TheCatSite.com › Forums › General Forums › IMO: In My Opinion › So... "anti-American" members of Congress?
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

So... "anti-American" members of Congress?  

post #1 of 16
10/21/08 at 12:21pm
Thread Starter 
With the likes of Michele Bachmann (Congresswoman, Minnesota) calling for the comeback of McCarthyism, I'm not the least surprised that Colin Powell's endorsement of Obama sounded more like a condemnation of the Republican Party.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E_pN2IPAw6E

And Joe McCain, the candidate's brother, referred to Alexandria and Arlington as "communist country", while Sarah Palin was glad to be in "pro-American" areas of the U.S.? I thought McCain stressed his bipartisanship, i.e.,"reaching across the aisle"?

This appeared in today's The Guardian, which is a UK newspaper; the author is an American. The Republicans have lifted the lid off their right-wing id
Quote:
But the main fear tactic being employed now is something else. It's that Obama and his associates - and for that matter his supporters and even the regions of the country that he's destined to carry - are 'anti-American.'
Last Friday, in North Carolina, Sarah Palin told a rally that she was proud to be "with all of you hard-working, very patriotic, um, very, um, pro-America areas of this great nation". She means here of course that there are anti-American areas of America, and they are where the liberals live, and the people there are voting for Mr Anti-America. This was especially interesting coming from a woman whose husband, Todd Palin, was until just six years ago an enrolled member of a right-wing fringe political party that wanted the state of Alaska to secede from the US. ... just last Saturday a different McCain spokeswoman said on television that while Obama would perform well in northern Virginia, "the rest of the state - real Virginia if you will - I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain's message". This did not seem a planned one-liner. The spokeswoman made the fatal error of saying what she actually thinks. Republican Virginia equals real Virginia. Democratic Virginia is alien and impure.
What has become of the GOP? Party Like It's 1964

I left the party when I registered for the 2004 elections. I wonder how many more people will after this election campaign?
post #2 of 16
10/21/08 at 12:23pm
As usual the media loves to take things OUT of context!
post #3 of 16
10/21/08 at 12:26pm
It is with great sorrow that I see the party of Abraham Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, Herbert Hoover, Dwight Eisenhouer, Gerald Ford and even Ronald Reagan come to this.
post #4 of 16
10/21/08 at 12:32pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45 View Post
As usual the media loves to take things OUT of context!
So what's the context? Accusing a great number of your compatriots, including democratically elected members of Congress, of being anti-American or from "communist country", can be "excused" how, in your opinion?
post #5 of 16
10/21/08 at 1:10pm
Their logic is pretty simple - if your views are identical to theirs, you are "pro-America." If you disagree with them, you are "anti-American."

I guess everyone has passed on who vividly remembers the McCarthy Era so people like Bachmann feel safe in calling for a return to those times.

Another reason to make sure that a Republican does not get elected to the highest office of this nation and vote as many Republicans as possible out of Congress. I think many people do not realize the danger of allowing this swing to the Right to continue.
post #6 of 16
10/21/08 at 1:37pm
I must have missed that accusation by the candidates. Hmmmm
post #7 of 16
10/21/08 at 1:41pm
Thread Starter 
Quote:
Originally Posted by ckblv View Post
I must have missed that accusation by the candidates. Hmmmm
That's a good reason to check out the mainstream media, so reviled by the right.
post #8 of 16
10/21/08 at 2:27pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2dogmom View Post
Their logic is pretty simple - if your views are identical to theirs, you are "pro-America." If you disagree with them, you are "anti-American."
It echoes the Bush sentiment of "either you are for me or against me".

Ohlberman did a very good commentary on this last night.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bZgDnJb1D4g

And if you haven't heard, Bachmann's opponent received $700,000 in donations immediately following her remark about being "anti-American".
post #9 of 16
10/21/08 at 6:58pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2dogmom
Another reason to make sure that a Republican does not get elected to the highest office of this nation and vote as many Republicans as possible out of Congress. I think many people do not realize the danger of allowing this swing to the Right to continue.
I'm a firm believer that most of the people in this country, including myself, lean more towards the middle/center on most issues than they do to the right or the left. The problem with the Republican and the Democratic parties is that both the right and left have control of their respective parties. Right now this is a bigger problem within the Republican ranks. For the last 30+ years the party has been firmly under the thumb of the minority far right Neoconservatives rather than under the leadership of conservative and moderate Republicans. How and why this happened I have no clear reason. Folks like Cheney, the elder Bush, Rumsfeld and Rove all have their roots in the Nixon Administration and were well entrenched in every Republican administration since Nixon was in office.

Swinging further to the right needs to be stopped, but at the same time I fear for this country if Obama gets elected and has the support of a Democrat majority in Congress that is headed by the likes of Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid. A swing of the pendulum as far to the left as the right has become would also be a bad thing. This country needs a major shift back to the middle.
post #10 of 16
10/21/08 at 8:33pm
Obama came to Kansas City over the weekend and drew a crowd of 75,000. McCain came to a suburb of Kansas City yesterday and drew a crowd of 6,000. The town he chose was close to rural areas. I know that town - I lived in a rural town, population 480, 20 miles south of that suburb.

So what all of these people are telling me, is that the people in the Kansas City area (which btw is roughly 2.5 times larger than the entire population of Alaska) are anti-Americans.

I have a few questions about this.

When I used to live in a town, population 480, was I pro-American there, and when I moved closer to the city, did I became anti-American? I owned 2 homes for a while in both locations. Was I simply confused at that time?

The town that McCain visited was still part of Kansas City metro. The population of it and its sister town is roughly 35,000 people. Is this considered a small town and should we consider the population of those towns as pro-American, or do we count it as part of the metro area and consider it anti-American?

post #11 of 16
10/22/08 at 1:51am
It is so hard to describe to people why I left the Republican Party. People like that trainwreck Bachman are a great example.
I came across this link a friend sent who is much like me:
http://larrygellman.blogspot.com/200...-and-does.html

It explains so much. Look at the responses and you see that so many others feel the same. The core principles I believed as a Republican are not there anymore. The party of Theodore Roosevelt and Lincoln is no longer.
It is all about hating liberals.
Now we have Bachman sounding like McCarthy. What a sad joke she is.
post #12 of 16
10/22/08 at 8:21am
According to Paul Farrell in Wall Street's 'Disaster Capitalism for Dummies:' 14 reasons Main Street loses big while Wall Street sabotages democracy, reason #4 is "Extreme nationalism," and reason #5 is "Rally the masses by scapegoating enemies." Ok - so he points to the military budget and Iraq (got Bush voted into a second term!) - but it seems these are the same tactics being employed by the right to scare people into votes, and part of the "enemy" are liberals and democrats - now called commies.

To me, it's not so much sad as it is REALLY scary.

Laurie
post #13 of 16
10/22/08 at 8:33am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Essayons89 View Post
I'm a firm believer that most of the people in this country, including myself, lean more towards the middle/center on most issues than they do to the right or the left. The problem with the Republican and the Democratic parties is that both the right and left have control of their respective parties.
...
This country needs a major shift back to the middle.
I think you hit the nail right smack on the head with this. I consider myself a slightly left leaning moderate actually it's more complicated than that, I'm socially liberal and fiscally conservative. I've sometimes voted for the Republican nominee for president. But neither party seems to be trying to appeal to the middle even thought it has the largest number of potential voters. Why is that? Is it because moderates aren't as likely to get worked up enough to donate money to campaigns or possibly even vote?
post #14 of 16
10/22/08 at 2:47pm
Quote:
Originally Posted by 2dogmom View Post
I consider myself a slightly left leaning moderate actually it's more complicated than that, I'm socially liberal and fiscally conservative.
As hard as it might be to believe, I'm probably only slightly more left than you are.

I love the link that Laurie posted. Anyone that is even slightly fiscally conservative has to be outraged at what is happening on Wall Street these days. I know I am.

It offends me on a very deep level that the republican party has now swung their tactics to attacking the American people, specifically those that don't fit their "idea" of a rural republican voter. You are for me or against me. If you are against me, you live in "fake" America and you are anti-American. Its as partisan as it gets. And this from a party led by a man who claims to be able to reach across the aisle. His rhetoric and his actions are in complete conflict. Why isn't that obvious to everyone?
post #15 of 16
10/23/08 at 1:42am
If McCain would have spent his entire campaign reaching out to the moderates of both parties and "middle of the road" voters in this country there is a good possibility he could have had this election well in hand. Unfortunately, he didn't do that.
post #16 of 16
10/23/08 at 3:29am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Essayons89 View Post
If McCain would have spent his entire campaign reaching out to the moderates of both parties and "middle of the road" voters in this country there is a good possibility he could have had this election well in hand. Unfortunately, he didn't do that.
Very good point. Moderates have something that everyone can relate to. It makes the most sense since it is about balance. Maybe moderates don't inspire mad passion but it is a much better place to come together.
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: IMO: In My Opinion
This thread is locked  
TheCatSite.com › Forums › General Forums › IMO: In My Opinion › So... "anti-American" members of Congress?