American Public is Possessed of Stunning Political Immaturity.

I am on the mailing list of David Michael Green who runs The Regressive Antidote - a website dedicated to diluting the voices of the Regressives who are poisoning America on a daily basis. This latest work is entitled, "The Swiftboating of Barack Obama." I used a line from this article as the title of this post. He said, "And, second, just about everything they [Regressives] try works when employed against an American public possessed of stunning political immaturity.

After that he goes on, "It comes as little surprise, therefore, that two things happened over the last couple of weeks. One, that Barack Obama was swiftboated by means of a bogus inference in order to make him look like an angry black radical. And two, that a lot of dumb voters went for it."

Later on Green defines the dumbing-down of the electorate: "We live today in a polity characterized by the most unsophisticated public discourse, one where twenty-second scare ads win elections every time. And one where attempts at thinking through basic questions - such as whether our enemy resides in Afghanistan or Iraq - are ridiculed as effete intellectual elitism."

Indeed, Mr. Green, we do and that is what scared the hell out of me as well! If this blog of mine represents the mainline voter, and I have no data on that, then I am treated on a daily basis with nonsense comments from people who do not think for themselves, but rather parrot something 'they heard on TV.' Or that oh-so ghastly remark, "I heard..."

Green identifies the purpose of the regressive actions, and I think he nails it on the head: "The American plutocracy paid good money to create such a well disciplined voting class, and they’re not about to let that investment go down the drain without a fight."

The term, American plutocracy, is of course an oxymoron, but the moron part fits.

Further on, Green says this about Obama and his speech on race: "He also made clear why those who peddle the politics of contempt have lately shown such desperation to somehow silence his revolution, a revolution not so much of policy - Obama is no V.I. Lenin; he’s not even a Paul Wellstone - as it is of esteem. Think, for a moment, of the sheer absurdity of what they are asking you to accept on the face of their argument."

Here, I believe, is the most interesting statement so far: "If it seems like a helluva logical conundrum that Obama gets trashed for comments his pastor makes, over which he has no control, while McCain goes scot-free after seeking the endorsement of a king-size bigot, well then welcome to Swiftboat Land. Park your brain over there, to the right."

Park your brain. That's it in a nutshell. Do not think, do not engage in meaningful dialog, do not examine the issues. Just listen to what 'they' are saying and mimic it.

Here are the concluding paragraphs:

"In truth, what Reverend Wright said is of as much actual concern to regressives as was John McCain’s supposed black love-child or Willie Horton’s crimes. Which is to say none at all. The point is to swiftboat Obama by injecting race into the campaign and frightening away closet racist voters. The point of doing that is to win power. And the point of that is to steal your money and your country.

"That’s why Obama’s ‘revolution’ represents that most threatening commodity of all for those who employ contemptuous deceit to mask “economic policies that favor the few over the many,” as he accurately labeled it.

"It’s a revolution, ultimately, of respect - and that’s really dangerous. For the first time in a very long time, a presidential candidate is speaking to Americans as if they were grown-ups.
We’re about to find out if anyone is listening."