Our friend Mike gamely responded to a young upstart's "challenge" that he defend his reasons for supporting Barack Obama (with "rules" no less, namely that Mike was apparently not supposed to say anything bad about John McCain - a dead givaway right there that this endeavor was little more than an excuse for some Heritage Foundation wannabe to polish up his bonafides), whereupon the young upstart, along with a bandwagon jumper, proceeded to parse Mike's post to death under the rubric of "analysis" reducing the entire exercise to a silly game of Gotcha.
Well, screw that I say. This was, I suspect, less an attempt to encourage a lofty debate of issues than a staged opportunity to smear Obama supporters as robotic cultists (note the bandwagon jumper's helpful illustration), a tired tactic that the wingnuts seem especially fond of for some reason. First Al Gore, now Obama. Pfft. I, for one, have no problem declaring that my vote in November will be just as much anti-Republican as it is pro-Obama, if not more so. I am, after all, a liberal first and a Democrat second - but above and beyond everything, I am anti-Republican. Ever since the age of 7 when I watched the first televised Presidential debate between Kennedy and Nixon with my very Republican parents, I have been left of center in my opinions, primarily because I have never seen anything come out of the Republican Party that wasn't dominated by crooks, perverts, assholes, or usually some combination of all three. Add to that the fact that they can't seem to govern their way out of a paper bag, and my primary reason for voting for Obama simply boils down to my desire to throw the bastards out and put grown-ups back in charge of my country.
8 comments:
I was dumb enough to follow the link to Conservative Diatribe or whatever it's called: so sad to see eager young republicans, primed to go through life bigoted, stupid and short sighted, probably carrying copies of Atlas Shrugged in their backpacks.
It seemed like a promising exchange at first, but now it looks as if Steve has pulled a Bill Crawford on me.
Helloooooooo! Anybody home over there?
Oh, well. I was actually happy that Nick jumped in. At least he is game for a debate.
But your sentiments are quite understandable. I have yet to see any "Why I'm voting for John McCain" posts over there.
During the 2000 campaign, I often visited a site that was neutral where commenters from the right wing constantly confronted and tackled us libruls, and quite often were continuing arguments for days - I always thought they were working out of GoPerv hq somewhere.
Heh, sorry 'bout that, heydave! I usually don't link to him, but I couldn't resist this time.
Mike, your willingness to debate in such good faith is always commendable. I admire your patience. Also, it's never a bad idea to try to articulate your views, even if it's just for one's own clarificaton. "Steve" struck me as a poser from the outset, but you and Nick have had some interesting conversations.
Ruth, you're a gal after my own heart!
I like the post where he takes the "professor" down. That kid is very confident.
I like to think that a kid carrying Atlas Shrugged at 20 might pick up Chomsky at 30. As my daughter says, not many people get more conservative as they get older and wiser.
The "getting wiser" is the key, Donna! I think I would recommend Kurt Vonnegut over Chomsky - one of the most glaring deficits I see in conservatives is a total absence of a sense of humor.
Beautifully said! I'd love to see the GOP go the way of the Whigs.
Thanks Freewheel, right-o! GWB has certainly dragged them several steps in that direction, hasn't he. Maybe we should thank him, after all.
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