Obama cares
A couple of days ago, I had paused at a red light and noticed that the car in front of me was festooned with bumper stickers. The one that particularly caught my eye, the largest and most prominently placed, read “OBAMA CARES,” with a big red heart between the two words.
Short and sweet: “Obama cares,” the exact sentiment that the entire election seemed to come down to for a lot of Obama voters. Plus, it’s a clever inversion of the negative implications of one of the unpopular albatrosses that ought to have sunk the president, but did not: Obamacare.
Below that one was another prominent sign. This one was considerably longer, with a somewhat more complex sentiment to convey:
Turn off FOX
Bad news for America.
I’m not sure whether the driver wanted official action on this pressing concern—whether Fox should be banned—or whether she (I think of the driver as a “she,” although I couldn’t see through the SUV’s rear window) was merely exhorting anyone following her to take the initiative and turn the channel if tempted to view that dreadful station.
And the phrase “bad news for America” was deliciously ambiguous. Did she mean that Fox itself was a bad thing for this country; that having an alternate, somewhat more conservative (or somewhat less liberal) perspective on the news was somehow going to harm the country or its populace? Or did she mean that the Fox reporting of the news was “bad,” as in inaccurate, poorly done, or pessimistic? Or did she mean (and I very much doubt this was her intent, although it would have been mine) that the desire to silence Fox was bad news for freedom of speech and/or the press in this country?
I tried to find a photo of either bumper sticker for this post, and I quickly discovered what the latter one was all about:
So I learned that apparently there’s some sort of campaign to keep Fox from being shown in airports or dental offices or wherever there might be a public TV. That’s sort of humorous, in a way, because I wrote a post not long ago complaining that Fox is never, never ever, shown in such venues, and that it’s always CNN. I’m not asking for much, just that once in a blue moon the station might be Fox instead. But apparently no Fox news is good news for my bumper-sticker-sporting fellow-driver.
As for “Obama cares,” I couldn’t find a photo of the variation with the heart, which might have been nice for Valentine’s Day. But I did discover that “Obama cares” was a very popular slogan for bumper stickers this election cycle, and apparently an extraordinarily effective one at that:
Obamacare did not help the President get reelected Tuesday, but exit polls suggest the narrative that Obama cares more may have been the difference between winning and losing…
On the attribute of whether the president or his GOP rival was ‘a candidate who cares about people like me’ Obama had a massive lead over Romney.
Here’s a version that may have worked to drive the message home about both candidates—an emotion-laden twofer, as it were:
And in a way, that pretty much sums up the president’s approach to the 2012 election.
It worked, too.
yep.. that’s what the exit polls said. It worked…
Wow. Just checked out the Turn Off Fox website. Talk about down the rabbit hole. A quote:
“Featured Member:
Gordon L., Sunbury, PA
“Keep Fox Off the Box. I will not spend money in any establishment which allows its atmosphere to be polluted by the hate filled messages of this neo-fascist organization.”
I have yet to see any hate filled messages pushed by the network. That hate word…well, I hate it. It’s everywhere.
We keep Fox News on all day in our Family Court waiting room and receive frequent requests from attorneys to change it. We don’t.
Another big quote:
“What the Turn Off Fox campaign is not – It’s not about politics
We aren’t asking people to turn off Fox because of its political orientation. This is not about Democrats and Republicans, or left vs. right. We are concerned about Fox because of the way it uses lies and half truths to divide this country, and the danger that poses. People on all parts of the political spectrum have spoken out about how dangerous and divisive Fox is. We believe that everyone who cares about a political culture rooted in factual information and free from violence and racial animosity, should refuse to be a part of what Fox is doing in any way.
– It’s not an attempt to censor anyone, or a challenge to freedom of speech
There’s no question that Fox News has a right to broadcast what they do. The issue is whether businesses and public places want to be a conduit for Fox’s consistently divisive rhetoric, race-baiting and distortions of the truth.
The First Amendment protects us from government efforts to suppress individuals’ speech. The government can’t, and shouldn’t censor Fox — but consumers, businesses, and other establishments can and should decide whether or not they want to be a part of what Fox is doing.
– Turn Off Fox is not an effort to attack business
We believe that small businesses are the heart and soul of this country. They anchor our communities and are America’s most important engine of job creation. That’s why we think it’s so important for them to think about what kind of messages they disseminate, even inadvertently. Our desire is to work in partnership with businesses to help them make responsible decisions about what’s on their televisions.”
I, well, I wouldn’t even know where to start…
The people demanding censorship of a network that doesn’t fawn over the Dear Leader as much as they might wish scare the crap out of me.
Those people are fascists. Pure and simple. They want a god-king, a dictator, a Kim Jong Un to rule them.
Anyone who thinks like that is not an American. They are despicable, craven things. Willing slaves searching for a master. They scarcely qualify as human beings. How did our country become afflicted with subhuman maggots like that? And how did they persuade the majority of voters to go along with their insanity?
Apparently the majority of humans aren’t ready for freedom and self-government. We had it here for a while, but they’ve given it up. From here on out, it’s a boot smashing down on a human face forever — only the victim wants it that way.
I believe that website and effort is led by Color of Change, a Van Jones organization. Remember him?
Whatever the tactics, the old saw “you can run but you can’t hide” and the new one “you can sequester the voice but you can’t silence it” still applies. In keeping with the drumbeat that the establishment opposition is part of the problem when it comes to confronting Obama, here is a model of what is to be done when the opportunity presents itself:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PFb6NU1giRA
Civility doesn’t mean they can’t be made to squirm.
“Obama Cares” and $5 can buy you a fancy coffee at Starbucks.
I think we misunderstood the leftists; they weren’t calling for “civility,” but rather for “servility.”
The people who want to shut off Fox have probably never watched it. I’ve met quite a few people who complained about Rush (I don’t actually listen to him) and when I asked him if they ever listened to his show they said “no.” So much for forming your own opinion.
One of the reasons Romney did so well in the first debate was because people actually watched him instead of believing the BS being put out by the Dems. Too little, too late, I guess.
As Charlton Heston might say:
link here
Neo, that is what makes you so different from most folks. You saw something and wondered – “what does that mean?” And then you looked to find out.
Sadly, such bumper stickers and other “soundbites ” worked because so many voters don’t really care tp find out the meaning behind such stuff. They just “go with the flow” or whatever.
You saw something and wondered — “what does that mean?” And then you looked to find out.
I’m still trying to work out the meaning of “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Huh? They’ve been waiting … for themselves? To do what?
Occam’s Beard: I believe it’s a reference to this. It also conjures up this hop hop song that was released in 2006.
I’ve come to the conclusion that liberals don’t care about (fill in the blank) downtrodden people. They care about telling you how much they care. As Thomas Sowell subtitled one of his books, “Self-congratulation as the basis of social policy”.
Fits right in with Holder’s decree that “we must brainwash them about guns like we did cigarettes “( dishonest actually because the campaign against smoking was a product of many Americans
in both parties & political ideologies, NOT just the Left)
But now they have taken up the cause of “brainwashing” the sheeple about the First Amendment & dissenting talk being
“Bad for America” How about Van Jones & his ilk being BAD for America ???? I think I need to get some custom made bumper stickers declaring “First Amendment needs to be kept alive & well”
Fortunately, I never did see an “Obama Cares” bumper sticker. Probably would have driven me right over the edge.
Oh, and I quit watching Fox after the 2008 election, along with all the rest of TV news.
Obama does care. He cares about driving the economy into the ditch. He cares about promoting the goals of the jihadists. He cares about creating a socialist America. And most of all he cares about the mirror on the wall telling him he is the fairest of them all.
Jim Sullivan Says:
“I, well, I wouldn’t even know where to start…”
I will. Jonah Goldberg has written a few essays about the terms in those quotes and how they mean special things to progressives. Dismissive et all simply mean ‘disagree’, ‘resistance to’, et cetera. To not be those things; the words are agree and/or fall into line.
Sorta how ‘peace’ to socialists means lack of resistance to socialists.
As I noted over at VDL’s blog on a somewhat different topic, I don’t want politicians–0bama or any other–to care about me. I want them to leave me alone, and I especially want them to take their fingers off my wallet. We pay too much for politicians’ pet projects already, I’m not interested in paying for more.
Regarding Fox News, I’m happy to see it in public places, and I have, although not as frequently as CNN. Since I don’t get back to the States that often, I like to get caught up quickly on what’s been going on in the US when I do. Fox, with its emphasis on “heartland” issues, does that better than CNN, with its squishy sort of “we are the world” coverage. And I’ve not seen anything hateful on Fox, unless you count Geraldo just being Geraldo.
If you really need an explanation why you’re shown CNN but not FOX News, try this latest example of FOX’ excellence in journalism: http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/02/07/fox_news_expert_on_solar_energy_germany_gets_a_lot_more_sun_than_we_do_video.html
It’s not the first time they made such fools out of themselves.
“It’s not the first time they made such fools out of themselves.”
The other networks are making sure they won’t make fools out of themselves over Benghazi by not reporting it at all.
Big brother obviously needs to hog the air ways, since propaganda of low quality can have problems when competition shows up.
The thing about evil is that it works. Good usually tries to work with evil, thinking there’s some kind of deal or compromise, cause it sounds good right?
“We believe that small businesses are the heart and soul of this country. They anchor our communities and are America’s most important engine of job creation. That’s why we think it’s so important for them to think about what kind of messages they disseminate, even inadvertently. ”
Doesn’t it sound good? Isn’t evil beneficial to you? Why not join in. It’s good for you. Everyone else is doing it. Do you want to be left out? Left out of the village? Without shelter? Without food? Prey for any predators to kill first?
Yeah, evil works. The only way good stops evil is to hack its head off. Which hasn’t started quite yet.
Ayn Rand said, “When good compromises with evil, only evil benefits.”
Please stop conflating Fox and Fox News.
You’ll have to talk to the propaganda artists about that.
CNN is soooooooooo wellllllllllllll known for it’s middle of the road political views!
/sarc
Para: you’ll have to get in touch with the designers of the bumper sticker about that.
I think, though, it’s obvious in context that Fox News is meant.
By the way comrade, I mean konrad, a CNN anchor blames the coming asteroid fly-by on global warming so I guess you’re right that we should get all our hard scientific news from CNN.
Actually, I HAVE seen Fox News in one of my doctor’s offices. Frankly, the owner of the office has the right to have his/her TV set to any station he/she wants, and I think that unless he/she is receptive to changing the channel we need to respect the choice and if necessary tune the TV out.
LOL, the channel thing — the fun part would be to get one of those watches with a built-in universal remote, keep the list of codes in your pocket (or on your smartphone) and ALWAYS change the channel TO Fox News.
…Be pro-active in response.
LOL:
http://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=universal+remote+watch
Or even cheaper:
http://www.nextag.com/remote-tv-control-watch/stores-html
If you haven’t already read this, please do – over at Powerline: http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2013/02/david-horowitz-how-republicans-can-win.php
The weapons of political campaigns are images and sound bites designed to inspire the emotions of fear and hope. Obama won the presidency in 2008 on a campaign of hope; he won re-election in 2012 on a campaign of fear.
Last fall prior to the election, I finally got up the courage to chat with a friend (who runs a small business) about her politics (I suspected she was a Democrat). When I asked who she was voting for, she said Obama. When pressed for a reason, all she could come up with was because he cares.
We had a short and civil conversation in which I shared a few things he has said and done that really show who and what he is, especially in regards to businesses. My friend was pretty non-committal about what I shared, and then quit talking to me for almost 3 months.
The libs just don’t want anything to muddy up their glowing view of the Supreme leader.
Your post reminded me of a guy who marketed a “device” to filter Fox New Channel from cable feeds. I did a search and found a number of references to the “FOXBlocker,” a device sold by a guy for nine bucks with the claim that by screwing into your TV in front of your cable connection, it would “filter out” the FNC frequency.
http://www.engadget.com/2005/03/26/the-fox-blocker/
Of course, anyone who tossed away nine bucks on this was too stupid to figure out that one can “block” pretty much any channel they like on most TVs, cable boxes and satellite receivers these days.
The creation of this device was (allegedly) some kind of protest by the guy who made it. I guess just changing the channel never occurred to anyone.
Seen on the back bumper of a car in DC before a now long-past election:
BUSH IS SCARY
VOTE FOR KERRY!
Fear. It’s always about the fear.
Occam’s Beard:
I’m still trying to work out the meaning of “We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.”
Alice Walker is the author of We Are the Ones We Have Been Waiting for: Inner Light in a Time of Darkness. Obama was trying to show his cultural bona fides, making a reference to which only those culturally cool people would be aware of. BTW, both Alice Walker and Obama are mixed race.
Kim- what was your small business owner friend’s response to “You didn’t build that?” 🙂
Now I see why she gave a a non-committal response. A small business owner who votes for someone who made such negative remarks about entrepreneurs, has to engage in some serious thought suppression.
A small business owner that hates extortion, gives the mob all their money for protection, and praises the mob.
Yeah, that works.
So?