Posted on 09/06/2009 5:49:39 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
This has been the summer of the town hall meeting trolls. This Astroturf movement has been whipping up hysteria -- warning that health care reform is the first step in Obama's master plan to set up a socialist government.
These right-wing nutjobs have a vendetta against Obama, they depict the president as a socialist who is against Mom, apple pie and democracy.
Obama is a wonky intellectual who speaks in calm and measured tones, and I find it difficult to understand how anybody could possibly mistake him for a dangerous radical.
But I guess I'm not a racist who sees only Obama's black skin, and overlooks his eloquence, intelligence and bipartisan spirit.
Now these same conservative crazies are apoplectic over Obama's plan to speak to schoolchildren this coming Tuesday.
"While it long ago crossed the borders of reason and civility, the hysteria over healthcare reform is -- at some level -- understandable, because wellness and infirmity are really just stand-ins for those most terrifying of issues, life and death.
But there is no similar way to rationalize the bizarre co ntroversy now raging over President Obama's plan to del iver a brief televised address on Tuesday to the nation's grammar school children.
According to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, Obama will 'challenge students to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning.'" Tim Tutten/LA Times
Obama is seeking to motivate students "to work hard, set educational goals and take responsibility for their learning." Don't those goals perfectly encapsulate the conservative Republican ethic? Then why are the Republicans calling for parents not to let their children listen to the president's speech?
In 1991 President George HW Bush made a similar speech to schoolchildren:
"I was intrigued by the links to a Washington Post story about George H.W. Bush speaking to school children on October 1, 1991. My daughter was in school then and I didn't remember hearing about her watching any such event.
On WESTLAW, I looked up other news stories about the speech. It was reported as 10 minutes in some reports and 12 minutes in others. It was carried live on CNN, PBS, and [the NBC] and Mutual radio [networks]. The Secretary of Education sent a letter urging schools to have their students watch, but I didn't find any evidence of how many schools followed that recommendation. And most striking: Bush laid out goals - to increase the graduation rate, improve student competency and better prepare students for entering school - and 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.'"
http://volokh.com/posts/1252117357.shtml
Conservatives didn't mind when President George HW Bush and President Reagan addressed our schoolchildren, but they are in a tizzy over Obama's speech to students.
Obama is the President of the United States for God's sake, why all the controversy and paranoia over his speech to students? The birthers, tea baggers, pro-life zealots, gun nuts, Palin sycophants, and town hall meeting trolls have managed to convince many Republicans that Obama is a dangerous radical with a secret agenda to indoctrinate our children into socialism.
If Obama weren't black none of the crazy accusations that have been hurled at him would stick. Unfortunately it's very easy for some of these ignorant conservatives to believe that a black president is trying to undermine our democracy.
It's time for prominent Republicans to speak out against the tea baggers and town hall trolls who have inaccurately and unfairly depicted Obama as a dangerous radical. All good Americans (Republicans and Democrats) should unite in defending Obama against these scurrilous accusations.
You mean, like this?
jOker: "Hell.....o. I. am...HERE toDAY. To. Uhhhh...speak at. GREAT length. About. Uhhhh. Health Insurance. REFORM."
(MANY hours later...)
"And so. In concLUSion, uhhhhh. I would. LIKE. to uhhhh...take some quest...ions. You, there. With. All the "I love Obama"...uhhh...buttons. What. Is. YOUR. planted...uhhhh...question. That. I. have my. prePARED answer for?"
No Mr. Reyes I don't want my children listening to one word this Anti-American Obama has to say!!
Futhermore, I have my doubts Mr. Obama is even eligible to be POTUS!
Who's the racist?
With him being black, we’ll hear this until he’s impeached or voted out. And then....that will be racist too.
It’s what sells.
Everything we do and or say will be considered racist.
We’re just boycotting his “white half”...no racism here.
Gee, I don't recall this tool calling for Democrats to speak out against the 2000-Electioners ("Selected-not-elected!") and Code-Pink hags who had inaccurately and unfairly depicted Bush as an election-stealing war-monger.
“But I guess I’m not a racist who sees only Obama’s black skin, and overlooks his eloquence, intelligence and bipartisan spirit.”
Sorry, but when I look beyond his black skin, I only see a racist, communist-Marxist, anarchist, liar, thief (a.k.a., throught wealth-redistribution) and evil being.
This from the people who boycott speeches by a black Supreme Court justice.
LOL they just don’t get it. How can you trust what comes out of Obama’s mouth he is full of half truths and distortions on every issue. You can’t talk out of both sides of your mouth and get respect.
Actually, I would respect the man more if he would just stand up for what he believes in and give it a good argument, I would never agree with it but hell just stand for what you believe in.
If he thinks Government control is good he should say so clearly not with all this misinfo designed to confuse people, so people start thinking well maybe he is for what I am for but then after its done you find out you got screwed.
If he thinks government is the answer to our problems then get on the stump and shout it out loud and proud but he knows he can’t win on that arguement because it is a false premise.
Government fails at everything it has ever tried to run except one thing and that is a military and if Obama has his way he will destroy that one thing that the government does do right.
That is the hidden agenda, combined national defense force forced on the AMerican people because of runaway defecits and huge social programs...
Ok folks we can either have a military or you can see your doctor thats your choice which will it be?
that is what scares the crap out of me.
IT'S NOT THE COLOR OF HIS SKIN.
IT'S THE COLOR OF HIS POLICIES!
Pass this around and make it viral.
The only racist is the one who claims racism as an argument....
The author, Robert Paul Reyes, is an idiot. We disagree with the socialist policies of our president. Skin color has nothing to do with it.
What else does Robert Paul Reyes have, besides name-calling? Bupkis.
Second, neither of the earlier two had tried to address all school children from PreK through 12 all at once. Also, initially there was no talk about the speech contents being released before the talk, why not?
Finally (for now) the US Education Department working with White House guidance came out with 'Lesson Plans' that sounded much like the kind that previous revolutionary leaders like Lenin, Stalin, Hitler & Mao would have liked. You know the kind that have the kiddies think and study the 'leader' and his desires. You may not know your history but both Soviet and Nazi school systems strove to turn students into passionate advocates of their dictatorships. Surely, Paul or Bob, you don't think that such a movement happens suddenly, do you? Instead it is smoothly worked into the study material and into the children's minds.
This is what worried us, we didn't criticize Reagan of Bush'41 because they were conservative as you yourself would call them. That means their goals were for individual effort and achievement and this was not out of any step of the normal routine. Obama has REPEATEDLY PROCLAIMED that he wants to radically change this country and this is the talk of a revolutionary and he has surrounded himself with like minded folk. History has shown that changing the children is how you change society and you 'wonder' why we worried? You are a HYPOCRITE and a LIAR to attribute this fear to race, we would be just as upset with this if it had been another revolutionary like a WASPish Howard Dean. Race is your card to play when we catch you at your game!
Dear Liberals:
You’ve scared the hell out of ordinary Americans..and it won’t go away until the socialist President is gone.
Is that a well known website?
Another braindead mash of DUmmy-speak and DNC talking points. Are there no libs with positive IQs?
right bloody on. when you can’t rely on the usual cliches, pull out the racism card. predictable as hell and i want this “journalist” to plan their defense when the revolution comes. oh sorry, this guy will be looking for some place deep and wet to hide in.
Not racism.
We don’t want our children and grandchildren exposed to his communism.
That's the truth. When I think "wonk," I visualize Michael Dukakis.
With this in mind and in our daily view it is becoming a thing of race very quickly.
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