Here’s a good summary of Obama’s final State of the Union address.
Right-wing media has convinced a lot of people that Obama is destroying our economy, sending illegal immigrants to take our jobs, waging war on Christmas, and plotting to take away our guns. But when you are dealing with voters who actually believe that Obama is a Muslim and wasn’t even born in this country, how are you going to get them to open their eyes to the fact that greedy and powerful people and organizations are using blatant propaganda to get us to vote against our own interests. Indeed, the worst thing you can say about Obama is that maybe he is not fixing the mess left by the last Republican administration fast enough.
UPDATE: I gained respect for Nikki Haley in her response to the SOTU, for her willingness to tell conservatives to “turn down the volume” of hate against immigrants. Of course, conservatives responded by turning up the volume. Ann Coulter tweeted that we should “Deport Nikki Haley” and called Haley an “immigrant”. Haley was born in South Carolina to parents who immigrated from India.
3 Comments
I too was surprised. I suppose that my respect for Haley also rose but from depths so deep that it hardly matters. She has style alright but on issues of women’s Heath (or anyone’s health actually), voting access and rights, and even the real substance of immigration she is as bad as most wing nuts.
I try to distinguish people with whom I merely disagree (Haley), from blowhard idiots (Trump) and complete evil scumbags (Cruz). I have no inherent hatred for Republicans. In fact, I would love to see them get away from jerks like Coulter and Ingraham who seem to be holding the GOP hostage.
Fifteen years ago I would have agreed with you but the Republican Party no longer tolerates people of good intentions like Jack Kemp. Compassionate conservatism turned out to be a cynical ploy for moderate votes. Nikki Haley refused federal dollars for Medicaid expansion that would have provided health care to an additional 350,000 people in one of our poorest states. That was politics not a mere disagreement.
I know and love some republicans with whom I disagree but the lying politicians and pundits who take advantage of them are not worthy of respect. In the context of modern conservatives, Haley may appear somewhat moderate but in a post Great Society context she and her conservative cohorts are wing nuts. Moderate republican politician was not always an oxymoron.