true anymore - it was just a painful way to lose. Sure, we can whine about the popular vote vs. the electoral vote, but you can't change the rules in the middle of the game. Then I watched the movie Recount and realized just how awful the democrats were at trying to win the damn thing. Gore seemed like he didn't really want it.

When Bush won in 2004, I was absolutely devastated. I thought the world was going to end. I didn't think we should be in Iraq, I agreed with Kerry that we had to finish the fight in Afganistan. I was worried about the courts. And frankly - I just didn't like Bush. I didn't like the way he governed, the way he spoke, and the way he talked as if we on the left were less American.

On 9/11 I happened to be in Toronto on business. When the towers fell, I knew I had to get home. A colleague and I wanted to go to New York, to help in some way. But we were told nobody was getting anywhere close. Our next instinct was to get home - to California. We didn't just want to be with our families, we desperately wanted to be in our country. That day was rough because my colleague thought his wife might have been on one of the planes - her travel plans were very similar. It took hours of agony before we, thank God, found out she was safe.

So we rented a car in Toronto and drove across the country. It took a couple hours to get across the border in the middle of the night. We stopped in Omaha, and then Colorado. I can't even tell you how much I loved my country driving across its beauty in those days after the attacks. And there were no jokes about "we're in enemy territory" because we were in "red states." We were in America. Everywhere we went people said "How are you? Is everyone safe?"

I know everyone has similar stories of those days. And certainly many, many people have stories of real loss - not just "we thought we lost someone, but it was a happy ending." Then, fairly quickly, I felt my patriotism coming under attack because I had a difference of opinion about how to fight back. I didn't think Iraq was the right choice - it made no sense to me, and I certainly wasn't alone. But people questioned my love of my country. And that was very, very hard to forgive.

When 2008 came up, more than anything, I wanted to win the White House back. I wanted to punish the Bush administration for what I felt was not just a failure to be competent, but a failure to keep the country united. I inititally supported Hilary, but I had this feeling in my gut that she was just going to be Bush - but for our side. She'd be a partisan warrior, a polarizing figure (which Bush wasn't when he started, but Hilary already was...). It made me sick to my stomach.

I wanted to go back to feeling like an American in those days after the attack - where our disagreements were things we laughed about over a beer and the real threat was far, far more serious.

I'd written Obama's candidacy off as a dry run for 2016 or later. Or maybe he was running for VP. I thought - hey, dude, at least finish a term in the Senate. Then when he said "we're not a collection of red states and blue states, we're the United States of America" it hit me like lightning. It had nothing to do with him - it had to do with the country, and my love for it and this feeling deep down in my gut that we were fighting over the placement of the deck chairs while the ship was sinking.

Wow, this got really rambly. Sorry about that. Here's why I posted initially. I saw this thing on here about Obama's "national defense force" and some posters commenting about the coming civil war or some such. I'm pretty sure Obama was just talking about funding for police. I mean - are you guys really worried he's going to do this? There was a rumor on the left that Bush was bringing a military brigade trained in "riot control" home from Iraq before the elections. People were convinced Bush was going to take over the country in a military coup. I'm sure you think that's laughable - as do I. Obama is not going to raise a civilian force of brown coats. First of all there's no money for it, nobody would go for it, and he'd be laughed out of the White House.

He's also not a socialist. And he's not coming for your guns. If he did either of this things, he can basically just go home now. Those are not realistic positions for any president to have. He will likely appoint liberals - at least too liberal for you guys - to the courts.

But here's the thing. He's going to try and be a good president. I think they all do. And Obama ran on uniting the country, on being bipartisan. That's sort of ALL he ran on. It's how he won 60% of independent and brought home so many of the Clinton voters. So if he doesn't deliver on this - I imagine he'll be fairly easy to beat in 2012.

So that's my two cents. Obama was always going to get my vote as the nominee because I'm a lifelong democrat and a liberal. But I'm not a socialist or a pacifist. I believe in the 2nd amendment and favor the idea of most issues being decided by the states. I'm not a religious man, but I respect those who are and I think the Dems over reach in pushing religion out of the public square. I believe global warming is a serious problem, but I also think Al Gore enjoys it WAY too much.

And here's another caveat. I know it's easier to be bipartisan and talk about "togetherness" when my guy won. I was where you guys are now in 2000 and 2004. I mean, my party ALMOST ran Howard Dean and then said "No wait! John Kerry is a much better idea!" Or in this election to have a friend say "You've GOT to read Alec Baldwin's latest piece on HuffPo." I mean...really? He doesn't count as an "Obamacon" you know, he only plays a republican on TV...(you guys ever notice that our most annoying Hollywood liberals end up playing republicans? what's with that?)

So yeah - we've all spent some time in the woods. I just hope we can all agree that we're just as American as the other, and we're passionate about what we believe to be the right path to take. There are real problems with the economy, and Islamic Terrorists aren't going to take a vacation for four years.

That's about it I guess. Sorry you guys lost.

[Jagdgewehr]

He's also not a socialist. And he's not coming for your guns.

You're a dupe.

[Fichori]

Capitalism: an economic system in which natural resources and means of production are privately owned, investments are determined by private decision rather than by state control, and prices, production, and the distribution of goods are determined mainly by competition in a free market.


Socialism: 1: any of various economic and political theories or social systems based on collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods. 2: a stage of society in Marxist theory transitional between capitalism and communism and distinguished by unequal distributional of goods and pay according to work done.

Communism: 1: a social system in which property and goods are owned in common; also: a theory advocating such a system 2: cap a: a doctrine based upon revolutionary Marxian socialism and Marxism-Leninism that is the official ideology of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, the Chinese People's Republic, and several satellite nations b: a totalitarian system of government in which a single party controls state-owned means of production with the professed aim of establishing a stateless society.


Marxism: the political, economic, and social doctrines developed by Karl Marx that provide the basis for Marxian socialism and much of modern Communism.


Those are dictionary definitions from the 1980's

I'm afraid you voted for a Socialist/Communist/Marxist.

In the years to come, hopefully you will come to understand why that was a mistake.

That is going to be one expensive lesson.

I just wish you could learn that lesson without costing everyone else their freedoms that were paid for with blood.

[AmericanGirlRising]

In the big picture, I agree with you and the others who responded to my post. But I for one am sick and tired of all of the nastiness. If they’re feeling magnanamous in victory and want to play nice, I don’t see the harm in trying to work with them. Please understand this is not me saying that I want to join them or that I think that their ideology is anything but ruinous, but if they want to forge partnerships, I fail to see the harm of having our points of view represented. Trust, but verify.

Have you learned nothing or are you a new convert to right-side politics? If you walk reach across the aisle, they bite your arm. If you walk across the aisle, they knee you in the n*ts. Follow the career of John McCain for case-in-point and see post #111 on this thread.

[AmericanGirlRising]

And I’ve never met anyone who campaigned for, donated to or voted for Obama who thought Obama was going to give them handouts, so that they won’t have to work or pay bills. Nobody - ever. I mean...what about Oprah? She’s like a super capitalist. Does anyone think she’d accept socialism?

Please meet Peggy the Moocher at this link who was an Obama supporter in Grant Park Tuesday night: http://michellemalkin.com/2008/11/05/and-the-real-winner-ispeggy-the-moocher/

To really see Obama "volunteers" in action, see this angry mob in Indianapolis who didn't get their volunteer checks in time: http://www.wthr.com/global/story.asp?s=9299280 On your Oprah comment, here's where you need a history lesson. Why is it that the richest Americans are behind Obama while Republicans always get tagged with being the party of the rich? WRONG. The far-left wing of the Democrat party is always where the Warren Buffetts, Bill Gates, Oprah Winfreys, Steven Speeilberg, every executive at Goldman Sachs, and most of the Hollywood celebs reside. When you look at societies and governments from Rome to Russia it is the the rich who impose socialism to gain power and grow their wealth.

Look at the money leading your own party for example - from George Soros, Peter Lewis and the above, it's a power grab.

[little jeremiah]

A. Taxes should be waaay lower all across the board; not just “special” tax cuts for some (businesses OR people) that can always be revoked. How to do this? Cut gov spending, vastly.

B. What exactly do you mean by “safety” in connection with prosperity? And how is the gov supposed to create opportunity? That’s the job of the citizens, not the gov.

C. Public projects mean more taxes passing through more hands, maintaining more gov bureaucracy with more money being spent on maintaing continuity of agencies etc. Phooey on that.

D. What on earth did you mean by “How can we keep the prosperity out of the hands of THOSE guys?” (???)

And finally, it is NOT the job of the government to employ people, make them happy, make them prosperous, healthy or anything else. All the things you mention have been tacked on and invented over the last several generations. And what is the result? More and more of the population becoming lazy, angry, ignorant, immoral and demanding.

[Nam Vet]

Are you sure about that? Where was/is that said or written.? He's screwin' with fire if he thinks he's 'massah' of me, my youngest kid (who is entering college) or my grands.

Nam Vet

[mbennett203]

"and the way he talked as if we on the left were less American. "

You lost me there. Bush never did, he's actually too classy to do that, but I will, because my own eyes saw the crap you lefties wrote on the net and did on TV. For the past 7+ years your side has pooped ALL OVER President Bush for fighting two wars we should have fought, and did. You are Americans in name only. I feel it's my duty as a bitter, gun-clinging rude-little-snot American to return that sentiment at the bare minimum, par for par to your whitey-hating socialist surrender-crat thug (who is not my president-elect). I don't wish my country failure, I love America. I do not love the goals your side has for my country. Your side has actively hindered America's war effort with lies and slander, and you deserve every bit of bile coming your way for that alone.

Another freeper (6SJ7) put it much better than I did, and succinctly too!:

"Well, MSM and all other leftists, forgetaboutit. You poisoned the well (my emphasis). I'll be damned if I'm going to have a kumbaya moment now that your puppet Obama is in. I'm going to do everything legal in my power to defeat him and frustrate his efforts. "

The rest of your drivel was a pack of lies (lol at the guns bit, I have a bridge to sell you!). Go back to DU (or wherever else you slithered out from), and get back to preparing the Kool-aid; just posting here may get you stuffed into the Happy Camps for backsliding against UrkelMessiah(tm).

[mbennett203]

"Bush made people so mad that they would vote for anything else. Obama happens to be anything else."

The media did most of the demonization, but Bush could've taken the sledgehammer to them way more than he did. What the Obama voters did on Tuesday was vote with no basis in rational thought. Bush wasn't on the ballot.

[AmericanGirlRising]

Thank you for FR. As a new member, I can understand your concern over my proposition. Today’s outage was long - too long. What will it take to ensure this never happens again? We’re dealing with people already fearing the Obama presidency, what will it take? I’ll give - and give big. If you don’t trust, ask PhiKapMom, Cacique, Buckhead, Islander7 or other long-term FReepers I’ve come to know.

[Jim Robinson]

What will it take to ensure it never happens again?

Hardware/software systems that never crash, remote switching devices that never fail, and a repeal of Murphy’s law. Other than that, we’ll be doing fine. Thanks.

[FARS]

A must read DETAILED analysis combo of the Obama USSA and some of the following articles:

http://noiri.blogspot.com/2008/11/confiscation-of-your-wealth-in-united.html

[Aria]

Obama’s position on infanticide doesn’t bother you? You know, when the baby somehow survives being murdered and is then thrown in a closet to die? How about his position against banning partial birth abortion? If you don’t know, that’s where the Dr (if you can call them that) sticks scissors in the neck of the baby and sucks its brains out.

You wouldn’t do that to an animal but when it’s a human it’s called “choice”. Well certainly not the baby’s choice. You voted for this. Imagine yourself standing there and watching these things being done - could you stand it?

Think about it.

[backhoe]

Added to my files, and thank you.

Whatever happened with this Traviswf character? He never addressed my response to his poo-pooing the Gestapo-like "civilian 'security' force" Duh1 wants to inflict on Americans.

[Former Dodger]

Unlike liberals, we will not crucify Obama liek you guys did Bush. We put our country first. We may complain, but we do not hope for bad events to happen because Obama is in power. The same cannot be said of Democrats. I am sure you concur.

Well put Notch, I told a friend of mine last night that I'd rather say I was mistaken after 4 years, than I told you so because the state of our nation is more important than being correct.

Too bad I don't think that will be, but I won't "Hate" BHO like Bush (and most Republicans have been Hated by the left for the past 8 years by the left.

Travis, thanks for the insight, but PALIN - JINDAL in 2012!

[omega4179]

The liberal judges are the worst thing for preserving the american way and constitution. Let’s see you defend s few 9th circuit rulings.
Also we reject the notion that America can only unite under a donk president.

[tobyhill]

The only thing good about Obama being elected is that in 4 years he will have destroyed the Democrat Party beyond repair. The unfortunate part of it is that we have to suffer for the next 4 years because a majority of Americans are idiots now.

[Lady GOP]

I dont argue with liberals its a waste of time. Yes a 25,000 person police force with power of the US Army is a frightening prospect.

[sport]

The only way you are going to work with them is to join them.

[Poser]

“He’s also not a socialist. And he’s not coming for your guns.”

Ignorance is bliss.

[AliVeritas]

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/07/let-me-put-it-in-pictures-for-our.html

http://directorblue.blogspot.com/2008/10/aerial-photos-of-barack-obamas-stunning.html