So Is Obama Ashamed Of His Country? August 7, 2008
Posted by taoist in Anti-Americanism, Democrats, Obama, Politics.trackback
We already know his wife was, and that he’s embarrased by Americans, and that he has many associates who aren’t proud of America. Now we finally get a statement from the Obamessiah himself that says something about how he feels about the country. Well, apart from all of that fuss he made about not saluting the flag and such.
Eh? Sorry but guess he feels the same way a lot of Americans feel which is bad why?
Most Americans are proud of our country. If he’s not proud of it, why should we give him the honor of leading it? Obama himself has carefully avoided saying most statements that convey anti-Americanism, but his wife and many of his longtime friends have expressed sentiments that border on hating our country. If Obama doesn’t love the things we love about our country, how well is he going to protect them?
How do you feel about America? And why?
I fail to see how Obama is not “proud” of his country you fail to see the other side. Your bias is quite apparent which is fine but your placing a much heavier weight on one side while ignoring the other.
Plus I fail to see how “most Americans” are proud of their country when every poll shows “most” Americans are displeased with the current state of our country. Surf blogs, watch television tons of people are voicing their disapproval of the current state of affairs yet when a Presidential candidate agrees with them then it is “un american”.
Being proud of one’s country is different from approving of the government. I know certain liberals wish it otherwise, but our country is a lot more than just our government. One of the typical complaints people make about the left is how you are ashamed of our country, which we see expressed over and over again. Michael Moore talks about how much better France is at the Cannes, for instance. Obama’s wife talks about how, for the first time in her adult life, she’s finally proud of her country. Pastor Wright says black Americans should say, “God Damn America” instead of “God Bless America”. Almost always, when approaching any issue, America is seen as the primary problem, even though it is usually among the best nations in the world, if not the best. Case in point: how many times in the past 8 years has the Patriot act been brought up as a point for why we can’t lecture other nations on human rights and freedom? But how many cases can you cite where someone’s rights were abused by the patriot act? And how much were they abused compared to the flagrant abuses of any totalitarian state around the world?
Quote”Pastor Wright says black Americans should say, “God Damn America” instead of “God Bless America”. ”
No you took that out of context to support your opinion. He did not say “God Damn America” He is saying “God damns” America for the sins he thinks it committed. He is talking about a deity damning a nation. I always thought this was obvious but too many people are just listening to a sound bite.
I could say the same about McCain and how he might offend other countries because he said ” “I hated the gooks. I will hate them as long as I live.” But I know its taken out of context and he was speaking about a time period and what he went through.
Pastor Wright’s exact words were, “The government passes a three strike law and then wants us to sing, ‘God Bless America’? No, No, No! God Damn America!”
Its pretty clear from that statement that my interpretation is correct, not yours.
Even without Pastor Wright, we can look at Obama’s behavior directly: He’s the one who made a big stink about not saluting the flag during the national anthem – which perhaps highlights my point more than anything else. That flag, to millions of Americans (and foreigners around the world!) represents freedom, hope, and opportunity. Our soldiers have struggled and died to raise that flag over tyranny around the world – not to conquer, but to extend those freedoms to people everywhere; Europe, Asia, most recently in Iraq and Afghanistan (You can argue that these wars were fought for other causes, and you wouldn’t be incorrect, but they were also fought to bring the Iraqis and Afghanis their freedom). Our soldiers are proud of that flag. Our citizens are proud that that flag has been raised over the most brutal regimes in the world, and proud of the soldiers who have done that raising. Barack Obama does not feel that that flag is worthy of the respect of being saluted.
In general, it is only the liberals in this country who are not proud of our soldiers (anti-war groups frequently consider them nothing more than killers; anti-war groups that are almost universally associated with the political left) and the flag they raise for freedom’s sake. These same liberal groups, in addition to being ashamed of our current government, tend to be ashamed of the U.S. for nearly every other activity it does or does not participate in around the world, regardless of the logic of their reasoning. The U.S. should be blamed because we’re not involved in Darfur, but because we are involved in Iraq and Afghanistan, for instance.
Look at Obama’s response to the question of whether there was evil in this world, and how it should be dealt with. His response started with, “Well, I think evil does exist in this world, and I believe in confronting it squarely.” All fine and good. But then he goes on to spend the next minute discussing how much evil we’ve done in this world in the name of good. That attitude right there is exactly the type of thing I’m talking about, where liberals blame America first for every problem in the world. Sure, many activities the U.S. has engaged in haven’t been resolved perfectly. But the left constantly looks for a way to blame the ills of the world on the U.S., rather than realize that in most cases the U.S. fixed the previous problem, and a new, usually less worrisome problem now remains.
Quote”Pastor Wright’s exact words were, “The government passes a three strike law and then wants us to sing, ‘God Bless America’? No, No, No! God Damn America!”
Its pretty clear from that statement that my interpretation is correct, not yours.”
Your interpretation is wrong because your not understanding the sentence at all “God Bless America” means “God – blesses – America” The oppositte of “bless” in the English language is “damn” He is NOT saying HE is damning American he is saying GOD is. its right there in your quote he said it you quoted it.
And when you mention “soldiers” do you want to know how many of “US” soldiers voted for Kerry? Quite a lot in my unit does not mean we are over there truly believe in it but do it because we have to.
And Obama is correct we go blowing up everything we become evil ourselves, its apparent if you read what he said.
And the whole lapel pin/yellow ribbon magnet/flag = patriotism is the easy crutch that many Americans use/wear to feel patriotic while they watch the war on television and think “I am doing my part”. Mean while recruitment is an all time low and we reduce recruiting standards 3 times now that we accept felons in the military.
That is not liberalism that is conservatives failing to act on their words and expect “somebody” else to do it.
So because when you say “God bless America” you mean “God blesses America” rather than the “God Bless America” that most Americans mean (regardless of what the original meaning may have been when it was originally scribed), you’re claiming that Pastor Wright means “God blesses America” as well? Amazing. Look, a lot of Shakespearean plays are absolutely filled with what was innuendo at the time it was written. Now we use Shakespearean quotes all over the time, and rarely attach any of the original erotic meaning to them.
How many U.S. soldiers voted for Kerry? Not nearly as many as voted for Bush. I was at Kerry’s speech, where he gave up before Ohio was even finished being counted. Why? His reason, correct, was that he would have had to win something like 80% of the absentee votes of the state, the vast majority of which were from soldiers, the vast majority of which were voting for Bush.
As for the lapel pin/yellow ribbon magnet, I wasn’t talking about that, although Obama made a big stink about that as well. No, I was talking about the fact that Obama doesn’t want to salute the flag. Yes, it is just a symbol, but its a symbol that matters to a lot of us.
Sure, military recruitment is down – but the greatest untold success story of our military of the past several years, besides the success of the surge, is that reenlistment rates are at record highs. If our soldiers have such a problem with our military policies, why do they keep on reenlisting?
Quote”Sure, military recruitment is down – but the greatest untold success story of our military of the past several years, besides the success of the surge, is that reenlistment rates are at record highs. If our soldiers have such a problem with our military policies, why do they keep on reenlisting?”
Its the economy, we couldn’t keep Marines in during the Clinton era because the economy was good which resulted in larger military pay increases and bonuses. Now bonuses are higher due to a war and people are reenlisting because the transition is much harder to the civilian world.
ALSO and this is a huge reason is that the military is having a big baby boom due to extended and repeated overseas tours. Once you have kids in the military it is really hard to get out due to benefits.
Another thing is that soldiers are giving overwhelmingly for Obama than McCain which might be due to our repeated deployments which has broken our military.
We are supposed to be on a three year rotation
1 year in country
1 year repairing/replacing
1 year training for redepoyment
now it is 1 year in 1 year out and juggle broken equipment.
Too bad for you unemployment has been lower during Bush’s time in office than Clinton’s time in office. And the economy has been better, with the exception of this current year and 2001. And reenlistment has been high not just for this year, but for the past several.
The soldiers are giving overwhelmingly for Obama study that you are no doubt quoting is this one:
http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/08/troops-deployed-abroad-give-61.html
which is somewhat infamous for having been taken at a time when only something like 323 soldiers had given to either campaign. That’s like if the first soldier had given to Obama and the press issued a report saying that Obama received all of the money the troops gave. Its technically true, but statistically insignificant.
Plus, with the way Obama snubbed the troops multiple times on his overseas trips, I’m sure that’s revised many troops opinions of him.
Well actually I am speaking from first hand knowledge since I am actually in the military only a few soldiers I know donated to McCain. that story of Obama snubbing the troops is so lame and wrong, when he went over there the troops went nuts over him far more than the McCain visit.
Believe it or not many of us after many,many,many deployments do not agree with our current Middle East policy its not that hard to believe.
I was in Germany last summer and ran into the unit I deployed with and they were going back just after 9 months stateside, morale was down from the guys I spoke with and they lost a few from drug usage/discharge, of course if you put them in front of the camera on Foxnews you will get the positive story of course.
I didn’t say how the troops viewed Obama when he went overseas. I was talking about how Obama snubbed the troops. He skipped meeting with them in Germany (although he did take the time to visit the German troops) because he was told he couldn’t bring reporters in with him. In Iraq, he only visited with the troops long enough to take photos, and didn’t spend any time with them. Quite a few troops at the scene were disappointed. I can dig up the links if you don’t believe me. Obama snubbed the troops, regardless of how they felt about him.
Incedentally, where are you going with this? How does this relate back to the argument of whether Obama is ashamed of America or not?
No clue guess we got sidetracked lol.
Bush snubbed the troops as well, when he came to Iraq they prescreened us before his “Christmas” dinner. Quite a few of us who depending on how we answered their questions were not allowed to be in the chowhall when he was there. Its all politics.
If that got out the press could spin that as “dissing the troops”. Its all lame regardless.