The Nerve of Some People

People these days. What's wrong with them? I mean first our president issues a speech to kids encouraging them to stay in school, work hard, and follow their dreams. Think of the damage such a message could cause. Catastrophic really. Here's a little taste of the horrifically biased rhetoric the President spewed at our impressionable youth:

"Every single one of you has something that you're good at. Every single one of you has something to offer... And you have a responsibility to yourself to discover what that is... There is no excuse for not trying... Whatever you resolve to do, I want you to commit to it... The truth is, being successful is hard. You won't love every subject that you study. You won't click with every teacher that you have... At the end of the day, we can have the most dedicated teachers, the most supportive parents and the best schools in the world, and none of it will matter unless all of you fulfill your responsibilities."

How dare he. I mean when politicians are so insanely jaded that they are up in arms about a speech before it even happens because the President might use it as a platform to push his health care ideas on impressionable young minds, then maybe we should consider retiring Democracy. You have to admit, it had a good run. I think its time to go in a different direction when the people running the show display such startling hypocrisy that it no longer phases you. For example, former Bush supporting Republicans criticizing a President for trying to equate blind loyalty to the President with patriotism. Especially when it concerns a speech that hadn't been given yet and included no such rhetoric. Or when Fox News praises the demonstrators protesting health care reform based on lies they either made up themselves or don't care to correct, but vilified those protesting the Patriot Act or the war in Iraq as crazy people or traitors. So don't let anyone fool you. Anyone who was pissed about Obama's school address, and there were plenty, wasn't pissed about the message he delivered. They were ready for the one he never did.

And then today he just went too far. In a speech before Congress, he didn't make idle threats or attempt to strengthen his point merely by discrediting his detractors. This is the big league, Obama, you can't go up there and actually try to make sense. Where have you been for the past 200 years?

"And to my Republican friends, I say that rather than making wild claims about a government takeover of health care, we should work together to address any legitimate concerns you may have."

Clearly he doesn't have a grasp on how Washington politics work. You don't offer reasonable alternatives and attempt to work on a compromise solution that satisfies both parties and moves the country forward in a positive direction. No, that's just crazy talk. What you do is dig up irrelevant dirt on your opponent, because if they are tainted, than clearly their cause is terrible as well. Should that fail you make up terrifying, worst case scenario, hypothetical situations to strike at the primal, fear based areas of the public psyche because no one bothers to check if those things could actually happen anyway. Because compromise clearly shows weakness, and it's far better to leave a broken system alone than to let the other guy get the credit for fixing it. Especially if he fixes it in a way that pisses off your friends, and (more importantly) donors.

So who does this Obama think he is? Talking about hope and hard work and compromise. I mean, he said right in his campaign speeches that health care reform was going to be a major priority of his first term. Then he actually goes and tries to enact that very legislation? Talk about mixed signals. The nerve of some people.