Sunday, September 13, 2009

Point, Counterpoint!

A Mr. Tom Degan was kind enough to comment at length on my Highly Illogical, But... post below. Kind enough to comment (and as always, thanks for reading), but not kind enough to make the comment really relevant to the post topic. Because it's kinda long I'm copying it here so I can address his points one by one:

This is all about the underlying, hideous factor of the racism that is so deeply ingrained in the American character.


So I'm a racist because I think a black guy is a horrible president. Am I a racist because I think Jimmy Carter was also a horrible president? Am I a racist because I think Hillary Clinton would be a bad president? Or am I a racist, to you, because that label allows you to conveniently stop reading and listening to my ideas?

The attempt to portray this president (Of all people!) as a socialistic, left wing extremist doesn’t even pass the giggle test for people who have bothered to pay attention to their times and their history. Let’s face it - Franklin D. Roosevelt, he ain’t!


"Franklin D. Roosevelt, he ain't!"? Only because he's had a bare seven months to enact his agenda - give him time. And I think his words on the campaign trail, his words before the campaign trail like his statement regarding "redistributive justice" and the Supreme Court, his political mentors, personal companions, ethical leaders, and administrative appointments all clearly show a president as far to the left, if not farther, than anyone in that office in a long long time.

After all, he wants to, and in some cases already has

- increase the size of government
- increase the scope of government
- impose punitive taxation on the wealthy
- sieze ownership and control of private businesses
- legislate the destruction of private businesses
- reduce the scope and power of America's influence on the world
- slow and shrink economic growth
- replace the will of the individual with the will of the State

How is all of that added together not passing anyone's "giggle test" for a socialistic, left wing extremist, Mr. Degan? How is it not passing yours? What does all of that mean to you - centrism? Conservatism? Right wing?

They can’t obstruct his agenda with a manufactured scandal regarding his personal life, as they did with Bill Clinton. eleven years ago.


"manufactured"? That is the height of wilfull blindness. No one manufactured Ms. Lewinsky into Clinton's pants, or manufactured the president into perjury. Your version of reality is completely disassociated from the facts here.

Their only hope is for enough of the American people to become really frightened by the Big, Bad Negro Commie.


What "their" are you referring to? I assume you mean Republicans, and you couldn't be more wrong. All of the resistance to Obama and his agenda is coming from the people. Tea Parties, marching on D.C. hundreds of thousands strong yesterday, etc., is not coming from the Republican Party. The RNC or Republican congresscritters couldn't generate this much will and effort if they were paid to (which of course, they are. I make joke!).

Without the people getting pissed off, and yes, frightened, the Republicans in Congress would never have felt the need to resist all this hope & change coming down the pike at us.

An ironic description when one takes into consideration how boringly moderate Obama really is.


Here I begin to see. Anyone who can, with a straight face, claim that Obama is a moderate is so far to the left themselves that they might as well be from a different planet.

Think about this: In the last presidential campaign only one of the nominees of the two major political parties was born in the United States - Barack Obama - John McCain was born in Panama. Do you find it as revealing as I do that it was the black guy had his citizenship called into question?


No.

How much more proof do we need of the overt racism that is inherent in that party - or in our own country for that matter? Honestly, this isn’t rocket science, folks!


No, it's simple psychology. It's called "projection". See, you're a deep-cored racist. And the fact that you automatically judge people by the color of their skin and their ethnic background bothers you very, very much. You know that you shouldn't think that way, but you do. You look at a Barack Obama, or a Clarence Thomas, or a Thomas Sowell, or a Sonia Sotomayor, and you see black people and Hispanic people. The actual skills, qualifications, successes, and failures of these people are secondary to you compared to the fact that they are members of ethnic minorities, and are therefore deserving of different treatment.

You're not going to let anyone else figure out your secret shame of racism so you'll label everyone else one first.

Trust me, if Obama's presidency turns out to be the single-term flaming failure that I personally think it will become, it won't be Republicans, conservatives, or right wingers assigning blame to the color of Obama's skin; it will be Democrats, liberals, and left wingers. And you know that to be true just as much as I do.

Summing up my rambling above much more succintly, I'll put it this way: I see a bad president, you see a black president. Which one of us is the racist?

But wait! It gets better! Now Glenn Beck is slated to become the Martin Loony King of the Far Right thanks to his stupid “March on Washington” yesterday.

Isn’t life interesting?


I admit I don't understand the relevance of this last bit.

http://www.tomdegan.blogspot.com

Tom DeganGoshen, NY


Thanks for reading, Tom!

4 comments:

scotaku said...

I wonder why it is that people (like Tom) find it so hard to believe that conservative types might, just might, find wisdom in the words of someone like Martin Luther King, Jr., who asked us to judge by content of character and not color of skin?

Those are some pretty good words to live by. But I guess some (Tom) just think that we conservative types just use those words as a shield to hide our racism, boy.

Which suggests to me that your notion that some are projecting is right on target.

I have no time to worry about the president's skin color. I'm too busy being overwhelmed by his vast intellect.

Tam said...

Who the f#$@ is Glenn Beck, and what did he have to do with Saturday?

Can herd animals like Degan not function without orders from someone, and therefore they surmise everyone else is just as subservient as they are?

Atom Smasher said...

I read a few posts on his blog and he seems to be a pretty typical leftnut - Bush wasn't elected, Dems were cowards for not impeaching him, Teddy Kennedy rocked, plus the "dissent is the highest form of racism" line.

I hope he comes back to engage me on my points, but I somehow doubt he will.

daddyquatro said...

"Summing up my rambling above much more succintly, I'll put it this way: I see a bad president, you see a black president. Which one of us is the racist?"

Dude! (Sorry was that sexist?)
Dude and/or Dudette!
You are my internet hero of the day.

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