PrintSeptember 19, 2009
Who taught you to lie, call people names, and accuse people of racism?
Where did the Democratic Congress, the Obama administration, and the main stream media learn to act so rudely, obnoxiously, and disingenuously; to call people names, treat others without any common courtesy or manners, and above all else to be deceptive and lie to citizens of the United States?
Politicians and main stream media types learned this behavior at some point in their lives. Did it start at home in early childhood? Did their mothers teach them to blame others for their mistakes, to call people names if they disagree with you, and to cover their backsides at all costs using any number of lies and false accusations? What explains a systemic failure of this magnitude in so many politicians and main stream media types? I presume they all were raised by mothers who taught them basic lessons in civility. Were they raised to act as they do today or did they choose this behavior?
Let's briefly review some basic lessons mothers teach their children.
- Treat other people the way you want to be treated.
- Tell the truth.
- Don't call people names.
- Be respectful and considerate to others.
- Two wrongs don't make a right.
Your list may vary slightly from mine, however these five items summarize basic civility, taught to us by our mothers at a young age and reinforced throughout childhood, so we may become responsible civil adults. Not too complicated ... I think.
Along the way the wiring got crossed and the lessons were forgotten by our elected officials and the main-stream media. Let's examine the "Tell the truth" lesson. First, there is the blatant lie. Second, there is the lie that is interwoven with half-truths and disguised with clever language to mislead someone into believing what is truly not believable. Both violate the lesson "Tell the truth". President Obama is an equal opportunistic liar as he utilizes both the blatant lie and the chimerical lie.
Obama said at a health care town hall in New Hampshire that he never claimed to be an advocate of single-payer health care. In stark contrast, during the Presidential campaign
Obama touted a single-payer health care system and in a speech to the SEIU in 2003 he supported single-payer health care. Obama pledged during his campaign not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 per year. However, Obama signed into law the single largest federal excise tax increase on tobacco products. The tax on a pack of cigarettes was raised from 39 cents a pack to 101 cents per pack, or a 159% increase. Two simple examples of the blatant lie.
An article by syndicated columnist and political commentator Charles Krauthammer in yesterday's Washington Post provides the perfect example of the chimerical lie. This is just one of three examples Mr. Krauthammer provides in his article.
(1) "I will not sign a plan that adds one dime to our deficits - either now or in the future" he solemnly pledged. I will not sign it if it adds one dime to our deficit, now or in the future. Period"Wonderful. The president seems serious, veto-ready, determined to hold the line. Until, notes Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, you get to Obama's very next sentence: "And to prove that I'm serious, there will be a provision in this plan that requires us to come forward with more spending cuts if the savings we promised don't materialize."This apparent strengthening of the pledge brilliantly and deceptively undermines it. What Obama suggests is that his plan will require mandatory spending cuts if the current rosy projections prove false. But there's absolutely nothing automatic about such cuts. Every Congress is sovereign. Nothing enacted today will force a future Congress or a future president to make any cuts in any spending, mandatory or not.Just look at the supposedly automatic Medicare cuts contained in the Sustainable Growth Rate formula enacted to constrain out-of-control Medicare spending. Every year since 2003, Congress has waived the cuts.Mankiw puts the Obama bait-and-switch in plain language. "Translation: I promise to fix the problem. And if I do not fix the problem now, I will fix it later, or some future president will, after I am long gone. I promise he will. Absolutely, positively, I am committed to that future president fixing the problem. You can count on it. Would I lie to you?"
The next lesson is on name calling and is closely tied to treat other people the way you want to be treated. I bet every one of you heard you mother tell you not to call other children names. To reply to a name caller with, sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me. Our mothers were teaching us a simple lesson in civility, not to call other people names. To treat people the way you want to be treated. Unfortunately, many of the most powerful, elected officials in the country don't abide by this simple lesson.
Nancy Pelosi is the undisputed leader of the pack when it comes to name calling. She, along with House majority leader Steny Hoyer, called people opposing health care reform un-American in their op-ed piece published in USA Today. Pelosi continued her name calling campaign by referring to health care protestors as astroturfers. Pelosi didn't stop until she insinuated health care protestors were Nazi's because she saw someone with a swastika at a health care town hall meeting. Anyone with any common sense understands the protestors are not Nazis, rather they were comparing out-of-control government spending and government takeover of private industry to nationalized socialism, which is where the term Nazi is derived. Pelosi's reference to a person with a swastika is an attempt to conjure up images of Adolph Hitler and the slaughter of six million Jewish people while convincing people the protesters are like Hitler. Pelosi's effort to invoke this image is contemptible. The name calling is merely childish and immature.
Unfortunately, the Democrats and main stream media sank to a new low by castigating anyone that opposes health care reform or Obama administration policies as a racist. In context of the recent Joe Wilson "You lie!" outburst, former President Jimmy Carter recently stated those opposing Obama administration policies are guilty of racism. Congresswomen Maxine Waters said its not enough to levy allegations of racism against the right-leaning protestors, she wants them talked to and interviewed. Liberal activist Janeane Garofalo appeared on MSNBC's Keith Olbermann show and, without equivocation, called all tea party protestors racists and teabagging rednecks. Chris Matthews, host of MSNBC's Hardball program says health care reform protesters are upset because we have a black president. In the cowardly way, Matthews refers to the protesters as racists.
Just over forty-six years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his I Have a Dream speech on the mall in Washington, D.C. King said "I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character." Those Americans protesting President Obama's policies are judging Obama by his character, not the color of his skin. Those Americans protesting the size of the national debt, excessive spending and taxation, excessive waste and fraud are judging all officials in Washington that support those policies, past and present.
The reactions to and accusations levied upon Americans with legitimate concerns regarding the Obama administration's policies deflect attention from the real issue. Instead of open, honest debate on substantial issues the Democrats and mainstream media attack the messengers and subject them to childish name calling. Many Americans oppose Obama's policies because they believe in the individual, self-reliance, family, community and faith, a small limited federal government, according to the Constitution and free-market capitalism. Our beliefs are in concert with the beliefs of the founding fathers and framers of the Constitution.
Is it too much for the hard-working American to expect our elected officials to conduct themselves as adults, to not lie and deceive us, to be respectful and considerate of others? Is it too difficult to understand that Americans expect to have discourse and grievances with our elected leaders and the federal government? Really, is it too much to ask and expect of you? If so, perhaps you are unfit to govern.
