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inthysite -> RE: Obama's comments about small-town America (4/12/2008 5:42:03 PM)
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quote:
ORIGINAL: Evangel70
o.k. I'm going to make some people mad here, but taken in context, I agree with Barack's statement...
quote:
“Our challenge is to get people persuaded that we can make progress when there’s not evidence of that in their daily lives,” he said. “You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing’s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are going to regenerate and they have not.
“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.”
How many communities have shut down steel mills or auto plants, or factories, or have seen their jobs shipped to some foreign country and suddenly blame, blacks or whites or illegal immigrants or gays for their economic troubles. These are the people who turn their bitterness and frustrations into hate groups like the KKK or Fred Phelps group or Nation of Islam and see anyone not like "them" as a threat.
One may disagree with Obama's politics but there is truth to his statement. There is a lot of frustration in America over the a war with no end in site, an economy that is in a recession, a congress the went from republican run "do nothing" to democratic "deadlocked" and a President who has soiled the reputation of the United States for decades to come.
Even the "church" has been affected. Look at how divided the "church" is over politics. Even to the point of questioning another believer's faith, authenticity or commitment based, not on their walk with God, but on their political affiliation.
How many "churches" have blamed 9/11 and Katrina and other natural or man-made disasters on homosexuals or liberals or democrats or illegal aliens or muslims or the media, etc.?
First, you obviously have a right to your opinion, that is what these forums are for, to allow people to discuss different sides of an issue. Unfortunately you are correct that there are some people here who take offense to people's opinions and see it as a personal attack.
I think the point here is not so much the fact that there are some, and I say some people who do feel and react that way. In that sense, yes there is some truth to what Barack says.
The problem here is that he is applying that logic to everyone in most small towns. Barack has repeatedly made the statement that he is for change, that he is a uniter, but he continually uses the same old political tactics that every politician uses and ends up dividing people rather than uniting them, just read most of the threads here relating to Barack.
You have to look at not just what he said but where he said it, he made these comments while speaking to a group of wealthy California donors in San Francisco. He was not addressing the people he was talking about. He was pandering to the wealthy to try and get support.
If he wanted to encourage the people of the small towns that they can make progress where there hasn't been before then he should have saved that speech for when he was in those small towns. Why would he make these statements to the rich people of a large metropolitan area? Because he was trying to fit in with their beliefs. Just my opinion.
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