You know, this school speech "revolt" really is the most disgraceful stuff I think I've ever seen.

[Skip Intro]

I remember the attacks on the Clinton admin. from the right, from day one. I think we could have been better prepared this time. I'm no super defender of Obama. But the fact that some school districts are choosing not to air live an address by the president of the United States, that's just too far. It is surreal to witness this stuff. It is the lowest thing I've seen politically. Really scummy. I hope regret is setting in with many.

I thought I had a lengthy comment to make, but that just about sums it up.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. I think we all underestimated

the virulence of the racism that infects so many of our fellow citizens.

It's as if Obama's ascending to the Presidency unleashed something uncontrollable, something that had been seething inside them, but now has busted forth and cannot be stopped.

I remember well the United States of the fifties and sixties. I remember how the government worked to integrate the schools, and how the brave men from the Kennedy Justice Department stared down the thugs like George Wallace who refused to let black kids enroll in their schools. I remember it all too well, and I honestly thought those days were behind us.

In much more sophisticated disguises, the hate we're seeing today - and, without any doubt, I honestly believe all of this is centered in racism - is even more vile and stronger than what went on back then.

Never in my life did I dream I'd see stuff this unbelievable, this ignorant, this unyielding, this laughable, and this alarming. Not again in my lifetime.

You said it well. There's not a whole lot to say. This is exactly what it appears to be.

And I think it's getting worse every day, fanned by the hatemongers on the air, the mouths that spew only venom, the ones who don't care, don't care at all about what happens to this country. What they want, more than anything else, is to be perceived as power, and now that the White House has ditched Van Jones, Glenn Beck can laugh at the people who think they accomplished anything by getting his advertisers to pull out on him - he's had the great big last laugh, and the joke is on us.

I really fear for whatever comes next, but, in the meantime, I am dismayed by the way the White House and the Democrats in Congress are letting all of this just happen. There is no leadership, only reactions, and the Van Jones episode is far more significant and distressing than people think. The haters have been newly energized by his departure, and they've succeeded in making Obama's speech to school kids a total joke, politically.

Watch them now. They can do anything - and they will........................................

[omega minimo]

5. Racism may be an excuse but this is the legacy of Reagan's lies, Limbaugh's clones, 30 years of hate

mongering and partisanship. With the Democrats ALWAYS in retreat. The rabid dogs are out of control.

[Odin2005]

38. And we all know what must be done with rabid dogs.

[misanthrope]

9. With all due respect...

...How in the world could you have seen what you have in your life and thought all of this seething hate had just evaporated? I wasn't born until the year the Civil Rights Act was signed but I still have seen enough from those in subsequent generations to have expected all we've seen this year. Of course, my residence in Jeff Sessions' hometown might have something to do with that, too.

I also don't think we've seen the worst of it. Recent actions from the administration have only served to embolden the bullies and they will respond with growing audacity. As we saw in 1995 – and in a tangential vein in 2001 – all it takes is a few people with the requisite will and hatred to cause a lot of grief for others.

This is a messy can of worms we've opened but one that had be pried back at some point.

[DonCoquixote]

10. What is sad is

How much you want to bet they run Connie Sleazy Rice in 2012 to deflect racism and sexism charges?

[Tangerine LaBamba]

14. Do you think?

She's so much a part of Fuckface's legacy, she might be too tarnished.

Or that might be one of her selling points, and if that's the case, we're doomed............................

[DonCoquixote]

12. If I may humbly reply

You said:

"I am dismayed by the way the White House and the Democrats in Congress are letting all of this just happen. "

My response:

Ah, but you forget the rules of this game. As Hillary showed, whenever scary negro speaks up, it automatically adds fodder. He won the election by NOT standing up to Hillary and Bill, and letting them throw as much muck in the air, until they ran out of steam. Problem is, the GOP has much more gas in it's tank then Hillary ever did, and unlike Hillary, the yahoos actually DO support the GOP. How can this man actually be aggressive in his defense if every word that comes out of his mouth, even such sweet words as "stay in school kids", gets turned into the image of a Satanic takeover of America?

The truth is NO LONGER RELEVANT FOR POLITICAL PURPOSES. The enemy controls the media, which means they control perception, which means, until the point if/when the literal foundation of reality crumbles in a loud, undeniable way...they control reality. Or as a German named Kant put it, "Data does not inform the mind, the mind informs the data". The Dr. Who show said it better, saying "the problem with the very powerful and the very stupid is that instead of adjusting their minds to reality, they try to adjust reality to fit their minds, which is very bad if you happen to be one of those facts that need fixing."

It would help if congress defended him, but congress knows that if the dems lose in 2012, they can go right back to being people who get elected based on "at least we are not sarah palin" who say "that mean old GOP in the White House won;t let us do anything." purposefully omitting that CONGRESS is supposed to make the law!

[Tangerine LaBamba]

16. You're right -

My dismay continues, and my horror isn't ease by your cogent and well-reasoned post.

It's all about who controls the media, that giant which now defines "reality," and no one dares to stand up and say that the Emperor has no clothes.

We're powerless, that's the worst part of it. Obama's campaign made people think we actually had some kind of power, but that was just an illusion. If only he'd been able to mobilize the huge following he had on January 20, 2009 to go to work combating these lies and distortions, maybe some of it would have been neutralized.

In the end, Obama's obvious distaste for confrontation will very well spell the end of everything we hoped for, and that, oh, please let me be wrong, would be the end of everything.........................................

[Hannah Bell]

18. He IS able to mobilize it, should he choose to. He doesn't choose to.

Nor does the party choose to.

Why that is, I'll let you judge.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. I know some things,

since I know one of his earliest - back in Chicago, when he made his failed Congressional run - financial backers, and what I think is happening is not anything I care to contemplate, because it is extraordinarily seedy and unseemly and frightening.

But I know I'm right, and that doesn't make me feel any better. Not at all.

It's one of those things that you can only see from the inside. I don't care for the view, and I hate to admit it..............................

[DonCoquixote]

57. No offense meant but

How can someone who cannot give a speech to school kids about staying in school mobilize anything. Also, the truth is, what is there to actually mobilize, a left that has not really been unified since the days of FDR?

[Chulanowa]

30. No, in fact I overestimated

I had a sinking suspicion after the election that he would never take office because one of these psycho fucks would do something.

I'm very happy to see I was very wrong, and I hope my losing streak continues.

At the risk of sounding racist myself... It seems that it's mostly white people who are surprised at the virulence being directed at obama. Fair enough, not much is directed at whites in America, and it can be hard to see the subtle discrimination happening against people who aren't "you" so, the race-dar isn't quite so acute. But... Most of the rest of us knew all this was coming, and many probably still expect worse to arise, especially as the crazies get even more isolated - thankfully mainstream America IS set against blatant racism, and is starting to be able to perceive less-blatant racism as well.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

41. I think you are on to something here.

I am white, I have a good number of black clients, and for months, they were telling me that they never thought Obama would make it to the election, and if he did, he'd never survive the first term. Too many heavily armed crackers out there, crazy ones, at that.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

52. During the primaries,

I was hospitalized, learning how to walk again, and I spent a lot of time hanging out with the nurses and CMAs who were mostly black, a lot of them naturalized citizens from West Africa, but, all of them - without exception - wanted Obama to win. They never thought he would, though, and, paradoxically, they found a great comfort in that.

Because, they told me, if he wins, someone will kill him.

That was two years ago. I'm hearing their voices in my head today, loud and clear. They were right........................

[ChairmanAgnostic]

40. nicely put, Tan. very nicely put.

The depth of anger and hatred took me by surprise, first during appearances of Wassilly Sarah on the campaign trail, then, with the birthers and now with the skulers.

[BlooInBloo]

54. Hear me now, believe me later.

[zonkers]

55. Civil War redux.

[kentuck]

2. Nobody can predict what might escape the mouth and minds of crazy people.

It is so unreal and irrational, no one can prepare for it. You simply have to call it the way you see it.

[still_one]

3. The republicans and extreme right, have screwed up big time on this, and it will bite them

What people are seeing is that this has nothing to do with the speech itself, but the feelings of racial hatred. The MSM is exploiting this in the same way they tried to the hatred and fear with the wright and ayres issue

They also saw palin encourage the hatred at her rallies

Maybe I am naive, but I think most of the people in this country are seeing right through this for what it is, and those encouraging it are going to be left in the dust

My advice is don't believe the impressions the media is trying to convey, their record of political insight has been less than stellar

Obama won the election by a large amount relative to the previous two elections, both in the popular and electoral college

[omega minimo]

4. It's disgusting enough to turn more and more off of issues/politics than ever

These people are fucking insane.

[Pirate Smile]

6. The permission slip thing also - like it is sex ed requiring an OK by the parents.

It truly is unbelievably disgusting and upsetting.

They are treating him like a pedophile or something - like we need to be real concerned about him being around the children.

It.makes.me.sick.

I called both schools my kids go to and the Principal of one called me back. They are both Catholic schools - one elementary and one a middle school.

The secretary at the elementary school and I commiserated. She is an Obama supporter (as is most of the rest of the staff & Administration) and was very upset by the entire disgusting specticle - and by some phone calls she had gotten. The Principal called back to say they weren't showing it live because of logistics and timing. They did get the entire school together for the Inauguration but it was very difficult and she thought about 2/3 of them didn't really understand it. I thought it was great that they did that. I think the teachers will decide whether and when to show it but things could change by tomorrow.

At the middle school, a volunteer was answering the phones and she hadn't gotten any calls but she had only been there for an hour and a half. She thought people were being ridiculous too.

There just doesn't seem to be anything too low for the Republicans to stoop to right now.

[misanthrope]

8. My wife is Catholic...

...and her priest went on a perpetual tirade from the pulpit about Obama last year, stating that those who voted for him shouldn't take communion.

[Skittles]

17. this is what I cannot understand

if that priest spews garbage like that, why one anyone listen to ANYTHING they have to say?

[misanthrope]

21. Because the vast majority of the congregation...

...was already inclined to believe any criticism of Obama. We're talking traditional white folks in the Deep, Deep South here.

[Skittles]

22. well I live in Texas

I know ignorance, but I'll never understand how a person can believe in the teachings of the Bible and believe in such utter crap coming from their own churchfolk

[vadawg]

24. its called faith, you can have it in certain people, or individuals, or family

or a book, or a church, not everybody is going to have faith in the same stuff, thats what makes it interesting. Then we go into the issues of interpretation of the stuff we have faith in and all that palaver..

[Mariana]

29. Because the members all reinforce and amplify each other's utter crap.

Lots of people shop around for a church until they find one whose pastor and congregation believe exactly as they do about EVERYTHING. It would be interesting to know how many people have left their churches in disgust solely because the churches didn't agree with their particular opinions, whether positive or negative, about Mr. Obama.

[AngryOldDem]

46. Fine. Consider it done.

No jeezit for me.

I get so sick of this shit I could :puke:

I think everyone who is so damned sure that the rest of us are going to hell are going to be in for one big surprise.

[LibDemAlways]

11. The idiots in charge of my daughter's public high school in

Southern California have decided it's ok for students to "opt out" of the speech. I was notified by a recorded phone message today. The Vice Principal first indicated that he had read the speech and found that it contains "no political content." Still, he felt the need to assure parents that their kids don't have to watch it.

You'd think Obama's message of working hard and taking responsibility would be one that the administrators would welcome and insist that every kid see. It's just stupid and embarrassing that these supposedly educated people who should know better are bowing to a few rightwing crazies. They ought to be ashamed of themselves.

[47of74]

7. After what happened the other day in Atlantic, Iowa

I do not have a high opinion of school principals, superintendents, boards, etc. And this doesn't help my opinion of them one bit.

[horseshoecrab]

13. They've really pulled out all the stops

These Rethugs bring to mind something uttered by a campaign manager for a governor in the Democratic primaries here in Massachusetts years ago.

When he was asked about their strategy he replied: "We put all the hate groups in one pot and let it boil."

That about sums it up. What a freak show.

CNN and most of the other TV news shows are reporting their behavior as if they're normal people.


horseshoecrab

[hfojvt]

15. so far a few agree with you here, but nothing you said makes sense to me

This is the most disgraceful thing you've seen? That people don't want their kids to hear a speech by Obama at school.

What is so disgraceful about that? I am quite sure that we would not have wanted our kids, or anyone's kids to hear a speech by Bush at school.

'It's 'too far' that some school districts are not showing the speech.' Why? What makes that too far? That they capitulated to the will of some parents in their district? That sounds kinda like democracy to me, even if they were standing up for the rights of a minority.

"It's surreal" and "the lowest" and "really scummy". Okay, those are your feelings, but you provide no reason for such extreme feelings. What, for example, is surreal about people hating a President? You've never seen that before? You've never seen bumper stickers that say "Don't blame me, I voted for the other guy"? You only recently joined DU and missed most of the last eight years when every syllable and scrap of paper from the Bush administration was scrutinized and strained at for evidence of fascism, fascism, fascism, and when such evidence was almost never found wanting?

Really, I find our own outrage here to be somewhat surreal. Perhaps it is just anger looking for a target, that some people wake up every morning hoping to find a reason to be extremely upset, and looking for some reason to express their total hatred of the other gang, the despicable Sharks.

[Skip Intro]

25. Kids did hear a speech by bush. Your view baffles me.

When I was in school, second grade, I think, I watched the moon landing on tv. In a classroom. I thought it was cool. I doubt we can ever be proud of anything anymore - would get in the way of fighting.

Certain schools are not allowing their students to see a live address from the president of the United States of America. That in and of itself is shameful. He's too dangerous for kids to watch.

Disgusting.

[hfojvt]

28. What speech by Bush?

The speech by Bush Senior? According to one article I read, Democrats complained about that speech at the time. If the internet had been more widely available, I bet our complaints would have gone viral.

The moon landing is not the same thing as a Presidential speech.

It's not so much danger as it is dislike, of him and his ideas. What is so baffling or disgusting about that? Or shameful?

Again, you provide lots of harsh attacks, but not much substance to explain those attacks. It does not seem shameful to me that kids are not forced (er, allowed?) to watch a speech by the POTUS. We would have applauded schools that were not showing such speeches from 2001-2009.

[Skip Intro]

32. Yes, by bush 1. You read an article, huh?

In the sentence by you, quote "I bet our complaints would have gone viral" would you please tell me to whom "our" refers?

[Horse with no Name]

48. Do a search on the OP.

You won't be surprised by what it reveals.

[hfojvt]

51. What would you find?

This, maybe http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/106

or this http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/105

this http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/101

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/hfojvt/100

Those are pretty damning, no? Or is it just the fact that I don't think all Republicans are racists based on their white skin and hatred of Obama, or that I don't hate cops or Republicans in general? And, like now, I ask an OP to make sense instead of just jumping on the bandwagon of "yes, the Sharks are so despicable". It is a terrible and traiterous thing to expect your allies to be rational.

[Voltaire]

44. I call bullshit on that

We might have loathed Bush and we may well have questioned his motives for speaking to schoolchildren but I do not know of any cases where a person/family who was against him politically or otherwise pulled their kid out of school not to watch him. The situations are not comparable. These motherfuckers have no respect for the office of the President of the United States. It might sound silly, but a lot of the outrage we feel and have felt towards these people and their party HAS BEEN TOTALLY JUSTIFIED. Unlike the fucking lies and innuendo and threats that constitute their means of so-called political discource.

GODDAMMIT I hate when people try to equate where we are and where they are...IT AIN'T THE SAME FUCKING THING!

[Marr]

20. I think Obama should take a page out of Hugo Chavez's playbook, personally.

When big money runs a campaign against you, you hit them with a massive, targetted tax hike. By doing so, you tell them that you know what they're doing, and that continuing on that path will be more costly than just playing ball.

A lot of this is plain old grass roots racism, I completely agree-- but it's being greatly exacerbated and organized by what are essentially fascist forces in our business communities.

[vadawg]

27. problem is unless you also hit the big money on your side then your looking at tyranny

do you really want the president no matter who he is to be able to use the tax codes to punish those who dont agree with him/her. This would be a very slippery road that the horse would find itself broken on.

[Liquorice]

23. I agree. Their behavior is really despicable. nt

[6000eliot]

26. The thing that gets to me is how the media treats this batshit crazy like it's a legitimate

point of view. Is there another response to people who think that the president is going to brainwash the children than, "Are you out of your fucking mind?"

[Mariana]

31. The media will cover whatever gets the ratings

and will do so in whatever manner they believe will maximize the ratings. Right, wrong, rational or irrational plays no part in what they do.

[Skip Intro]

33. yep...nothing.

where does the time go?

:P

[CJCRANE]

34. But they hardly covered left wing protesters

and conspiracy theorists during the Bush era, even when Bush was at 75% disapproval. If it was just about ratings they would have catered to that 75% demographic.

[ecstatic]

45. Exactly. So sick of the fake "fair and balanced" BS

They need to call it for what it is!

[moondust]

35. RW projection.

Because the nutters know that one of their kind would gladly stoop to the opportunistic political manipulation of school kids they assume that everybody else would. Even though everybody else wouldn't, especially the consummately responsible President Obama.

[raccoon]

36. Saturday this was on the front page of the local paper GREENVILLE NEWS (SC).

Some of the parents' remarks quoted make me ashamed.

[Odin2005]

37. It's like the Birchers freaking out about fluoridated water.

Crazy freaks.

[librechik]

39. How dare they teach their children not to respect our President?

when I think of all the scrreeeeeeeeeaming that went on if we didn't snap to attention for their phony fuckhead non-elected usurper...

[lunatica]

42. You're just not remembering the last 8 years

Let's see just off the top of my head.

Dixie Chicks were attacked and actually banned in some places

Tim Robbins' was attacked and the Base Ball Hall of Fame banned his base ball movie (don't have time to look it up now)

Michael J Fox was attacked and ridiculed for being sick

Children were suspended and expelled for wearing T-shirts criticizing Obama

People attending Bush speeches had to sign a loyalty oath, no one remotely able to do critical thinking need apply

Color coded alerts

duct tape and plastic wrap

spy on your neighbors

warrantless wiretaps

enemy combatants

Patriot Acts I and II

"Get over it"

"Heck of a job Brownie"

"So long as I'm the dictator"

"This is working our well for them. After all their better off here than they were in NO"

[spanone]

43. my country shames me daily

[AngryOldDem]

47. Really, the nerve!

The president of the United States **emphasizing** the importance of education and **why** kids need to stay in school. That could lead to -- dare I say it? -- an educated and informed citizenry!!

This country. I just don't know what the hell happened to it.

Maybe he just needs to read My Pet Goat. Maybe that will placate the loons on the Right.

[branders seine]

49. It almost makes one ashamed to be American.

What insanely ignorant people!

[ourbluenation]

50. I would argue that this kind of repugnant irrational behavior will actually shrink their numbers.

The wingnuttery are repelling many mod. repubs.

[BlooInBloo]

53. If people claiming to be on our side actually WERE on our side...

We could defend against the silliness a bit better.

[inna]

56. yeah, it's pretty unreal.

what's crazy is that he is perceived by the morans as some sort of a radical liberal/"socialist"/"marxist", which could not be further from truth.


never underestimate the ignorance of the masses and the power of corporate/wingnut propaganda.