As the campaign winds down and feeling start running high, people tend to be more unguarded in what they say. We thus witness high levels of irrational hatred of Barack Obama that would be truly a wonder to behold if it were not also scary to see that some people live in an alternate reality where manifestly self-contradictory views can be held in the same mind with complete lack of awareness.
Some have no problem believing that Obama is a fervent communist, a devout Muslim, and enthusiastic worshipper in a radical black Christian pastor’s church for twenty years, and condemn him for each one separately without realizing that if any one of them were true, the other two must be false.
And that is not the only irrationality that exists, as can be seen in this video of interviews with people at a Mitt Romney rally.
These are my fellow citizens of the state of Ohio, the people of the heartland, the salt of the Earth, the…. Oh, hell, let Gene Wilder describe them.
I really wish these people would learn what Communism is so they’d know that Obama is about as Communist as Warren Buffett.
It’s not quite as bad or as life-threateningly scary as when Sarah Palin brought out the ugliest racism I’d ever seen with lines like, “palling around with terrorists” and such. Or maybe I’m just desensitized to it this time after surviving through the ’08 election.
The “palling around with terrorists” BS was ostensibly referring to a white guy, so not directly racism, although adding to the whole ‘scary black guy’ innuendo ambience.
Actually, for most of them what’s most obvious is not hate, but sheer vacuity: they can recite a few of the talking points, but there’s absolutely nothing to back them up -- they can’t identify anything specific he should have done differently, or any specific change that Romney would make. Hell, I could go on for hours about what Obama has done that he shouldn’t have, and what he’s failed to do that he should, and I’m a Brit who’d vote and campaign for Obama if I was an American in any state where there’s a possibility it might affect the outcome.
Until about halfway through, I thought that one could probably find similarly clueless people at Obama rallies…but then it got worse. Cluelessness gave way to idiocy.
Communist, Muslim, atheist--all three.
Most important election in American history (how about 1860 or 1932?).
We just don’t have the freedoms we used to.
It’s the Buddhists’ fault.
Unfortunately, Wilder was right.
The “terrorist” she was referring to was Bill Ayers. The person she said was “palling around” with him was Obama. I don’t see how it isn’t completely racist, and it was scary as could be to hear her making that accusation from within a deeply red state. http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/palin-obama-is-palling-around-with-terrorists/
About two minutes in the interviewer asks the Romney supporters if they know what Romney’s plan is to lower the deficit and you can tell NONE of the Romney supporters even had a clue what Romney’s plan is. That’s not very reassuring when even his supporters can’t tell you what his plans to lower the deficit are.
Wilder was generous.
The only plan of Romney’s that they care about is his plan to not be black.
And that’s the only part of his program he’d succeed at.
If the could drag him to address a predominantly black audience, you can bet your backside he’d be wearing enough fake tan to be as close to black as he can get away with.
Romney gave a speech at the NAACP convention in July. He was booed.
Shoot! even I know what Romney’s plan is:
1. Reduce taxes for the rich “job creators”
2. Increase taxes for everyone else by eliminating “loopholes”
3. change the tax code but make it revenue neutral
4. reduce the deficit
9. create 12,000,000 new jobs; good jobs; high-paying jobs;
WTF is so hard to know about that plan? Are Romney supporters so brain-addled that they can’t remember five simple phrases despite hearing them again and again and again and….;? Oh wait I know the answer to that one don’t I?
Because so many of us are completely fed up with this disgraceful process, Gary John will get more votes than the difference between Obama/Romney.
The house will still be less 2/3 Democrat so nothing important will get thru. The Republicans will control the house so nothing important will even be considered.
Obama will win by the skin of his teeth, which isn’t enough to overcome the gridlock in Congress.
A friend said it
“The next 4 years will consist of more bickering, immature posturing, lack of decorum, and further regressive behavior. Not unlike my daughter’s pre-school class, except they are children and will grow out of it…”
Altemeyer’s studies on authoritarianism show that authoritarian followers seem to have absolutely no trouble doing exactly that -- and, in fact, hold their views harder when challenged. Credo qui absurdam. (note: there are authoritarians on both sides of the electoral charade)
That scene from “Blazing Saddles” was more accurate than you intended.
Throughout the movie, the only people who used racist epithets were the stupid, and the intelligent never did. Being the “good guys” or “bad guys” had no relationship to who was racist and who wasn’t (re: Hedley Lamarr).
But in the case of Obama, it’s clear that those hurling labels like “communist” or “muslim” are the stupid people.
That guy was on to something about the Buddhists:
Gah! I intended that to be a link, not an embedded video.
Sorry for that.
Warren Buffett is a Socialist. And an Atheist. But at least he is a Christian Atheist, instead of a Muslim Atheist like Obama.
I don’t know, It might be the optimist in me but I definitely see positive change coming about admittedly a little too slow but things are moving in the right direction. Demographics are not the Republicans friend at the moment and they will need to appeal to younger and minority voters or continue to be marginalized. I believe that we are probably going to see a bit of a paradigm shift for the Republican’s after they lose this election, the question is have they hit rock bottom with the crazy or is there still room for them to delve deeper into the insanity hole, who knows, it’s going to be interesting either way.
You’re right I think. However, they HAVE to change if they want to get elected in the future. So here’s my prediction. In the next 4 years, the Party writ large will swing a good bit to the left on social issues, which will in effect disenfranchise the single-issue-hate demographic. There will ALWAYS be hard right authoritarian fascist attention-seekers more than happy to ‘give the people what they want’, so the crazy will continue as long as the tin-hat crowd exists in the numbers it does. In effect, a kind of third party that will drag the republican party down for decades to come.
Great post, Mano.
President Obama was at Mentor High School (East of Cleveland) recently. The local newspaper covered the events. The comments are astounding … and continue to prove Mr. Wilder’s comment.
http://www.news-herald.com/articles/2012/11/03/news/doc50955dc5a4454912317540.txt
Sorry but I would kick the shit out of the teacher.