The notion that a presidential address could turn students into socialists or communists is absurd. Far too many people need to get a grip on reality. Paranoia is run amuck. Reality has taken a back seat to reality.
The outcry to the President's address is unprecedented in American history. When Bush-1 (who I was big fan of for lots of reasons) and Reagan (who I liked for his economic polices, though who I cared little for with respect to his Supreme Court appointments) made similar addresses, it was viewed as a President reaching out to kids to motivate them. Why is it viewed so differently now? It should not be. We ought to all be encouraging the message he seeks to send to the youth of this county.
Repeat after me: Bush was not Hitler and Obama is not a socialist or a communist. People need to get over their extremist views. People need to stop listening to sound bites and start availing themselves of the masses of information the Internet makes available to them.
My best guess is that this is as good as its gets evidence wise on the extremes of divergent views in this country. Sadly. The negative visceral reactions are far too telling. Too few people care about the merits. Instead, it is about sound-bite driven reactions.
I am not a fan of what appears to be Obama's economic policies, but much of this reaction smacks of overreaction if not some latent racism. Whatever happened to opposing ideas we disagreed with, but not opposing something just because of the person proposing it?
I do not like the idea of more government entitlements on top of the existing ones we can already cannot afford (social security, medicare, and medicaid), but this has little to nothing to do with messages to our kids to stay in school and strive to succeed.
We loathe extremism when it comes from foreign sources. Should we embrace it domestically? I say no. This smacks of McCarthyism and I oppose it -- dispute my disagreement with many of Obama's proposed polices.
We need a little more reasoned law4luch and less extremism.
2 months ago
