Do the American people have common sense?
Sometimes I think this election will boil down to the answer to the above question. Do they or don’t they?
If they do, the relentless spin of the left will not matter. And the efforts of the Obama forces to say he was taken out of context when he made his “you didn’t build that” remark will drive the public to look at the context—the whole speech, which is even worse than the excerpt (I wrote at some length about that here).
As this editorial in the NY Daily News puts it:
Regardless of whether Obama was talking about “roads and bridges” or about “a business” when he said, “you didn’t build that,” there is no question that as he extolled the virtues of government ”” the government he claims Romney would dismantle ”” the President demeaned the qualities of initiative, industriousness and ingenuity that drive America’s ladder-climbers.
So why are Obama’s spinners trying to get people to look at the context, as though that would help the situation, when it will not? Probably because (a) they have no other way to defend it; and (b) they are counting on the fact that most people will either not bother to look at the context, and will instead take their word for it, or will look at it and lack the ability or will to evaluate or understand it properly. If they’re right on either score, it could help lead to Obama’s re-election.
And then issue won’t just be limited to Obama’s re-election; it will bode ill for many future elections and for the long-term future of this country.
The newest meme in the “build” controversy involves Obama’s supporters trying to say that Mitt Romney said much the same thing during his tenure as head of the Olympics. Again, they’re counting on either the electorate’s laziness or its inability to understand the spoken or written word and its meaning. Here’s what Romney said:
You Olympians, however, know you didn’t get here solely on your own power,” said Romney, who on Friday will attend the Opening Ceremonies of this year’s Summer Olympics. “For most of you, loving parents, sisters or brothers, encouraged your hopes, coaches guided, communities built venues in order to organize competitions. All Olympians stand on the shoulders of those who lifted them. We’ve already cheered the Olympians, let’s also cheer the parents, coaches, and communities. All right! [pumps fist].
Hardly a speech about capitalism and what drives success in business. More importantly, virtually no one on the right alleges that people do things entirely on their own, so the whole thing’s a strawman argument. If Obama had merely said what Romney said in this quote, “you didn’t get here solely [emphasis mine] on your own power,” there would have been no furor at all about his remarks. It would have been a ho-hum statement, and to pretend otherwise is either deeply ignorant or deeply disingenuous (or perhaps both).
But let’s fervently hope that the American public can reason all this out for itself.
The American public I’m familiar with has neither the ability nor the inclination to reason this out. They are more concerned with Romney and the GOP’s “war against the middle class” and their preference to continue taxing the rich. They aren’t even asking the question of whether or not honest work is important, they just want their stuff and they want to take it from someone who has more. It’s that simple, and that pathetic.
“Do the American people have common sense?”
Mr.Obama and his minions, keepers, advisors and many who should know far better are counting on getting out a massive vote of ‘Those Who Have NO Common Sense’. Trust me.
Our side’s salvation for our country is an unprecedented, highly energized turnout of concerned citizens WITH common sense. Including many young, many black, many Latino, (Asians already, as a ‘group’, have the common sense it takes)WOMEN and ALL who love liberty and individual freedom.
Tesh: Walk off your liberal arts campus, Manhatten, West L.A., San Francisco, Portland or Martha’s doofus Vinyard and you’ll find a whole’lotta down-to-earth Good American Sense all over these United States.
My Tea Party friends here in Central Florida are pumped and utterly engaged. Their quiet optimism & confidence about November is inspiring and contageous.
Engaged Tea Party folk aren’t average Americans. …and I’m actually in a fairly conservative location, though I work in a liberal industry (as an artist in video games) and talk with a fair cross section of people in a variety of situations and places.
Yes, there are a lot of people who are doing their own thinking, but most of them always have been and never did buy into Obama and the progressive Left’s worldview. I still get the sense that common sense isn’t all that common.
…that said, I’ll be happy to be wrong on this. I sure hope and pray that the loons are outnumbered and ultimately, that they either grow up or leave the country.
That last line of the post made me laugh and what’s left of H. L. to do pirouettes in his casket.
“Democracy is also a form of worship. It is the worship of Jackals by Jackasses. It is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.” — H L Mencken
I would contend that when considering human nature nothing is always so but when the marquee jackass of America is worshipped, well… then… you have to give it up for H.L.
Tesh and NeoConScum,
As for American’s common sense, here’s an article by Salena Zito (caveat, the Pittsburgh Tribune is a right-leaning paper) but note that Romney was able to draw an overwhelmingly positive mixed-party crown in working-class, blue-collar union-heavy Western PA (h/t realclearpolitics):
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2012/07/22/mitt_romneys_moment_114871.html?fb_ref=.UAv6CN3C2ew.like&fb_source=home_multiline
By contrast, the last time Obama was at the convention center in downtown Pgh he was unable to fill a room accomodating 200 people and the local Dem politicians were conspicuously absent. That’s why his most recent Pgh visit was to Carnegie-Mellon University, a more liberal and accepting venue.
Furthremore, It is my opinion that Obama has reached the point where he is preaching both publicly and obviously against the very DNA of this country. He jumped the shark from demeaning only business owners to demeaning everyone who has ever worked hard for whatever they have. That means miners, steelworkers, bakers, plumbers . . . ad infinitum. Couple that with the Keystone Pipeline, which would have provided at least 10,000 such hardworking dirt-under-the fingernails jobs and Obama’s handwriting is now on the wall for all to see.
As I have offered before, 47% of voting Americans had the common sense to reject Obama before he even had a (non) performance record. The question is: “Has Obama now convinced at least 4% of those voting for him in 2008 to vote against him in 2012?”
“But let’s fervently hope that the American public can reason all this out for itself.”
“Hope” –> “Pray” . . .
There are no atheists in foxholes . . .
Somebody (not Romney) needs to turn the build it yourself line on Obama WRT his book. Who gave him the advances; who paid for the printing; who copyedited it; who opened the bookstores where it was sold? Did he share his wealth with the Amazon crew or the UPS drivers who delivered his stupid book?
And that is not even getting in to Bill Ayers or Michelles rapid salary increase after the people of Illinois elected her hubby to the Senate.
There is an online poll on NRO right now asking whether our culture is broken. With more than 11K respondents 85% have answered in the affirmative.
We are becoming 4th Century Rome. Even if this election cycle is positive I greatly doubt whether there will be the political courage or the popular support to make the necessary changes if we are to survive as a democratic republic.
Neo
If Obama had merely said what Romney said in this quote, “you didn’t get here solely [emphasis mine] on your own power,” there would have been no furor at all about his remarks. It would have been a ho-hum statement, and to pretend otherwise is either deeply ignorant or deeply disingenuous (or perhaps both).
Which reiterates my previous point that the Roanoke speech shows that the POTUS is not the eloquent wordsmith that his supporters claim he is.
While Obama may not have been eloquent, I believe he WAS speaking from the bottom of his heart- he truly believes that government does it all. Which is why the press has been banned from many of his fundraisers, where what he is saying from the bottom of his heart may not be highly regarded by the public at large. It was at a San Francisco fundraiser in 2008 where Obama again said what he believed- the bitter clingers remark. Remember the controversy THAT remark generated. Can’t let the public at large be aware of such candid remarks.
“We are becoming 4th Century Rome.”
The question is have we already become 4th century Rome? I offer that we have not because we are blessed with a dynamic ability to morph without violent means and because the American spirit is continually being replenished by immirgants who rush to this country for the same reasons our grandparents and great-greandparents did over 100 years ago.
I think that analysts (both amateur and professional) have a nasty habit of reading short-term fluctuations as long-term trend lines (this happens in the financial mkts all the time): “It’s bad now, so it will be bad forever!” or “We’re growing now, and it shows no signs of stopping (e.g., housing prices)!”
I do believe that November marks a pivotally important election for America’s future. With each passing day, the demarcation of two paths forward becomes more and more pronounced, and I am cautiously optimistic that betting against the American experiment is still a fool’s bet.
In my neighborhood, an over 55 active adult community, there are about 20% conservatives and the rest call themselves independents. But most are really liberals. They only think they are middle of the road and independent. They get thei rnews from the MSM. Our local paper is as progressive as the NYT. Most think the science is settled on AGW. As senior citizens most believe their Social Security and Medicare are things they paid for and by God they want it. Hardly any want to talk about what deficit spending means. They just avert their eyes and say, “It’s too much of a mess. Does anyone really understand it?” They hope it will all work out.
Seniors are a big voting block and they tend to think more like democrats than Republicans on the above issues, even if they call themselves independents. Of course I live in Washington state, well known for its democrat progressive politics. Maybe seniors in flyover country are less liberally inclined than my neighbors. I hope so. If not, too many of them will look at SS and Medicare reform ala Paul Ryan and be panicked into voting for Obama. That is my nightmare.
the used to have common sense, but that was before feminism and other isms raised their consciousness… after that, they forgot how to dress, control their eating, be polite to each other, behave in private and public, begged the Darwin awards into being, raised the STD rate to close to 50%, murdered 60 million they need to tax to retire, sexualized the kids, told us whats acceptable is bad, and whats bad is acceptable, created a self funded harem for wealthy young men, broke up the family, created two earners from one, voted more and more socialism, and a whole bunch of other stuff too….
we used to rear kids, now we raise them…
in case you don’t get it, in old dictionaries, we reared our children, and the farmer raised corn or cattle.
Parenting (or child rearing) is the process of promoting and supporting the physical, emotional, social, and intellectual development of a child from infancy to adulthood. Parenting refers to the aspects of raising a child aside from the biological relationship.
at some point the successful women who changed society will have to step out and take a bow and credit for all their work and accomplishments. or are we relegated to only celebrating what they claim is good and pretend they could do no harm?
America is like a healthy body and its resistance is threefold:
its patriotism,
its morality
and its spiritual life.
If we can undermine these three areas, America will collapse from within. — Joseph Stalin
under left liberal feminist politics of the oppressed and oppressors, we forbid any signs of patriotism. morality is almost non existent… and spiritual life has become less relevant as women elbow and legally force their way to the altar…
and they are about to vote big for the candy man. from help to keep houses, to welfare, to literally thousands of programs, special tax breaks, help in education, expansion of title IX, affirmative action, court favoritism…
in 1960 only 8% of children lived with a “unwed mother”… in 1998, 23%… in the US 24% of non hispanic white children, were in single parent homes. for african americans, 66%, for american indians 52%, hispanic or latino 41%, and asian/pacific islander 16%
Women on Welfare: A Macroeconomic Analysis
http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/117255?uid=3739832&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21101102146751
Associated with the increase in number of single mothers has been a rise in the percentage of the population on welfare.
in 1960 only 1.7 percent of the population was on afdc, while in 1995 about 5.2 percent were. Most mothers who received afdc were single.
AFDC mothers tended to have more children. 2.6 on average vs 2.1 for population as a whole).
more shifts into and out of welfare are connected with a shift in family structure than unemployment.
[edited for length by n-n]
If the electorate had “common sense”, Sarah Palin would be leading Obama by at least 5% in the polls. Her attacks on crony capitalism and financial market crimes would have the guilty in fear for their freedom.
Her running mate, Herman Cain, would be the one leading the attack on Obama’s economic failures and business ignorance. His personal story would refute the notion that hard work and a positive attitude cannot overcome any obstacle.
But let’s fervently hope that the American public can reason all this out for itself.
Hope?
Reading Literacy in the United States
http://nces.ed.gov/pubs/96258.pdf
though i would be very careful reading it as its from the department of education. interesting oddities and facts that they might not want you to pay attention are easy to see..
figure 20 does some interesting hokus pokus…
the adjusted mean vs observed mean…
all the other adjusted means are smaller than their observed means… while the adjusted mean for 1 parent mother only is ‘adjusted’ to the point its larger than the adjusted mean for 2 parent biological.
do note that orphans, foster care, and so on are lumped in with single father… so the assumption is all the apples are bad, but actually the numbers would be worse without those in there.
but the real funky thing is the explanation which drives policy… their figures that correct for equally wealthy, equal social backgrounds, etc.. predict huge gains for the children of single mothers! so all we have to do is make everyone equal… or the moms wealthier.. or something like that.
there is a lot of concern and figures juggling in this one.. though on page 25 is a clear graph as to why the dumbing down in schools and other stuff..
you will find it difficult to get a decent break down of literacy and comprehension ability.
though if work is any indication, its been going down steady since i was a kid…
but add to it that most of the issue is not literacy or comprehension but shopping for answers and copying others answers en masse rather than seeking validity. not to mention not being upset at those companies that we trust to report to us, but in collusion all do a bad job, no one wants to do a good one to sweep the money, and so the total quality declines in step.
[ever notice how almost none of them are public owned?]
there is no other reason, and so the whole of the education structure is bent on ‘solving’ this by making us all equal (under communism, or more likely fascism)
why dont they break out father only families like mother only families? why lump them in with institutional care, foster care, etc?
its all about creating the image you want to get the outcome you want, not actually report.
so the categories are cooked, like a crooked set of accounting books… and reasons are always pc, which deny existence of any other reasons.
My fear all along has been that Obama would benefit from the bad economy he has perpetuated in that more and more people have become dependent on the government. For people being supported by the government, common sense is to vote to keep it coming. People on Indian reservations vote Democrat.
I agree, Mr. Frank. I’ve believed all along that it was a deliberate policy to force as many people as possible to become dependent on the government.
T: Amen.
Only a fool would deny that a fight is in the air…
We have a salvage yard down the road from us. I have seen cars pulling old junkers with no wheels down the road to be sold as scrap with no rubber tires just rims, the tow rope was an old fire hose wrapped around the front of the frame and tied to the rear bumper of the car. The car was driven by a fellow at a high speed with a big grin and the driver of the towed vehicle was a twelve year old boy equally as happy.
The whole shebang made a god awful squeal and showered sparks like a grinder on steel.
I’ve seen a lot of similar events with various junkers and tow vehicles, no tow bars at all.
Common sense?
I don’t think so.