On Tuesday, I happened upon a FoxNews.com headline saying, “Obama Urges Voters to Take Day Off From Work to Help Campaign on Election Day.” The article is fine. Nothing really worth mentioning, but then there is a “You Decide Forum” where readers weigh in with their opinions.
First, here’s the ad:
Next, here are some of the responses from the forum:
Comment by John Counts
October 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pmLet My People Go, On Nov. 4th What a Joke.So why not make it a Marksist Holiday?Call it Obamaween.
<!––> Comment by Tammy
Obviously Obama supporters lack the work ethic and drive of McCain supporters. They are most likely living off the state as it is. God help us if he wins.
Yes, taking the day off is Marxist. Like Christmas, that Marxist of all days, what with the sharing of gifts (a kind of redistribution of wealth).
Comment by Ed Huite
October 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pmSure. Most OBama supporters are not workers to begin with, so why not have the day off. They probably still won’t vote. They will be reveling in glee in how Obama is going to send them a check from his redistribution plans.
<!––> Comment by Don
Obama supporters can take the day off because conservatives will no doubt be working, as always.
This is characteristic of the “us versus them” mentality that widens the gap between the left and right. The right often looks at the left as lazy leeches who believe in taking away the fruits of the “real Americans’” hard labor. I discussed this with a freshman composition class yesterday as we analyzed the arguments on this forum. These are students who are largely uniformed about politics and, in most cases, don’t understand the differences in position between the left and right – some are even unsure who is running for president! I kid you not! Last week, one indicated that Palin was running against Obama! Anyway, yesterday, one student, who had earlier made an impassioned (but subdued enough to still seem cool) argument that election day should be a national holiday because it’s important to vote asked quite quite sincerely, “isn’t [helping poor people] what the givernment is for?” Perhaps it gets down to the fundamental differences:
- The left believes the government exists to help the poor and increase equality
- The right believes the government exists to protect the people and increase freedom
These are both noble positions, but from them has evolved an adversarial relationship that breeds hostility even without consideration of root differences.
To show a similar reactionary hostility, I showed my students comments from the Huffington post article on Palin’s wardrobe that I commented on October 25th.
The left and the right are at each other’s throats, and they communicate like Bill O’Reily sitting down with Keith Olbermann. Neither listens to the other because they’ve already decided the other is the source of all that is evil in America, so they shout over each other and pad their own senses of rightness. I asked my students, who were only shown portions of the comments and were not told the source, who the audiences were and what the purpose of the comments were. Overwhelmingly, they guessed through rhetorical and context clues that the audience was people who already agreed with the authors and that the purpose was to reassure each other of their position – hating Obama and “liberals” in some cases, hating McCain and “conservative” in others. There were plenty of exceptions to the latter:
Comment by Rose October 28th, 2008 at 1:20 pm
I can’t wait until Nov 5th!!!! You Right Wingers are such a joke!!! You just can’t stand the fact that you will not win, or STEAL, this one!!! Cry me a river!!!!!!! Boo Hoo Hoo
Clearly, the audience is conservatives and the author is not one. The purpose? Flaming. Letting off steam. Needling. Reinforcing the divide.
Here’s another left comment that is nothing but self-serving and is worthy of comment because, well you’ll see:
<!–SOME OF YOU PEOPLE STRAIGHT MORON, YES I AM SUPPORTING OBAMA I DO HAVE AND COLLEGE DEGREE AND I WORK EVERYDAY AS AN TEACHER. I MAY EVEN BE YOUR CHILD TEACHER. ,
I don’t think that person is lying. I have known some teachers who just could not write. There’s another one.
Here’s one of many that ignore a major point of the ad:
<!–Real productive; let my leave my patients and colleagues while I go vote during my shift.
Frightening!
The ad doesn’t say “abandon your responsibilities.” It says “talk to your boss.” If your boss needs you, Obama isn’t advocating that you skip out.
<!––> Comment by Connie
October 28th, 2008 at 1:08 pm Go ahead, take the day off, it will be your last.
If you are my employee, don’t come back on Wednesday, the temp who NEEDS the job claimed it.
Ask some employers for the day off to support Obama, and they’ll fire you. Nice.
