Political discourse via email forwards

...it's never really a good idea. I usually just delete them without looking at them. But recently someone sent one of these to our homeschooling email group. It was someone with a lot of clout, in our homeschooling group, and so people just tend to "live and let live" when she sends something like that out.

But this email forward was particularly offensive. A notch or two more than usual, which is saying something about Email forwards. Among other things, it compared the Obamas to the leaders of Pre-revolutionary France because of the "lavish vacations" that have recently been discussed in the media.

This is what I wrote back:

Bleah. This is a ridiculous piece of attack media. Sorry [HSQueen]....

and I'm kinda surprised you'd post it because of the swearword in the picture.


And a few minutes later I wrote this: *I'm worried I hurt feelings...hope I didn't. I was just... I mean, it's hard to offend me. But this offended me*

This was her reply:

[HSQueen] So sorry to offend anyone. Sure didn't want to do that.

I get frustrated with how things are going in our government. I guess if Obama stepped down there would be another big spender that would step right in. I have read several articles on the president's flagrant spending while asking the American people to tighten their belts. It is just so frustrating, as a small business owner, to watch a lifetime of work eroded by such ridiculous and wasteful government spending and policies. Most of the business owners I know are frustrated. The health care plan will make most of the small business, like mine, in this valley close their doors. Few family businesses can afford to fund their employees health care with the high cost of mandatory insurance.

America was a lot different when I was a little girl. Socialism was thought of as evil. Guess as the years go by, the contrast gets starker. We have become accustomed to socialism. I fear for our children's futures.

A US president should not live like the kings that preceded the French revolution, or we may be faced with another revolution... Americans don't like to be downtrodden.

Once again, my apologies!

; 0 )

I wasn't going to write anymore. I think it was the winking big-nosed smile that did it. That emotocon just seemed to be giggling at me... oh, I offended nosurfgirl. I'm glad! Yay. I got her all riled up.

I wanted to punch big-nosed winking smile right in the honker. I guess that would be the zero. I wanted to punch that zero from here all the way to MySpace, which everyone knows is now the ghost-town of the internets.

Anyway, I had to say something in return. So I did:


[NoSurfGirl]: I think there's hysteria on BOTH sides, to be quite frank about the matter. What I get frustrated about, is the fact that people seem to thrive on fear lately.

I think that it is a universal phenomenon, to make fun our whomever is in power. It helps us ( the people ) feel a bit more powerful. Also, laughter induced endorphins are important in times of stress :)

But this email is completely innaccurate. When people start to take "fun" and then masquerade it as "truth"... that's what gets frustrating.

When people start believing what radio and TV commentators with a clear agenda are saying... that's when I get frustrated.

When it seems like civil disagreement is thrown out the window... that's when I get frustrated.

Hey... I bought my husband a Ron Paul bumper sticker. I respect his viewpoints.

I expect people to respect mine, too.

Here's a secret: I love Obama! I don't like what our government (BOTH parties) is doing to our level of debt... but in just about every other way, I love what our president is doing and admire him as both a man and politician.

So... consider that, please, when sending out things over this homeschooling group.

Or at least... put "OT" (off-topic) in the title of the email so I know what I'm going to be hit with when I open it... and I can decide to delete it without reading it.

Thanks!

--[NoSurfGirl]

And then my friend, who, like me, doesn't subscribe to all the fearmongering that's been going around lately, and has had some positive feeling for Obama at some points in these last few years, wrote another email kind of backing me up but also adding the message that the original post was ridiculous, because comparing America and its leaders excesses to pre-revolutionary war France, is kind of ridiculous.

She also mentioned that her father, a small-business owner, is for Obama and for the Health Care Bill. So this area of the world is truly unique when it comes to the political culture. One cannot generalize about things like "all small business owners feel this way, etc etc" especially when our experience is Utah Valley. Because let's face it... Utah valley is in a giant bubble politically, as well.


Here's the thing... I don't think I'd be nearly as vocal, politically, if I didn't happen to feel differently from most people around me. And I can usually keep my mouth shut. But there comes a time when I just can't do it. Something hurts my heart too much (how would you conservatives feel if someone was slandering and spreading deliberate falsehoods about president Reagan, for instance) , or something is ridiculously innaccurate and the crowd seems to be taking it as truth without even blinking.

I picture in my mind Joan of Arc's funeral pyre. I think about Martin Luther King and Kennedy, about any figure that has stirred up lots of controversy and then someone takes the hysteria (conjured on purpose by some, for self interested reasons, and exacerbated by others who just enjoy getting upset over things, but lightly mixed with true feelings of frustration as well) too far.

In the wake of all this, I was mad enough that I was tempted to spam our Homeschooling group in the other direction--find a ridiculous email forward from the liberal side, perhaps painting Ron Paul or Sarah Palin or Mitt Romney in a ridiculous light. But no matter how much searching I did... I could find nothing. Nada. Not one email forward.

What does that say about how the dialogue is going right now?

Who's being the bigger man (side)?

OK, granted... Jon Stuart and Stephen Colbert are making fun of Conservatives right now. But they're comedians... they make fun of the make-funable. And they make fun of Obama on occasion, too.

Just some random, hubris-seasoned and grievance-tainted thoughts.

PS: Here's a secret.

I really do still love Obama. Not for what's going on with the economy... but let's face it. Obama's not doing that. He's a piece of it... but it's our legislators who are doing that. BOTH sides of our legislative body. Maybe most republicans voted against the Health Care Bill, but let's face it. Earmarks, Pork-barells... both sides do it. BOTH sides are bankrupting our economy. IT's nonsensical to point the finger at Obama and say HE's the man ruining our economy. Point it at Pelosi and Reid, Maybe. Maybe.

I believe what Obama says when he states he prefers a "lean" government. But what do you do, when you believe a certain thing is good for your country, and you've been given a certain broken, bloated system to work with? YOu can either break down and rebuild the system (ala Ron Paul) or try to work WITHIN the system to get what you feel you need (ala Obama). And our level of debt is skyrocketing... but who's really to blame for that. Hmmm? How many Americans would really tolerate what would happen if Paul came into office and did what he says he's going to do? Let's all think about Hoover for a moment and what happened to him.

And let's face the fact that America will never stand for the process it would take to go through the crash voluntarily. America will need to have it forced on them... Obama knows this, Palin knows this. Paul even knows this... but he's not going to give up on his missionary work.

Neither is Obama. But he's in a tight place, when you think about it. When you really stop to THINK about it, rather than pointing fingers.

And anyone who says that America is becoming socialist, doesn't really know what socialism is.

OK this Postscript itself has become another political diatribe. Nosurf out ;) (you see I skipped the punchable zero in MY emotocon.)