Posted on 04/13/2008 7:24:30 PM PDT by joanie-f
I am a ‘small town Pennsylvanian’. There is no amount of explanation, or any claim of ‘mis-statement’ that can erase for me Barack Obama’s recent diagnosis of what ails small-town Americans.
I resent the fact that Barack Obama sees my faith, my belief in my right to keep and bear arms, and my negative opinion of those who have illegally invaded my country, as abnormal behavior, in need of remedy, and evidence of personal weakness and shortcomings on my part.
I suggest to Senator Obama that offering such unsolicited advice and diagnosis is evidence of deep arrogance and elitism the likes of which used to be unheard of in America’s ‘public servants’. Since when do those who ‘serve the public’ take it upon themselves the duty to mold that public into their own image ... and to define as abnormal those beliefs and characteristics that do not conform to that image?
Senator Obama, you possess some of the characteristics of one who envisions himself a god in human form. Such men must not attain positions of leadership in a free society. In serving as a United States senator, you have ascended far higher than your elitist mindset should allow. And I will do everything within my power to see to it that you ascend no further.
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the midwest, the jobs have been gone now for twenty-five years and nothing’s replaced them ... And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
I am not bitter. I am not frustrated. And for you to tell me that I am … and to offer a diagnosis for my non-existent symptoms … simply because I choose to place value on different things than you do, reveals volumes more about you than it does about me and my fellow small-town Americans.
A rough translation of your condescending statement above:
Americans who live in (Pennsylvania, and other) rural communities are turning to Christianity because they are experiencing difficult economic times. Their Christianity is a crutch and the scripture teaching, for where two or three have gathered together in my name, I am there in their midst, has little to do with their reason for attending church with fellow believers.
Gathering on Sunday morning in the Lord’s house with others of like mind and purpose in order to worship the God who gave us breath … and to fellowship with others whose faith is focused on Him … is simply not a sufficient reason to ‘cling to religion’.
Instead, the fact that our all-powerful, omniscient government has somehow ‘let us down’ has transformed us into wretched creatures who have no alternative but to surround ourselves with other fellow wretches and ‘cling to religion’ as a foundation of last resort, since the God of Government has somehow failed to provide us jobs and economic security.
We treasure our right to keep and bear arms for the same reason. Our wretchedness causes us to cling to antiquated symbols of ‘worth’ and ‘power’. Our desire to own a gun has nothing whatsoever to do with a right bequeathed to us by our Founders, or to an increased awareness that our government is systematically stealing from us every freedom granted by God and secured by our Constitution. And our ‘fascination’ with guns has nothing to do with our educated awareness that the declaring of gun ownership as ‘criminal’ has preceded the imposition of total tyranny over countless numbers of oppressed people throughout the history of modern civilization.
No, we are simply weak, paranoid, redneck wretches who haven’t the wherewithal to obtain a sense of personal security or self-worth without having a weapon within arm’s reach.
The fact that we ‘small-town Americans’ resent the millions of criminal malcontents who have taken up illegal residence in our country is not due to the facts that:
The above considerations are, however, irrelevant. ‘Small-town Americans’ harbor a negative opinion of these criminals simply because they aren’t like us. They are of a different national origin, and we are closed-minded bigots. We are ‘taking out our frustrations’ on them simply because we are a small-minded people.
What Barack Obama would have us believe is that America is in dire need of a president who is capable of having us recognize the ‘faults’ listed above, and then declare as a national priority the eradication of those ‘faults’. Re-education camps might be in order. Or more gun control. Or more hate crime legislation. Perhaps we can even re-define ‘anti-illegal immigrant’ speech as a hate crime. Yeah. That’s the ticket.
Senator Obama, your brand of arrogance is a threat to every American, and every freedom-loving person on this planet.
I worship only one God, and I am suspect of any man who deems himself one. And any man who defines my devotion to my religion as the result of ‘bitterness’ and ‘frustration’ has stepped over the line of civility and humility.
That you are a front-runner for the office of the presidency, and that you could conceivably become the leader of the free world, is every freedom-loving American’s worst nightmare.
~ joanie
Allegiance and Duty Betrayed
Great rant, and the graphic as well. Oh-bomb-us’ close up needs to be included above the “Arrogance” though. Anyone here good with Photoshop?
~ joanie
From Redstate:
Did Obama Channel Marx?
Obama’s comments got me to thinking. His comment that people in small towns cling to among other things religion because they are bitter. Another person made a similar faulty observation about 165 years ago in his book, Contribution to Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. That man’s name was Karl Marx. Marx said, “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, and the soul of soulless conditions. It is the opium of the people. The abolition of religion as the illusory happiness of the people is the demand for their real happiness.” - Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opium_of_the_people
Is it just me or is Obama making a very similar if not the same argument of Marx when he said, “So it’s not surprising then that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or antitrade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations...”.
Maybe I’m making a mountain out of a molehill or otherwise seeing something that isn’t there but the two quotes sure seem to convey the same idea.
UPDATE: After writing this I went looking for what Lenin may have said about religion. I may have been wrong in my original post, Obama may have been channeling Lenin instead of Marx. In 1905, Lenin had this to say about religion, “It would be bourgeois narrow-mindedness to forget that the yoke of religion that weighs upon mankind is merely a product and reflection of the economic yoke within society.” (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1905/dec/03.htm) Well at least we know that Obama is not a member of the bourgeois as he certainly has not forgotten about the “yoke” of religion.
Nice to see you Joanie, and thanks for the ping. :)
I had a long talk with a friend last week who had spent a good portion of her childhood in Indonesia. She was a child of Christian missionaries. She filled me in on a several things regarding BO’s education in the part of the world.
I will just summarize only two of the many points she raised.
1) The suppose “Christian” church he attends here is a front for Islam.
That would make sense, since the UCC is one of the far more leftist churches in the NCC. Long and short of it would be UN afiliated.
2) When my friend returned to the US, her love and patriotism for the US grew immeasurably. The fact that O does not show this love and patriotism, PROVES he hates this country. She says there is no middle ground on returning from there. It is Love or Hate for the USA.
The arrogance that has become standard on both side is about to be brought down a notch or two.
The last years politician on both sides learned quickly that you offer amnesty in one swipe of the pen that citizenry will revolt. In fact revolt we did ... we sent all those pandering spineless cretins back into their hallowed halls when the electorate DARED them to pass the immigration bill. A small tea party for sure ... but none the less a party with a bit of clout
May I suggest it is only the beginning? I as a Conservative have no one to vote for. Yes little johnny Mclame went scurrying back after the immigration fiasco. then had the audacity to tell the electorate they did not know any better. After all ... only 100 elite and all knowing get to wear the title senator.
Amazing the cretins in our houses.
They all need to be taught about arrogance. I will not for a change call out the names. We all know who they are. What I will do is make you think.
give me 6 Senators that have not thrown away their conservative values and donned the robe of arrogance. Can you name me 35 congresswomen that have lived up to the standards you would expect out of your next door neighbor? Their values change the minute the hit the beltway. I dare you to try and find 35 conservative, stable congressmen that walk the walk that is so easy to talk of. It is a tough task.
The tea is still in the caches ... but it won't be long before it is pulled out and ready to be brewed in a very very big cup.
Arrogance. I can hardly wait to hear all the colleagues pontificate about it this coming week.
As for me ... I am opening my tea boxes. getting ready to dump them. all of them if necessary
Paul has never been interested before.
Third paragraph from the end of my previous point I meant congress men in a generic form.
Yep. A charismatic, rhetorically gifted anti-semite who wants to control the greatest military machine in the world. What could possibly go wrong?
Obama thinks Partial Birth Abortion is a positive thing.
He thinks a baby is a punishment for a teenage girl and should be murdered.
He thinks his Pastor of 20 years is being singled out, not exposed, for his racist rhetoric.
His wife thinks this country sucks unless you're one of those “typical white people” her husband has been dealing with all his life, inside his family and out.
The fact that this guy, and the lying wife of a former President have any support from the American people is unbelievable.
LOL! Great pic. And so true.
But, that’s not an American flag lapel pin is it?
ping
Don’t forget his Moslem affiliations and his schooling in madrassa’s. I am suspect of his belief in Christianity and anything else he says.
D-Mayor Michael Nutter ("Sen. Hillary Clinton's most prominent African-American supporter in Pennsylvania says that had he been a member of Sen. Barack Obama's church, he would have left because of the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's fiery and controversial sermons.") He continued:
If I were in my own church and heard my pastor saying some of those kinds of things," he added, "we'd have a conversation about what's going on here, what is this all about, and then I would have to make my own personal decision about whether or not to be associated or affiliated."
Continued: Asked by Muir if he would he have quit Obama's church, Nutter said, "Absolutely."
Philly Mayor Would Quit Obama Church
So, why'd BO dance around Philadelphia and blame "rural" small towns in Pennsylvania, eh?
Excellent article Joanie!
BUMP!!
Don’t go there....until the temple is rebuilt, we have world wide cataclysmic events AND he survives a mortal head wound, the AC will not come into play.
As for this guy, he does have demogoguery written all over him.
> never believed I would consider Hillary Clinton the lesser of two evils. Just goes to prove the wisdom of the advice, ‘Never say never.’<
I, too, find myself trying to steer every liberal I come across to Hillary. In this situation, she’s the more moderate of the Dem candidates.
Your essay is spot on, Joanie. Thanks for saying what many of us, regardless of state, are feeling about Obama.
My friend, as usual, anything I’d add is moot compared to your words.
So? I’ll bump this thread, with a LARGE amount of gratitude for your writing this....
Thanks for the kind words. :)
~ joanie
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