Tuesday, January 22, 2013

Let the choir sing.

Another day in America and another mass shooting in a public place. *yawn*

We won't mess with Texas. Just keep those guns coming, Cowboys.

Anyway, now that the pomp and circumstance of the inauguration is over, we can focus on the reaction to the crowning of his Oness for his second term.

I have read a lot of articles and listened to numerous wingnut pundits bemoan the tone of the president's speech. Too partisan, too progressive, too liberal, and too angry. "It was a call to arms for the left. He didn't uplift and inspire us, he was no Lincoln". Whatever.

The essay that got most of my attention was written by Michael Gerson for the Washington Post. In it he declared that Obama "shoved idealism into its grave."

"The compression of these ideological mood swings into four years has left an impression of political instability, perhaps bipolarity. Both parties overreach. Their tone is often frantic and overheated. They focus mainly on energizing the faithful rather than persuading the undecided.

Such polarization has deep roots. Parties, communities and regions have sorted themselves by ideology, producing citizens who operate in separate partisan worlds. Partisan media outlets succeed through the reinforcement and exaggeration of grievances. Most House members represent safe districts in which their greatest political fear is offending those who vote in primaries.
What can a presidential inaugural address do to oppose these centrifugal forces? Probably not much. Maybe admit some mutual fault and call for a new beginning. Maybe direct attention to unifying national values beyond current controversies. Maybe just assert the moral duties of kindness and civility we owe each other in a democracy.

This year, however, the influence of such a speech remains untested because it was not attempted. President Obama set an unobjectionable goal: “a nation that rewards the effort and determination of every single American.” He asserted that this objective can only be achieved “together, as one nation, and one people.” But he proceeded to define an agenda, in some detail, that could have been taken from any campaign speech of the 2012 election. It involves the building of roads and research labs, promoting clean-energy technology, protecting entitlements from significant change, passing equal-pay legislation and immigration reform.

Those who oppose this agenda, in Obama’s view, are not a very admirable lot. They evidently don’t want our wives, mothers and daughters to “earn a living equal to their efforts.” They would cause some citizens “to wait for hours to exercise the right to vote.” They mistake “absolutism for principle” and
“substitute spectacle for politics” and “treat name-calling as reasoned debate.” They would have people’s “twilight years . . . spent in poverty” and ensure that the parents of disabled children have “nowhere to turn.” They would reserve freedom “for the lucky” and believe that Medicare and Social Security “sap our initiative,” and they see this as “a nation of takers.” They “deny the overwhelming judgment of science” on climate change, don’t want love to be “equal” and apparently contemplate “perpetual war.” [Source]

I must be missing something here. Gerson admits that there is extreme polarization, partisanship, and ideological extremes in the country, and yet it's president Obama who must reach out to his political enemies and take the high road? I have a newsflash for Mr. Gerson; President Obama won the election. I think he tried being a nice guy but that didn't work out so well for him. His political opponents deeply despise him on a personal level, and they will never meet him half way, so why should he reach out to them?  

"For Abraham Lincoln, even the gravest national crimes involved shared fault. For Obama, even the most commonplace policy disagreements indicate the bad faith of his opponents. In his first inaugural address, George Washington described the “sacred fire of liberty.” In his second, Obama constructed a raging bonfire of straw men.

This will, no doubt, please the president’s strongest supporters, who are grateful that he has given up the pious balderdash of bipartisanship. They welcome his sharper political edge. They describe him as “wiser,” “wary” and more realistic about the unchangeable obstructionism of his opponents. "

Sorry Mr. Gerson, those men are not made of "straw", they are very real. His opponents are showing "bad faith". Where have you been for the past four years when they were refusing to shake his hand and shouting him down in the middle of his State of The Union Address?  Oh, and let's not forget how they remained silent while leaders of their party questioned his legitimacy.

Dana Milbank joined the ranks of the clueless and uninformed by writing pretty much the same thing. Obama was "preaching to the choir" he declared.

"President Obama began his second inaugural address with a reminder that this ceremony, like the 56 inaugurations before it in U.S. history, was a unifying symbol.

“Each time we gather to inaugurate a president, we bear witness to the enduring strength of our Constitution,” he said from the West Front of the Capitol, his voice echoing across the Mall, where hundreds of thousands of people waved American flags. “We affirm the promise of our democracy.”

Thus ended the warm-courage-of-national-unity portion of the proceedings.
What followed was less an inaugural address for the ages than a leftover campaign speech combined with an early draft of the State of the Union address. Obama used the most visible platform any president has to decry global-warming skeptics who “still deny the overwhelming judgment of science.” He quarreled with Republicans who say entitlement programs “make us a nation of takers.” He condemned the foreign policy of his predecessor by saying that “enduring security and lasting peace do not require perpetual war.”

“We cannot mistake absolutism for principle or substitute spectacle for politics, or treat name-calling as reasoned debate,” the president informed his opponents.

Not that they were listening.

George W. Bush declined to join former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter at the ceremony (Bush’s father missed it, too, although he has been in poor health.) Mitt Romney sent regrets and, it appeared, the vast majority of House Republicans skipped the proceedings as well.

With Republican citizens also shunning the event, the crowd gave huge cheers for liberal favorites .." [Source] 

I think that Mr. Milbank should take the time to read his own essay again. This time I hope he focuses on the part where he says that republicans were missing and were not even listening.

Yes, President Obama was "preaching to the choir"; he had to. It's pretty hard to preach to someone who won't even come into your church.


27 comments:

  1. Anonymous8:44 PM

    Dear Mr Field, your analysis of Mr Gerson and Dana Milbank was superb. I remember Obama's first four years and how he bent over backwards to work with the GOP and the result was pathetic.

    The GOP was not willing to work with Obama. In fact, they did their best to humiliate him and proceeded to live up to making Obama a one-term President. I don't recall Gerson and Milbank screaming about how unwilling the Republicans were to come together.

    I could go on, but I am sick of the bs. It seems that so much of the media is saying Obama must offer an olive branch to the very people who won't try to work with him and could care less about bringing the country together. In fact, they want to destroy him.


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  2. Anonymous8:51 PM

    "Another day in America and another mass shooting in a public place. *yawn*"

    Dear Lord, don't let the shooters be Black. Thus far, I bet there has never been a shooting in the Houston area by a bm. They have all been White!

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  3. Anonymous9:48 PM

    So, if no one listens ... or follows ... can Obama still be considered a "leader"? It seems not even the Dems in the House who are looking to their own chances in 2014 are too willing to support his radical, far-left agenda.

    Obama is a lame duck before this Session of Congress has even gotten started.

    Yawn.

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  4. Anonymous9:50 PM

    Obama didn't "Win" the election, it was one of the largest cases of electoral fraud ever.

    It just makes it harder for those who work in other countries to critique election fraud and human rights abuses when those being criticized can rightfully say the Obama Administration is the worst offender, and hardly in a position to call out others for the same deeds.

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  5. Anonymous9:55 PM

    Regarding Monday's thread.
    MadCow is wrong. Criticism of MO has nothing to do with her skin color. It is justified criticism based in reality. To many, she is physically repulsive and low class gutter trash. A Certificate of Attendance from a well-known college is no substitute for actual education and grace.

    She is a "First" though. I've never known any previous First Lady to spawn so many parody sites mocking her inability to speak Standard Language, dress her self appropriately or eat without appearing to be an uncivilized savage. Look at the innumerable youtube videos of the Inauguration events showing MO shoveling food into her mouth like it's the last meal on earth.

    If she were light skinned, the criticism would remain but she would be referred to as "Trailer Trash" and MadCow would be okay with that.

    Get a life. The woman is vulgar.

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  6. Anonymous11:12 PM

    I am not happy at all about the accusations thrown at Nagin, a great man who lived through Katrina. Anyone can tell Nagin is an innocent man because he is a good man.

    This is another set up by the Whites in NO to make another bm look bad.

    Field, I am surprised that you would have the audacity to call Nagin a HN. Nagin is 100% FIELD NEGRO. You have acting strangely lately and calling Nagin a crook is strange, coming from you.

    I thought you were the big R chaser, not a slave catcher. Just proves that these days you don't know who's who.

    Field, you really need to get yourself together and make up your mind whose side you are on. Go to church and get some religion...you need it.

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  7. Anonymous11:46 PM

    Democrats are out no more liberals communists are now the name of the party.

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  8. Anonymous12:29 AM

    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    "Another day in America and another mass shooting in a public place. *yawn*"

    Dear Lord, don't let the shooters be Black. Thus far, I bet there has never been a shooting in the Houston area by a bm. They have all been White!

    You would lose that bet.

    The shooting was over a fight , the shooter was the guy from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air Carlton Banks. He said the other dude was looking down at him.

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  9. Summation of the President's second inaugural speech: "I, Barack Obama, won the election." He didn't make that clear enough in his first one. He's a wiser man now &, I suspect, a better politician. Took him awhile to accept that he doesn't just have opponents; he has enemies.

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  10. Partisan? I guess equal rights for all, peace, a cleaner planet and better elections are something some of us can oppose. Oh well I wonder what Romney would have said, ha!

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  11. What do you think about the repubs trying to reform presidential electoral voting in PA and other states?

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  12. Anonymous10:05 AM

    ditto!!!

    everyone has the right to hate on mo's hair and dress!...
    without being sent to one of hobama's global gitmos for treason!

    shame on those who adore the opulent hobamas so very much that they demand the hobamas must be unconditionally adored/undeservedly praised any more than any other vapid fallible celebs!

    shame on the bold drunken fan sheeple!!!!

    i am certain mo could not care less what anyone thinks!
    she wore what she likes..so?

    i am equally certain that she could not care less about all the persons who have been stripped naked financially by her hubby/those who will never buy any designer clothes/salon styles etc too!!!

    shame!!!!!

    "let them eat diet cake!"

    http://aliciabanks.xanga.com/734137105/open-letter-to-michelle-obama--your-barack-is-the-most-unclean-spirit-we-know/

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  13. Anonymous10:17 AM

    To Gerson and Milbank I would say that Lincoln did not save the union by meeting the south halfway!

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  14. Anonymous10:47 AM

    Anonymous Anonymous said...

    " I am not happy at all about the accusations thrown at Nagin, a great man who lived through Katrina. Anyone can tell Nagin is an innocent man because he is a good man."

    Do you mean the Mayor who despite plenty of warning delayed the evacuation order, had no drivers ready to operate the school buses that stood idle, failed to stock the Superdome with food and water, and let the looters rampage without any interference from police. The one who said he didnt' want people to just sit on the bus like last time and then made an excuse for the failure to get buses moving was that he wasn't able to round up enough drivers. One report said most drivers were women and afraid to make the trip. But a competent mayor would have ordered the drivers to report and provided an armed on-board protector for each bus.
    Related News



    Nagin didn't bother. He did, however, record a message on DVD last July announcing, with other civic leaders, that New Orleans couldn't afford to evacuate the 134,000-odd mostly poor and black people known to lack transportation out of the city in case of a hurricane. When the hurricane struck, the DVD, with its hopeless message, "You're on your own," still hadn't been released.

    Nagin also managed to inflame the rage over Katrina, particularly racial rage, by estimating 10,000 hurricane deaths in the city, a figure that now appears to be 10 times too high. Since then, he left the city to visit his evacuated family in Dallas, issued a good deal of blame-shifting rhetoric, and came down for–and then against–inviting New Orleans residents to return quickly to the city. A near-perfect record for incompetence.


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  15. Anonymous11:49 AM

    Thanks for your succint verbiage on the president's positions and goals for the future. The future of this country DOES rest on the shoulders nor minds of those republican/conservative dinosaurs. Their blood will purge this country(John Brown)in order for the rest of the "minority-majority"(Boston Globe)to have a say in their own direction.

    I am happy that the president is moving in a direction of what need to be done and is slightly trying to live up to his voting blocs on some of their issues.

    As much as folks loved to point out that Obama is the dream manifest of Rev. Dr. King but refused to acknowledge the key issues of United States Original Sins:

    1. the near annillation of indigeous people

    2. the enslavement of Africans.

    The US cannot truly move forward without some form of reconciliation as a 'perfect union."

    They cheated, changed the rules and O still kicked their keisters. I know mitt, john Bonehead Newt all look in the mirror each day and wonder how he did it, fairly? Living in the white house which was built by slaves....

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  16. Anonymous12:51 PM

    I see the trolls are kicking ass today. It must be due to Obama's speech, which they didn't like. Even Mr Field, Desert, and Black Cow in the UK are silent when the trolls are determined to put down FN folks! That's power.

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  17. Anonymous2:47 PM

    Even Mr Field, Desert, and Black Cow in the UK are silent when...
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    Aaaah, I don't want too get too involved with politics. I may make a comment here and there but I've said it before and I'll say it again, Dems and Repubs, really just two wings on the same bird. Were all Americans. But more importantly, human beings, citizens on this planet...

    Let me stop 'fore I wax poetic;)

    I am very busy setting up things at the new house. I just love it! It's old with character. I'm taking pics as I go but, alas, ( I like that word, alas) cannot upload till I get a new puter which will have to wait prolly till next month unless a miracle ensues, (like that word too, ensues;)

    Painting the front patio, color: Behrs Deep Terrracotta concrete paint.

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  18. " I think he tried being a nice guy but that didn't work out so well for him. "

    Further evidence that in addition to being a shit-eating bigot, you're also retarded.

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  19. Quote anony 12:51

    "That's power."

    No, that's impotence.

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  20. Anonymous4:25 PM

    more proof that hobama is a rabid owned bankster

    nothing is as fugly as the corps/banksters that own that fugly illuminati hnic slave hobama!!!

    they paid for his fugly drone/second selection party monday!!!

    shame!!!!!!!

    http://truth-out.org/news/item/14037-obama-inauguration-sponsors-spent-millions-influencing-government

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  21. parvenu4:42 PM

    When Mitt Romney announced to reporters that he would not attend the president's inauguration. In typical Romney style, he continued on saying, "I won't be watching it on TV either." Yet Milbank and company think the president is obligated to meet these people halfway. Maybe he should have scheduled events to take place on the front lawn of the Romney mansion?

    Harry Reid opposed Obama from the day he became president be continously demonstrating deference to the Republican minority and foot dragging on white house sponsored legislation such as the Affordable Health Care Act. His shabby performance as leader of the Senate was one reason why the Single Payer portion of the AHCA was finally discarded. President Obama personally campaigned on behalf of Senator Reid's re-election bid in Nevada at a time when Senator Reid was trailing his Republican opponent. As a result of the president's personal help Senator Reid was able to turn around the momentum to his favor, and he survived and won re-election. Senator Reid appeared to have established a much warmer relationship with the president. However, with president Obama's re-election and the subject of reforming the Senate Rules regarding the filabuster it appears that the OLD Harry Reid is once again up to his old tricks of couching a lot of his own personal footdragging in term of "how the Republicans might vote" on the measure. Giving the Republican minority leader 36 hours to come up with a counter proposal as how to fix the filabuster before he (Reid) evokes the 51 vote rule to pass the Democrats version of the rule change is outrageous. If the shoe was on the other foot, do you think the Republican majority would give a Democrat minority leader 36 hours to present a counter proposal? Hell No!!! The Democrat caucus in the Senate needs to read Harry Reid "the riot act" and get his ass on the ball!

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  22. Anonymous5:09 PM

    Blogger The Purple Cow said...

    Quote anony 12:51

    "That's power."

    No, that's impotence.

    OK we will defer to your expertise limpy.

    Aren't make it hard drugs for old timers available by you?

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  23. Anonymous6:10 PM

    "Let the choir sing."

    That they did but Beyonce lipped synced to the tape.

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  24. Anonymous6:12 PM

    that lying soulless hnic bankster hobama is a toxic cowardly sexist cannibal chef in chief

    he fried RICE

    and

    now he is grilling hc

    shame!!!!!!!

    http://dailycaller.com/2013/01/23/rand-paul-to-hillary-clinton-if-i-were-president-i-would-have-relieved-you-of-your-post-video/

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  25. '"Let the choir sing."

    That they did but Beyonce lipped synced to the tape. "

    You don't need to sing live when you look like B.

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