Tuesday, April 15, 2008

No, Obama

No one has yet bothered fisking the Obama quote. Too much like shooting fish in a punchbowl? Having already been gigged by a co-worker over it ("Well, isn't it the truth?" Um, no, but hey, enjoy the Kool-aide), I spose I might try:

...And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.

"And it's not surprising then they get bitter,..." referring to the response of small-town American factory workers to hard times. So the Hope guy thinks "bitterness" rather than, I don't know, "hard work" or "moving on" is a proper response to hard times? --Look, when The Plant shuts down, you find other work. Or, hey, you starve. BTDT, lived on ramen and hot dogs, found another job.

"...they cling to..." Fascinating turn of phrase from a member of the board of the Joyce Foundation to disarm Americans; "Cling to" carries a very definite connotation of "just barely hanging on" and generally implies that loss of that which is being clung to is nearly inevitable and just about imminent. (Don't take my word, Google it and see) . So the list that follows are things he figures ought to be taken away:

"...cling to guns..." Funny, that: I always thought the Second Amendment was there telling Government to back off so I would not have to "cling" to my guns. Who would be trying to take them away? --Oh, right: Senator Obama's peers and pals at the Joyce Foundation. Them. While normally here in The Heartland we regard firearms as being high on the list of things you can reliably pawn when the rent comes due, as long as the Joyces are on the job, I'll be clingin'. Not 'cos times are bad but because they are a-grabbin'.

"...or religion..." First Amendment, Senator? Remember? It's part of those funny, musty old papers, the thoughts recorded upon which you swore an oath to "support and defend." Did you read them, sir? Do you believe it applies to any church other than the one to which you belong? Or have you simply internalized Marxist hostility to religion without stopping to apply it to your own life as well? --I'm pretty tone-deaf to religious sentiments but even I can appreciate their importance; one might think a U. S. Senator and proud church-goer would have an even better grasp. ...And about that church you attend:

"...or antipathy toward people who aren't like them..." Pot. Kettle. Goin' to services at a church where the preacher thunders out his loathing for "white America" and calls down the curses of his G-d on this nation (while the Senator pretends, with blinking innocence, not to have noticed) and you've got the gall to accuse small-town America of racism? It's 2008, Senator; we may not have stopped being suspicious of one another over skin color but the vast majority of people are willin' to make an effort as long as the other person is, too; and by and large, that's what we're all doin'. A quick smile and a "how do" goes a long way -- a lot farther than bloviating from the pulpit on what a horrrrrrible place the States are, especially if you are a person of color. (Quick, gang, here's a pop quiz: standard of living in the US vs. standard of living in Africa for persons of African descent in both places, which one is higher? Don't forget to include the better-off countries). There may be a log in my eye, Senator, but you'll have to get the one out of yours before you can go after it. At least I'm tryin'.

"...or anti-immigrant sentiment..." Orly? Srsly? Like my German g'grandparents faced? 'Cos they came into the country legally. That's what immigrants do. I do b'lieve you're using a codeword and actually referring to illegal entrants to the United States. See, those people in small towns, the mostly pale ones at whom you have sneered, their ancestors are not from here. They are the descendants of immigrants. Legal immigrants. Who learned the language of their adopted country. And they're kind of wondering why people who want to be called "immigrants" now can't be bothered to follow the law or learn the lingo. They're a bit resentful of that. Y'know, in sort of the same way as your preacher?

"...anti-trade sentiment..." You mean, like when they buy imported Chinese goods at the five and dime, or were you referring to the Japanese, Korean and European cars many of them buy? Or might you have meant the wholesale export of their jobs to other countries, thanks in large part to the excessive regulation and extraordinary empowerment of unions pushed by the Left? Karma's a stone beeyotch, ain't it?

Thanks for the blog-fodder, Senator, and thanks for unfurling your true flag: the politics of resentment and class-war. The politics of sneering elitism.

Y'know, the Democrats used to at least pretend to be in touch. It's not so much that the gloves are off as the mask has slipped.

19 comments:

rremington said...

Bravo!

Anonymous said...

On the other side of the blanket in that strange bed, Hillary claims that people want a President who will stand up for them, and not look down on them.

Not quite, Hill.

People want a President who'll leave them the hell alone and not rape and rob them to buy the votes of non-productive, slacking parasites.

But it's not PC to say so.

M

phlegmfatale said...

Brilliant, as per usual, darlin'.

What I don't get is how no one sees through this guy. Or worse, they agree with him. Sheesh.

the pawnbroker said...

hey, you're parsing my words...

oh, wait...that was brotherbill's defense, but if it works for "is" why not for "cling"?...

beautiful job, rx...bo knew exactly what he was communicating but thought only his ie coconspirators would pick up the code.

so he dumbed it down some more in one of his first "explanations"...

http://poetnthepawnbroker.blogspot.com/2008/04/i-dont-want-to-seem-ungrateful-but.html

wow, not much left to parse in that one...keep talkin', bo, you're doin' great!

Frank W. James said...

Well Said, My Dear, Well Said.

All The Best,
Frank W. James

Christofer said...

I think it is important that the US elect a president that will end the war in a responsable manner and we will have to overlook some "academic moments" in our candidates.

“I don’t oppose all wars. What I am opposed to is a dumb war.”
~Barak Obama

He's said some stupid things but the man is good. at heart.

After all both McCain and Hillary have had some bad moments and said things that they didnt mean.

Tam said...

Ah, yes...

Les Jones notes that the Nanny-staters have already coined WORM, for "What Obama Really Meant".

Tango Juliet said...

HA! That there's some prime Grade A stuff by God!

Hunter said...

I'm with phlegmfatale on this one, that is the deliberate suspension of disbelief whenever the Obamessiah is invoked.
Great entry Roberta.

Hunter

Anonymous said...

So outa the park, NASA will be tracking another piece of space junk..... great post!

Anonymous said...

I was watching Obama before my surgery (in pain with no pills), then post-surgery (pain but with lots of pain meds), and now tapering off to approaching clear thinking. Obama looks exactly the same to me all the way through -- not a very good con man, too many obvious moves to be undiscovered.

Yet so many are so easily distracted...

Three Card Monte in an expensive suit.

Roberta X said...

Let it be noted that I have poked though the bars at both Senator McCain and Senator Clinton.

gusachri11 said, "...but the man is good. At heart."

Ah, yes; like when he sat on the board of the citizen-disarming Joyce Foundation? When he joined and supported a racist church? And I haven't seen his distancing himself from his wife's gleeful plans to take from the productive to support the unproductive. You suppose that's a good idea, to reward failure and punish success? The impression I get is of a man who loathes the middle class and considers the Constitution something to be gotten around.

Yah, gee, he thinks the war in Iraq is stupid. Good for him! I'm sure he has a great wealth of strategic insight upon which to draw from his years as-- h'mm, in which branch was he an officer? But the mess is made. Going home and pretending it didn't happen is insupportably irresponsible.

As near as I can tell, Barack Obama is David Duke's mirror twin: hate in a pretty package with a slick line of baloney.

Turk Turon said...

One irony is that Barak is, by heritage anyway, a wholly inappropriate spokesman for African-Americans.

His mother is white and his father was born in Africa.

So Barak can hardly speak of the experiences of his ancestors held in slavery in America for centuries, treated like property, enduring unimaginable cruelty. And then living under Jim Crow for another century.

Because Barak's direct ancestors didn't experience any of that.

There's nothing wrong or questionable about his heritage; not at all. We're all either immigrants or the descendants of immigrants. And each of our stories is different and American in its own way, and Barak's story fits right in; at least as well as McCain, who was born in the Canal Zone.

BobG said...

"So Barak can hardly speak of the experiences of his ancestors held in slavery in America for centuries, treated like property, enduring unimaginable cruelty. And then living under Jim Crow for another century."

Hell, for all we know it was probably Obama's ancestors that sold their fellow tribespeople to the Arab slavers who then sold them to the Europeans.

Anonymous said...

"antipathy toward people who aren't like them"

I'm confused. Is he talking about his preacher or his wife?

Anonymous said...

Bobg, it's worst than that - his father is an African Arab. That means his forefathers probably WERE in the slave trade.

And Roberta, you nicely deconstructed his speech. I still think though, that Cranky Epistles still has the best entry, purely for the level of invective she uses..

Roberta X said...

HTRN, I do indeed yeild precedence to CrankyProf -- and many other bloggers after, too -- I just wanted to take the paragraph apart point by point.

As for Senator Obama's ancestors, they matter just as much as the Cherokees who snuck off to Ohio and "passed" as U.S. citizens, the slightly thirsty Scot one of 'em married and the head-in-the-clouds German schoolteacher who are among my forebears. They did their shift and they're gone; what matters is who we are here and now. And the content of that man's character -- class warfare and race-baiting, gun-grabbing and condescension -- does not appeal to me.

Rob K said...

Not that it really matters (as Robert graciously points out) but ironically, at least two of Obama's ancestors on his mother's side were slave owners (via the Chicago Tribune by way of John Lott's blog).

Anonymous said...

Good at heart? highly unlikely