Bitter and Offended

Just a quick update, I had to share this image:


So at least I'm not totally alone in my views. I couldn't find an actual website but I just thought the image was cool and right in line with what I said.
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As many of you who know me can attest, I have been following the current political wrangling among the Democrats very carefully. I have declared myself as a supporter of Senator Obama. Usually I am too busy to do more than post an occasional link or comment here but today, in response to the latest nontroversy “Bittergate” (I kid you not! Isn’t the evolution of a living language fascinating?) today I am writing a post.
Now in the interest of full disclosure I am not a resident of Pennsylvania. I, furthermore, do not in times of frustration cling to my gun or my religion. Aside from a paintball gun I don’t own a firearm and I am an atheist. Having said all of that, I am certainly both bitter and offended, although not in the manner that has been suggested by the media.

As I have watched our current administration place partisan politics and right wing policy above basic common sense and human decency for the past seven years, as I have watched our government censor scientist, obliterate civil and human rights on a scale I would not have believed possible just eight year ago, as I have watched them wrap them selves in a flag of jingoistic, nationalism and call it patriotism, and as I have watched them as they pay lip service to supporting the troops and then abuse and neglect those self same troops, their families and their trust, time and time again, I have, I fear, grown “bitter” indeed.
Let me not however digress into a tirade of even longer run on sentences decrying the stupidity, irresponsibility, and inhumanity of our current administration. This is about what is going on today. I have read several news pieces recently that have attempted to shape the opinion of the people while at the same time seeming to hold that opinion in complete and utter contempt. Notable among these was the recent assertion by Elton John that it was too bad that the “misogyny” of the American public was keeping Hillary Clinton away from the Democratic nomination. Well, thank you very much for your insight Reg, but has it occurred to you that perhaps some of us might support Senator Obama not because we hate women, but because of the two Democratic candidates, we think he has better judgment, greater integrity and more character than Senator Clinton.

I am astounded time and again at the antics of the media in trying to drum a controversy over nothing. My amazement at that however is nothing next to my ability to be flabbergasted by the ongoing antics of the Clinton campaign and their supporters. These are the same people that have the audacity to label Mr. Obama as an elitist and out of touch with the more common among us. While contending at the same time the Mrs. Clinton is somehow, despite her family income, more in touch with the working class! Where have we seen this kind of swift-boating before? Oh I remember now, it was when they set that non reporting member of the national guard above that guy who actually served his country, under fire, overseas because he looked a bit too French. That certainly worked out well, didn't it?
Congratulations to the Clinton campaign and their kitchen sink, win at any cost, scorched earth tactics for lowering the bar yet again. I’m sure that Mr. McCain and his Republican cohorts are very grateful and even inspired. I however am deeply offended, not by the remarks of Senator Obama, but by your tactics.

This example is just one of the more recent of it’s kind and I will not list all of the others but I will say that a percentage of us who are lending our support, both financial and political, to Mr. Obama are not merely doing so to assuage our own guilt over some latent racism, or because we want a feel good candidate, or because we have issues with our mothers. Furthermore we are not interested in his middle name, what his minister, his wife, his grandmother or his dog catcher may or may not have said. Nor any of the other minutiae that his political opponents would use to distract us from the issues at hand.
A certain percentage of us are supporting Mr. Obama because we genuinely believe he is the right person to bring the country together, address the various current emergencies, both domestic and international, that the current administration has saddled us with, and set us back on the right tack for American prosperity, international leadership and restored global respect in the twenty first century.

I would furthermore respectfully suggest that perhaps those of you who are opposing us should take another hard look at the candidates before us; the problems we face today and will likely face in the future and reconsider your own motivations.