(Update) Right-wing Noise Machine Continues to Score — in My Family!
By Mona
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Many of us intertube mavens sometimes fail to realize how much the diseased right-wing memes influence reasonable people who aren’t reading much “out here.” Last evening I had a delightful dinner at my son’s home, and the topic of conversation my son and his wife were all up in arms about was Bush on TeeVee smirking and rejecting the National Intelligence Estimate re: Iran’s suspending its nuclear program in ‘03. As Bush squirmed and radiated anger, and made clear he would continue to regard Iran as The Worst Threat in the World, and strongly indicated he was going to proceed as he wished, my son in particular was going ballistic.
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Knowing me as they do, neither son nor his wife were shocked that I agreed with their utter disgust and rage with W. But they did not know, until I informed them, that Rudy — for all his ostensible socially liberal positions — was more Bush than Bush on foreign policy, warmongering and the authoritarian national security state. My pro-choice (strongly so) daughter-in-law figured Rudy would be the best option if a Republican had to win in ‘08. (But she is voting Democrat.) I explained to them who Norman Podhoretz is, what his foreign policy positions are (including “hoping” and “praying” we bomb Iran), and the role he plays in the Rudy campaign. This was met with sickened faces and loss of appetite. The adult consensus was that any Dem would be better, and we were all partial to Obama.
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All of a sudden, my teenage step-grandson — an astute young fellow who will vote for the first time in ‘08 — asks me: “But didn’t Obama swear on a Koran and go to one of those Muslim schools where they teach suicide bombing ‘n stuff?” His mom and my son then quizzically looked at me, and I went into a sermon about Keith Ellison — who was sworn in to Congress this past term on the Koran, with the attendant right-wing hissy fit — freedom of religion in America, and the fact that all the blather about Obama being raised Muslim was, in any event, not true. Obama is a professed Xian, and by all indications, a sincere one. As if it should matter.
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But by the time I was done spewing, I felt so depressed. That noise machine is doing a most excellent job, even in a household as relatively enlightened as my boy’s.
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Update:
Well, the “Obama Muslim” smear surely started with the right, but apparently some Hillary folk are down with it as well.
Comment by Derek Copold —
December 5, 2007 @ 7:33 pm
Obama is a professed Xian, and by all indications, a sincere one.
His church’s view of biblical history (the ancient Hebrews were actually black, etc) and the Rev. Wright should be entertaining enough should he get to the general election.
Also, worth bearing in mind, Obama’s foreign policy is just at interventionist and meddlesome as the neocons’.
Comment by Svensker —
December 5, 2007 @ 7:42 pm
That is very depressing.
Comment by Gary Farber —
December 5, 2007 @ 8:31 pm
“(But she is voting Democrat.)”
Someday maybe she’ll vote Democratic.
It would be nice if people got the name right. It’s the “Democratic Party.”
Please try to get it right. It’s not, actually, hard.
And it’s incredibly annoying to at least one of us when people can’t even get the fucking name right.
Comment by Gary Farber —
December 5, 2007 @ 8:33 pm
“Democrat,” you may not have noticed, is a calculated insult. Stop using it unless you’re intending to insult us, please.
Comment by Kevin B. O'Reilly —
December 5, 2007 @ 8:37 pm
Gotta side with Derek on this one. Obama may be good (for now) on Iraq and Iran, but he’s certainly not consistently anti-war or against foreign adventures. If you must vote Democratic, the most anti-war candidates are Kucinich and Gravel. Though Paul beats them all on the war issue.
Comment by Mona —
December 5, 2007 @ 8:47 pm
Calm down, Gary. While I am well aware that it is the Democratic Party, vote Democrat is commonly used…by Democrats. (And I have many more links showing such usage if that doesn’t satisfy you.)
Comment by Mona —
December 5, 2007 @ 8:51 pm
Derek and Kevin: At the dinner I describe we discussed both Paul and Kucinich, and then turned to those realistically likely to get the nomination. That left Obama as our consensus.
Comment by Derek Copold —
December 5, 2007 @ 9:51 pm
Given the realistic candidates, I kind of favor Fred Thompson. I know, he toes the GOP line on foreign, but he’s also got the heft to talk back to his advisors and he strikes me as being too lazy to get himself worked up over any new adventures. Who knows? He might the only able to pull out of Iraq in a “Nixon going to China” sort of way. A Thompson presidency combined with a Democratic congress is the least evil option on the books.
Other than that, I would have to go with, God help us, HRC. She’s about the most stable of the bunch. Obama’s just way too untested. He’s only been in the Senate, for what? Three years. His big foreign policy speech was a neocon’s wet dream. I don’t want to tar him with it, but only because I’m not sure how much of it he really means to carry out. Say what you want about Hillary, you pretty much know what you’re getting–Willy’s hijinx and all–and she’ll at least inspire a serious opposition to keep her in check.
Comment by Thoreau —
December 5, 2007 @ 10:12 pm
Who knows? He might the only able to pull out of Iraq in a “Nixon going to China†sort of way.
I don’t know if Thompson is really another Nixon, but he could probably play Nixon on TV….
Comment by Derek Copold —
December 5, 2007 @ 10:25 pm
I think, given his role in history, Fred probably has had enough of Nixon for a lifetime.
Comment by Thoreau —
December 5, 2007 @ 10:56 pm
True, but if Thompson doesn’t get a green light on his White House project, and Lifetime Network calls Fred Thompson to play Nixon in one of their original movies, he’d probably take the part for the right price.
Few actors will turn down work when they’re hard up.
Comment by mds —
December 6, 2007 @ 11:06 am
I dunno, he could consider it a step up: from being a mole for the Nixon administration to running it. Or are you talking about the transcripts of Nixon referring to their man inside being not very bright? I guess if Nixon thought I wasn’t all that smart, even when I was spying on Congressional deliberations for him, I might have had enough of him for a lifetime, too.
Hey, I’ve got a Thompson bumpersticker: “Sleazy Weasel, But Dumb and Lazy, Too.” Or is that too long?
Comment by Jon H —
December 6, 2007 @ 11:55 am
“His big foreign policy speech was a neocon’s wet dream.”
Whereas Hillary’s foreign policy advisors include actual neocons.