Last week I wrote the article President Obama Best Choice For All Americans and it also ran in our local paper, The Kingwood Observer yesterday. I went to the gym today and inasmuch as the article was not at all an attack piece, many of my friends on the Right took offense to it. In fact I overheard one of them mention that math did not matter. He said that you simply have to look at how people are living and know the middle class is just fine.
That is the type of thinking that the current brand of Right Wing Republicans is banking on. After doing my sit-ups I started thinking about how best to reach people who continue voting against their own interest. I believe it is a twofold process and I think if we look at the current polls it is exactly what is happening.
President Obama has been hammering Mitt Romney in ads for months. Mitt Romney has been hammering the President for months yet the polls seemed to remain static. Not until Americans heard a statement out of Mitt Romney’s mouth that showed his inability to care, not necessarily for them but for others did the polls move.
Even when my friend said math did not matter, I could hear in his voice and in his conversation that he was trying to find something to hang on to. Voting against one’s own party can feel like cultural abandonment or heresy. I think for many Republicans that now view the direction of their party as flawed, there is one important and truthful card that must be played.
Every examination of Mitt Romney’s policies by organizations that are reputable make it clear that even with draconian cuts to the social safety net and discretionary spending that the Mitt Romney’s budget will increase the deficit. It is also true that studies show that the Romney-Ryan economic plans would increase unemployment and deepen the recession. We all know that Mitt Romney wants to gut regulations and as such we know under his administration EPA regulations will be lax thus putting our environment at risk. We know regulations to discourage offshoring and outsourcing American jobs will not be enacted. We know there will be cuts in our education aid budgets thus not only limiting access to the middle class but effectively moving us further down educationally when compared with other industrialized nations.
These are policies that will cause the further decline of the middle class. A decline of the middle class is effectively the decline of America. Anyone instituting policies that will effect the decline of America must be considered a traitor to American values.
Most Americans love this country. Most Americans want to do good by this country. As such we must be frank. If you knowingly vote for someone who telegraphs to you policies that others prove to you will cause the decline of America, then you must accept the label of being unpatriotic. Willful ignorance cannot be used as an excuse. It is imperative that these terms are used, civilly of course. It may not be accepted at this time, however when that person is in that voting booth between their ballot and their God, we must trust that their inner patriot will emerge.
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There is hope. lately Fox News has seen fit to jump in and tell the truth – I guess even they are seeing how far out of whack things are getting – and its is fitting that they should – they have perpetuated the lie machine for many years
I agree with your assessment and when you point out the obvious there are those who will see themselves as part of the group you speak of and they are going too offended right or wrong. That doesn’t mean we withhold the truth because it’s painful. We will never grow as a nation without this debate so bring it on. I also agree as a former Republican that they have swung so far to the right as to be totally out of touch. And one final thought, to people of all faiths and religions, God does not do politics men do, so vote accordingly and do not fear for your eternal soul or damnation.
Whether one is to be considered a “patriot” or a “traitor” to any given cause or country, is simply a matter of whether that person is in support of, or in dissent of, the current status quo. I view the terms in themselves as nuetral.
The conversation, as it is framed here, suggests that the Democratic approach is more patriotic than the Republican approach, and as a Democrat, I agree, in nuetral terms. I see this as a patriotic act, in the same way that Egberto suggests.
However, the underlying analysis offered here might never have entered the minds of most Republicans, or if it has, remains unaccepted. So, Republicans may view this article and the use of these terms as offensive to them for that reason.
The wording used and meanings implied here may not be viewed as “civil” in the way the Coffee Party would like for its members to exercise civility. Thus the question posed – “can truth be the victim of civility?”
The answer goes back to what one deems to be the “truth.” We live in an enviroment now where truth itself is hard to define. We view things through our own psychological screens, and are given to lean in one direction or the other based on past personal histories and circumstances.
So, civility is really a constant effort to bridge the gap between individuals, not in terms of actual truths, but in terms of our own personal experience and understanding of the world(s) we live in.
Reaching towards civility in expression is a constant effort for most of us. We usually need to find ways to convey our message in nuetral, non-offensive terms if we hope to be heard by others, in order to keep from being blocked by that personal psychological screen that causes our brains to shut down when faced with language that would appear to attack our personal pride or dignity.
So, no, civility does not have to be in conflict with truth. But, from a Coffee Party standpoint, we do need to be careful how we convey what we see as “truth.”