Ugh, here I am talking about current political stuff. What is this, a blog?
Anyway, so we all know Hillary Clinton just won the Democratic primary in Pennsylvania. Kind of expected. In any case, Barack Obama, as some suggest, pretty much screwed himself in a comment he made about small town Pennsylvanians. Here’s a quote from the Lexington column in the Economist:
He told a group of fat cats in San Francisco that the reason why he is finding it hard to appeal to blue-collar voters in Pennsylvania is because they are “bitter”. They have suffered from so many broken promises that they prefer to “cling” to God, guns and xenophobia rather than reaching out for a helping hand from the government.
Anyone else think that comment just alienated practically the whole country? Haha. Or is essentially saying those blue-collar Pennsylvanians are… Republicans? I mean, I can understand, as a Democrat, he’d at least mildly fault them for the guns and xenophobia thing, but God? Since when to politicians act like “clinging to God” is anywhere near a bad thing?
But those are amusing observances here. There’s also an implication in there that concerns me. It’s that last part about “reaching out for a helping hand from the government”.
So, basically, he faults these blue collar Pennsylvanians for being too bitter to request help from the government? I mean, I may be taking this out of context, but if they don’t want help from the government, shouldn’t that be fine? If they want to just help themselves, isn’t that a good thing? But apparently not. They’d rather not have government help, so that just means they’re bitter over whatever conservative stereotype.
Admittedly, I don’t really know the economic conditions of the people he’s talking about. I’m guessing they’re victims of NAFTA type stuff or whatever. Also don’t know what kind of help Obama thinks they need that he’s offering and they’re refusing. I guess that’s the trouble with these newsworthy quotes; you don’t really get the whole story and oftentimes are too lazy to look it up.
Even so, the message is still there. They’re bitter because they don’t want help. Maybe help should just be for those who want it, or at least those in such dire immediate need for help that their refusal is just idiotic, as if someone is sitting on the tracks when there’s a train coming but refuses to budge so you finally just tell them to STFU and yank them off the tracks anyway. Yeah, in THAT case, I can see the contempt for someone who doesn’t want assistance. Are these Pennsylvanians in any such predicament?
I mean, don’t go thinking I’m conservative or anything. I’m quite moderate. I’m not one of these types who thinks the government should help no one, hell no. Plenty of people do need help, and they ask for it, and as such they should get it so long as they really do actually need it. But if you don’t want help? Fine. There’s other ways. So long as you’re not forcing your children or other dependents to suffer because you refuse help, that’s your right.
I could be reading too much into this, sure. Just seems to me the idea is that we all should be expecting to get help and should avoid trying to solve our own problems. One of very many reasons I’m the ardent youth rights supporter I am is that the many restrictions placed on young people are essentially teaching them to never figure things out for themselves or solve their own problems, but to expect some higher authority, be it a parent or politician, to take care of everything for them. And if you don’t want to live your life in this “safe” little cradle, then you’re just bitter.
Well, I still like Obama better than Clinton anyway, but I said my piece about her a while ago. Obama is more the “youth” candidate, which with that as his label, is a good enough reason to support him since it’s a roundabout way of supporting the youth in this election. He insists he doesn’t want to lower the drinking age, which sucks, but of course, saying he does would be political suicide right now, as, sadly, lowering the drinking age isn’t a popular enough opinion yet. Doesn’t sound “good” to enough people. It IS good, but few are patient enough to sit around reading NYRA’s Drinking Age FAQ to find out why. In any case, not too worried about that. Especially since I heard through some people working on his campaign that he’s open to lowering the voting age! :b:
And he’s not Osama bin Laden’s brother, you fucking Jonesville church idiot! 🙄
The quote meant that because they have lost hope that the government will help them economically, they vote on other issues.
I don’t even support him, but I just hate it when people misrepresent people. Focus on his support of infanticide and the drinking age, not some misinterpreted quote!