Wednesday, September 26, 2012

The Decline in American Political Discourse



While driving around town I noticed this sticker (pictured left) on the back window of someone’s car. Really... urinating on the name of the president?! Is this what we have sunk down to as a nation? A short time later I saw another jewel, it read: “Obama bin Lyin”. A rather an asinine comment considering Osama bin Laden was taken out while Obama was Commander-in-Chief, not Bush.

If you do a Google search for images under "anti obama stickers" - the following is a sample of what comes up: "Don't re-Nig in 2012", "Douchebag In Chief", "A village in Kenia [sic] is missing its idiot". By the way, a note to the illiterate moron who came up with that last one; the county in Africa is spelled Kenya.

Now Search Google images for "anti romney stickers" – among these are "Vulture Capitalist", "Mitt Romney, Businessman (So was Madoff)" - there are even direct quotes from Romney himself: "I'm not concerned about the very poor", and "Corporations are People"... oh and yes, there is a sticker of Calvin urinating on the Romney name as well.

The glaring difference in discourse between Conservative versus Liberal sticker speech stands out – The attacks against Obama consist of personal insults, degrading, racist, and frankly, quite unsophisticated, juvenile. Conversely the anti-Romney messages are directed more against his policies... and as I say, using the man's very own words!

Yes, there are Liberal voices against Romney that certainly lack a semblance of propriety; but the sheer volume alone of hateful, vengeful rhetoric against the president literally towers over Liberal speech.

What ever happened to “I like Ike” or “Nixon’s the One"? When in our recent history did it become “American” to become so vile, so ill-bred?

One bumper sticker in the anti-Obama search read: “Pay for your own health care”. This insensitivity toward the welfare of others struck me particularly hard. At this moment our friend from work is dying of cancer, enduring painful (and probably hopeless) chemotherapy. She did have great medical insurance… while she was working. But her illness prevented her from working resulting in her losing both her insurance and her income with which to pay for COBRA continuing coverage. Friends are chipping in, but her bills are mounting into thousands of dollars.

As I have expressed several times in the past in this blog that I am not optimistic for the future health of this nation. When people accept that it is ok to urinate on the name of the president, it seems we are not very far from people justifying acting on this level of contempt – will they next stoop to feeling justified in killing the opposition to achieve their objectives? 

This is not the America I feel proud to live in, to want to pass along to my children and grand children