September 4, 2009
Political opposition: The good, the bad, and the downright scary

scttkrkwd:

squashed:

Parents threatening to keep their children home from school because Obama might talk to them should disturb all of us. This isn’t simply a matter of parents thinking this is an inappropriate use of school resources or a waste of time. This is parents who think that having Obama say something to their children about staying in school and being the best they can be is so harmful that it would be better to skip school entirely. These parents believe that listening to Obama speak, even on the most benign topics, will hurt their child. What could motivate that kind of response? Is it racism? Is it an irrational reaction to economic anxiety? Either way, it’s ugly. We should be worried.

agreed. ask any of them for a specific reason, and you’ll get silence or an outright lie.

I’ve bolded the parts arguably in error. The specific objection most cited (anecdotal, in my viewing of news on it) is not the President delivering a study hard and excel speech, it’s supplemental materials the White House planned to provide for children to “write letters to themselves about what they can do to help the president.”

I argued this morning over Target store-brand chocolate puffs that this was just a rhetorical flourish, adding the gravitas of the presidency to the important message of pursuing elementary education seriously.

However, for people already on edge about a cult of personality around Obama, invoking him/his position as a focal point of those suggested reflections was enough to touch off (or feign) resentment and derisive suspicion that this was really liberal community organizing of schoolkids which no mere adjustment of the text shall appease.

Then again, Reagan’s similar address reads, in part, like a nationalist defense of conservatism. Unfortunately, since today’s parents were likely students then, it’s hard to use this as some flag for parental hypocrisy or as an excuse for (possibly) erring on the other side of the aisle.

In any event, this would make a good Weekend Update “REALLY!?”

4:43pm  |   URL: http://boutofcontext.tumblr.com/post/179862691/political-opposition-the-good-the-bad-and-the
(No. OF NOTES: 11)
  
FILED UNDER: Obama Politics School Why Can't Johnny Read conservatives 
  1. troutwine reblogged this from squashed
  2. boutofcontext reblogged this from scttkrkwd and added:
    I’ve bolded the parts arguably in error. The specific objection most cited (anecdotal, in my viewing of news on it) is...
  3. scttkrkwd reblogged this from squashed and added:
    specific reason,...you’ll get silence
  4. squashed posted this