Why? Because the average person benumbed by the dumbing down of the country has an OPINION (the only "right" opinion, of course) on those ... and it's the last firewall surrounding their battered, tired, stressed out hearts.

If there's ANYTHING that proves the truth of what Obama said, it's the fact that folks went IMMEDIATELY to CODE RED and formed battle squares. "Who does he think he is to suggest we're not God-loving?" (He didn't.) "Who does he think he is to claim we only like guns because we're bitter?" (He didn't.)

"Bitter"? Fuck yes. We've been bitter so long we can't remember when we weren't. Turned off. Tuned out. "They're ALL liars and crooks!" (Clue: Cynicism is a symptom of that bitterness.) Do we find ways to "smell the roses"? Sure. Some go to church. (And pray for a job.) Some go hunting. (If they can still afford the ammo.)

Why the hell is it that the predominant way the politicians have roused their rabble is by raising the specter of "God, guns and gays"??

Want an OBVIOUS example? How many times have we seen posts that proclaim the MOST important thing is to keep the right wing from getting yet another Supreme Court Justice ... and protecting Roe v. Wade??? There's a Pavlovian bell for you! FORGET the off-shoring and wholesale evisceration of our economy! FORGET the giveaways to the wealthy! FORGET the ever widening and deepening chasm between the "ownership class" and the "working class"! OMIGOD!!! They want to control my WOMB!!

Just ring that bell and watch all the stuff that's more difficult to deal with get thrown under the bus. FOrget jobs, for crissakes ... they're fucking with CHOICE! (Guess what? That's been going on for 100 years. It works. It reduces everything to knee-jerk and folks forget that it hasn't got a FUCKING THING TO DO WITH Political Systems or theories and principles of governance. The ONLY reason it's a partisan issue is because it works for BOTH "sides."

The "values" people. Even after they've lost their jobs, they still have "values." Well, of COURSE we do! So THREATEN them!

Whenever I think DU has reached some low point in rational discourse, it goes right ahead and finds and even lower point ... and the Hillbots have sure shown the way to the SEWER.

There isn't a goddamned thing that Obama said that isn't obvious. But the things some people are suggesting he said were just not said. Folks that peddle that shit are either lying (we call it "spin" but it's a lie) or functionally illiterate fools.


Sheesh!