Posted on 11/04/2010 7:03:43 AM PDT by shortstop
"I don't think people carry around with them a fixed ideology."
That's what the president said.
Standing up before the country in the wake of a nationwide repudiation, asked if there was anything he could learn from what the voters had said, he responded that Republican and Democrat didn't matter.
And maybe they don't.
But then he said, "I don't think people carry around with them a fixed ideology."
What an interesting arrogance. What an exquisite contempt. What a fundamental misunderstanding of both the American heart and human nature.
Because, yes Mr. President, most people do "carry around with them a fixed ideology."
That "fixed ideology" people carry around with them is also known as their values. Our culture, our faith, our families, our heritage, our particular philosophies and priorities all combine to give each one of us a "fixed ideology."
We don't all share the same fixed ideology, but almost all of us have one. And even those who don't, probably do, they just don't realize it.
We all have a world view. We have an innate sense of what seems right and logical. We each know the right way and the wrong way. Again, we may not agree on what those things are, but each have an internal sense. That's our fixed ideology.
And while we may not all be political or partisan, we all do have an approach to life. Many of us, even if we've never cast a vote or thought a political thought, are either liberal or conservative. Not in a partisan way, necessarily, or in a contentious way, but in a fundamental way.
Personality is also an aspect of ideology.
So is religion.
Some people are fundamentally kind, others are truly religious. Both of those characteristics are aspects or sources of a fixed ideology. A devout Christian, for example, will take his understanding of Christianity as the pattern for his life. He will study and internalize commandments and strive in his life to live them. That is absolutely a "fixed ideology," and a true believer in any religion certainly has one as well.
"I don't think people carry around with them a fixed ideology."
How can anyone with any experience in life believe those words? Wouldn't routine interactions with people, and the normal empathy you would have for them, show you that they believe in things, that they have a world view, that they are following an approach to life that makes sense to them. Part of accepting the humanity of others is acknowledging the intelligence and values of others.
Further, wouldn't life's experiences teach you that a person without a fixed ideology would be rootless, chaotic and unavoidably unhappy? If you blow with the wind from situation to situation, if there are no roots on your tree, if there is no guiding philosophy, no North Star to follow, how can a developed life be lived?And what does the president's statement say about his followers?
As he hopped around the country during his own campaign, leading people in rousing chants of "Yes, we can. Yes, we can," talking to them about their cause and their priorities and how they were all on a quest together, did he believe that those people had no "fixed ideology?"
Isn't liberalism, the philosophy of his presidency and party, isn't that a fixed ideology?
Isn't the belief that people should be treated the same, regardless of their race, religion or gender -- isn't that a fixed ideology?
Aren't there millions of Americans who have voted for the same party for years, whose personal philosophy and politics have remained unchanged for years? Aren't those people simply following "a fixed ideology?"
Of course they are.
And of course the president is wrong.
Jarringly wrong.
The fact is virtually everyone has a fixed ideology. When he was elected, many people were voting according to their fixed ideology. When he was repudiated, many people were voting according to their fixed ideology. They are acting and voting in a principle manner.
To assert that they have no mission statement, no innate direction, is to dehumanize and trivialize them. It is also to presume that they are driven not by ideals but by wants, that their motivations are base and transient. It essentially assumes that people are hogs waiting to run to whatever trough has slop in it.
It's too bad he feels that way. It's too bad he so misunderstands the human heart.
It's too bad he has such a cynical view of Americans.
Because people believe what they believe, they stand for what they stand for. They have a core, they have values.
They have a fixed ideology.
He may not, but they do.
And a president should know that.
He certainly does, so why wouldn't other people?
Because other people don't really exist in Narcissist World?
He certainly is not one of us.
"We can stop world hunger if only we tried.."
What the hell have we seen for nearly 2 years?
What a putz!
He said the voters acted stupidly.
Wow...just wow. I cannot begin to plumb the depths of this revealing public statement. Drop a rock down the hole of this statement and you will never hear it hit bottom.
“WHAT THE PRESIDENT SAID YESTERDAY”
Wahh wahh wahh wahhh stupid americans wahh wahh wahh wahh Bush’s fault wahh wahh wahh wahh....
The smartest thing at that press conference, journolists included was the teleprompter.
Obama, being the only non American American president in history, is unfamiliar with Our Nation, it's history, traditions and victories. Obama is a third world street urchin. It is Obama who has no fixed ideology - he parrots what his handlers tell him. Obama has a vague desire to bitch slap America out of simple jealousy and rage because his mother abandned him to old white folks in Hawaii and he desperately wants to gain approval from the deadbeat alcoholic father whom he never knew. I've seen his type before - at Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
Obama is truly the Man Without a Country.
“I don’t think people carry around with them a fixed ideology. I know I don’t. I’m pretty much spineless.”
What a slippery, Teflon BASTARD NObama is.
Yes- I said bastard.
Show me how his MOMMA could have been married to his daddy when daddy already was married with 2 kids when he came to America & became unfaithful to his wife.
Zero hates America, his father hated America,
and 20+ years of this schmuck didn’t help either...””
He married a woman who also hates America.
God only knows what those kids are being taught.
Freaking idjit. He’s 47 years old and has the most rigid and immutable ideology possible. If he didn’t, he would have moderated during the past two years and not suffered the record-breaking losses. Every time this child opens his mouth he sounds more stupid than the time before.
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