Bumper sticker politics

On Wednesday, I found a parking space out of the snow and pulled in next to a truck. I could see one sticker on the cab, which was a Confederate Stars & Bars flag with the words "Second Amendment Supporter" (or maybe "Rights"). The conflation of the Confederacy with gun rights seemed pretty bad to me, until I saw the one below it.

"A million people went to Obama's inauguration. 14 missed work."


Although a Republican at the time, who had voted for John McCain in the primary, I did end up voting for Barack Obama. McCain's choice of Sarah Palin had initially, for a few minutes, struck me as an interesting running mate. Once I heard a few things from her, I was quickly turned off and very disappointed in McCain for kowtowing to the religious right of the Republican party. Also, I believe Joe Biden as our Vice President provided much foreign policy expertise, as well as numerous comedic moments.

I was and continue to be disgusted by the assumption that everyone who supports our first African-American President is a lazy welfare recipient. (Am I reading too much into it?) The other narrative that could be supported is that the eight years of the Bush administration had caused a recession. (I believe the repeal of Glass-Steagall in 1999, under Clinton, had a lot to do with it.) But I think that's giving this guy way too much credit.

The people I know who went to the inauguration were NOT on welfare. They did have jobs. They do have jobs. They are a diverse group of people. I did not go because I was probably working on a press release for 3rd quarter financials. It was also freezing and I hate dealing with crowds during DC events.

When I returned to my car after shopping, the guy was getting something out of his truck. He was one of the guys clearing snow from the parking lot.

I wish I could have said something, but I was a fraidy-cat. (Although he could have had a gun on him...). And I probably couldn't get him to change his mind by reminding him that Fox News viewers are the dumbest of all TV viewers (actually people who don't watch TV did better in this study than Fox viewers).

Listen, I don't have the Choose Civility bumper sticker. I view driving as a sport, so I don't think I should be hypocritical by having it. But those two bumper stickers struck me as hate speech and I can't get them out of my mind. People are choosing to be hateful and support a narrative that suits them despite being a lie.

I guess that's American exceptionalism.

Hard-to-handle truthiness

Last week, I spent many hours at the polls. Given the low turnout, those of us hanging out relieved our boredom by making friends (mostly) with our fellow campaign volunteers.

One volunteer, an admittedly conservative Republican, engaged me in discussion about immigration and the crisis of migrant children coming in droves during the recent months. He believes that the Obama administration has conspired to accomplish this. Really? The hard right believes this is the way for Democrats to pad their voter rolls by bringing in illegal aliens & not requiring ID to vote.

Sorry - this doesn't pass the smell test. But this is just like the anti-vaccination movement - just because it's not been proven doesn't mean that it couldn't be true.

Which leads me to the Inner Arbor conspiracy theories. Those who are against it & favor the boring blah Cy Paumier plan (which some are on record as not favoring it at the time) believe there MUST have been detailed discussions about it from October 2012 to January 2013. Rather than believing that staff was working with Michael McCall on the plan, they seem to believe that the CA board was acting illegally & unethically.

Because the CA Board can't prove a negative, they are able to create suspicion.
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Luckily, some of us know the truth, which I will give due homage to A Few Good Men with this:

Money, money, money

$1 billion is slated to be raised, and presumably spent, by President Obama in his reelection campaign. All of the GOP hopefuls are gearing up their fundraising machines so they can control the spin, the message, the bulls**t to first battle each other in the primaries and then wage the final battle against Obama. Regardless of where you fall on the political spectrum, isn't it just silly? Granted, this money goes into small businesses, but a lot of it goes to polling groups, advertising agencies on Madison Avenue & television station owners. (Full disclosure: I own stock in a station owner & yes, their profits & their stock price has significantly increased in part because of the 2010 campaign.) If the 2012 election costs more than $2 billion just at the presidential level, what does that say about us as a country? Why are we not spending our money buying books for schools, donating food to soup kitchens? As political as I am, I decided a few years ago not to donate to campaigns or PACs, etc. I will donate my time & I will speak out in support of something, but for the moment, I won't give money to anybody.