Now, some people are thinking "so what?", a couple of comedians are trying to promote themselves and their television shows. But, there is an interesting take on this that makes sense. Jon Stewart for all his wit and comedic talent makes a valid point saying that there are 15-20% of the people being heard because they shout the loudest, say the craziest things, get the media's attention and show up in our living rooms on the news, even if their pronouncements are a bit insane. There is another 80-85% of the public that is sane, but don't do the things to get on the news. They are the people that are trying to get by in a bad economy, provide for their families and themselves, don't really have time for politics, and fighting back against the crazies, and just exist while the chaos as portrayed on the news is portrayed as "most" Americans. And,mostly, they don't have a vehicle for displaying their saneness. This rally is that vehicle. Get on board. If you are tired of the wackos in the front of the news getting all the attention, if you feel that the news media has not displayed your set of opinions, if you dislike the negative, sometimes racist, sometimes xenophobic, sometimes homophobic, sometimes anti-freedom of religion, all the time shouting of the dissident conservative right, your chance to, not shout back, but to protest politely back, is this rally. Let me encourage, no, strongly urge that you make it to this event. This is that important.
Stewart kiddingly said that you should think about this as Woodstock, but without the nudity and drugs and instead rational discourse. This could be the event of your lifetime or your generation. You want to be there. It will be a happening, or just a mild get-together amongst polite, well meaning people that are wondering why in the hell they came. I think it will be an event not to be missed.
I will be there.
At first, I thought what a silly thing to do. Then, upon further review, I thought, I don't like the news media portraying all Americans as angry with all politicians, with being upset with all taxes, as conservatives, and far right conservatives, who speak for all Americans. THEY DO NOT SPEAK FOR ME!!. That being said, who does speak for me? Well, me. I want to lend my support for saneness, for rationalness (possible new word), for not turning this country into one that decides what is to happen by mob rule. Yes, these people may not be a mob and they will turn out and vote, as will I. They may be more impassioned and will vote no matter what, and relatively sane folks may not be that invested in the upcoming election, but they should. The loud minority only wins where the larger, dare I say it, "silent majority" stays silent. Because after this rally, there is an election and if you can't get to the rally, you must get to the polls. You must vote! You must help defeat extremism in political thought. What is extremism? Listen. It is out there. Smaller government. Really? How? How would smaller government handle the oil spill? Leave it to the states? The first thing Republican governor of Louisiana, Bobby Jindal said following the oil spill and for days afterwards was "Where is the federal government?" Obama isn't doing enough. Would smaller government stop the egg contamination problem? Or was it lack of government that brought about the wide-spread problem with half a billion eggs recalled. Extremism? Lower taxes! At a time when Republicans are screaming about a run-away deficit, we should bring in less money and increase the deficit and the national debt even more? Get government out of my life? Repeal the new health care law? Didn't you know about Obama being born in Kenya? Didn't you know that Obama is a Muslim? Didn't you see the change towards socialism? Don't you see............?
WHOA!
Are we that short-sighted as an electorate? Are we that unknowledgeable (another new word) about what is going on? One in five Americans in a poll believe that Obama is a Muslim. (truth alert--he isn't. He is a Christian) How can 20% of Americans believe something that is totally untrue? It happens all the time and people believe what they want to believe even the untruth. (new word?)
Want an example? The USA went into Iraq because of their involvement in the attack on the USA on 9/11. (circa 2003, pre-invasion of Iraq, 69% of Americans in a poll said the attack was justified because of that) Truth? Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Saddam Hussein had no connection with Osama Bin Laden. Iraq had no WMD's. That takes care of all the initial reasons for invading Iraq. We are now at 4,424 US deaths in Iraq. What do you believe today?
Neiman,
ReplyDeleteYou seem to have the opinion that the far right/conservative ideology is somehow slow progress in our country and that it is the majority voice being heard. I find this hard to accept when most of the mainstream media (ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN)are overt in their support of the liberal agenda.
Your statistics regarding the invasion of Iraq is moot. It does not matter what a group of people polled thought about who was responsible for 9/11 or if that justified the invasion. The intelligence given to the President (and Congress)came from several sources including the UN and independent international intelligence sources. Most of the countries on the UN security council submitted evidence and intel assessments that Iraq had WMD. We went, didn't find them and after some failed policies we are getting out.
I believe that the smaller government the conservatives are speaking of would not have left the Gulf covered in oil, would not have an unbalanced budget (the democratic majority controlled Congress did not even pass a budget last year) that would allow the deficit to spiral out of control and the smaller government they speak of has lower taxes AND would reduce spending. Just saying, you sound like you want to make a change and are using this forum to do it. Just don't talk about some groups spouting uninformed rhetoric and then do the same...it's slightly hypocritical. Thanks for your time, Jim
Jim, I think the point was that the media usually pays the most attention to those who shout the loudest and most frequently, and portrays this as the national tone. This in turn influences what people believe. So, when President Bush's White House repeated and implied over and over again that 9/11 was connected to Iraq, even though there was good (those less frequently shouted) evidence to the contrary, the media took it as truth and this influenced people to believe, even if it was false. In the same way, when the media frequently reports screaming, but relatively small, Tea Parties as reflecting the national mood and democrats by contrast as being 'unenthusiastic,' this does not accurately reflect most people;
ReplyDeleteI may not have been that old in 2001 when 9/11 happened but i do remember that when it happened we did not ivade iraq, we invaded afganistan because of they were the ones that were involed. I do not remember any one excepted unintelligent, misinformed people say that we invaded iraq because of 9/11. This may be bias because i grew up around the military and i heard what happened over there straight from the people that were over there and not from the media that only takes the stuff that will get them ratings and report on it.
ReplyDeleteI agree that the media needs to be fixed and the they need to listen to everyone but it is also true that if you dont say anything then they wont have anything listen to.
From the people that were over there they did find WMDs the only problem with reporting on them was that most of it was mustard gas and under most peoples definition what they found were not WMDs. But since WWII it has been considered a WMD because of how much it can kill.
Ash