Reply #113: You are wrong. Stop muddying the waters. [View All]

[COLMustard159]

Now I'm quite wary of replying to rodeodance's post. I'm quite tired of getting into online fisticuffs and he seems like a fellow who might (deliberately or otherwise) misunderstand me.
1) Marketing is a part of democracy. We live in an economy where advertising can manufacture consent. Democracy and politics is not a laundry list of policies and goals. (See President Reagan and Fox News as a the propaganda wing of the Republican Party. See all campaigns in the history of the U.S. and their slogans.) rd ignores the basic tenets of human nature. How many times have any of you been right, but the people around you wouldn't listen because you didn't say it in the "right way."

2) Second coming of Joshua? Wow! So much for rd's strict and cold logic! I didn't know such poetry would follow after the third sentence!

3) As for "imput their own cherished views on Obama," President Reagan leveraged this successfully to push an agenda through thanks to "Reagan Democrats" in Congress. If you challenged me to find a voter who agreed with every policy of Obama, I'd suspect you were sending me on an fool's errand. Most people, I suspect, are willing to set aside minor differences for the greater good (or if you wish to mince words, what they perceive to be the greater good). Example: Republicans who are strictly pro-life but realize that in spite of this position, support Obama (who is invariably pro-choice).

4) Obama doesn't believe in the use of contractors. The forces that remain after the withdrawal will be responsible to the U.S. (i.e. the real army). But gosh darn it! I can't find out exactly where he said that so maybe I'm just being "hopeful."

5) "The average voter is ill-equipped to read Obama's statements on these and other issues as closely as one might read a predatory loan application or a jacked up insurance policy, trying to determine exactly what is covered." I find this statement quite offensive. It might be true, but good heavens, what are we supposed to do about it? Improve the educational system? Make fun of them on Jay Leno? Make voting one of those privileges you earn like driving? This violates the fundamental premise of democracy and is civic blasphemy especially since (s)he gives no good reasons why he believes this is so.

6) I checked out the first link. Now I could have become entrapped and wasted my morning reading the whole thing, but one contradiction nipped that in the bud. It asserts that Obama removed his anti-war speech from his website during the primary for the Senate. This is false.
Here is the decisive evidence:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.obamaforillinois.com
Click on the different dates and click on the News tab on the left. You should be able to find the anti-war Iraq speech there.
archive.org periodically archives websites to the benefit of Internet hounds.
I will admit, there may be true information in rodeodance's links, but how can I forget the phrase: "Fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me!"