| Bradylama |
Jan 17, 2008 11:23 AM |
Leftist Cult
Or: Daily Kos Echo Chamber:
Daily Kos: Why Obama's Comment Stings My Soul
Quote:
I don't mean this to be a hit diary, or a pile on. But in reading the discussions around the blogs today on Obama's growingly-infamous comment about Reagan's legacy, I feel like some folks just don't get it, they truly do not empathize with those of us on the left who hear the word "Reagan" and see red. I think a lot of this is due to not sharing a common history.
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The Obama quote in question:
Quote:
Originally Posted by Obama
I don't want to present myself as some sort of singular figure. I think part of what's different are the times. I do think that for example the 1980 was different. I think Ronald Reagan changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not and in a way that Bill Clinton did not. He put us on a fundamentally different path because the country was ready for it. I think they felt like with all the excesses of the 1960s and 1970s and government had grown and grown but there wasn't much sense of accountability in terms of how it was operating. I think people, he just tapped into what people were already feeling, which was we want clarity we want optimism, we want a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Daily Kos Blogger
If you notice, people actually weren't feeling that they wanted clarity, optimism and a return to that sense of dynamism and entrepreneurship that had been missing.
People were in fear. The 1980 election was about fear. It was not about hope. The GOP has been attempting to spread the message of Reagan the Great Optimist/Hopemonger/etc. in an effort to cannonize him. This spin is far from reality.
I hope this explains my feelings on the subject a little more directly.
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The comments are more of the same back-patting, Reagan-bashing, shame on Obama and tut tuts. Why? It's obvious from the speech that Obama is attempting to invoke Reagan as an example of how the need for change can inspire confidence in a candidate who represents it, regardless of ideology.
Of course, Obama represents an appeal across the party divide in the first place, and I've seen comments elsewhere describing this hostility to Obama's appeal as a need for the net roots to punish the right with absolute Leftist purity. How is this demonizing of Obama for not burning Reagan effigies any different from the canonization of Reagan in conservative thought? |
