FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Posted by highlysuspect on July 28, 2010 in politics, Will's articles |

In the 1980s, Ronald Reagan bridged the gap between Republicans and Democrats and served 2 terms as President of the United States. How did this occur? Simple. A coalition of Republicans and Democrats, joined forces to form an unbeatable alliance of Americans who were fed up with the policies and, the failings of Jimmy Carter. One of those failings being the Iranian hostage situation. Now, how did this coalition form? The Republican Party became the self-titled ” party of inclusion”. What that means is this, the Republican party began a campaign of tolerance and acceptance. They became willing to accept the fact that people had different beliefs and values, thus creating a bipartisan coalition. Over time, we have seen this policy erode probably to the point of no return. That became extremely obvious to me yesterday.

Over the last 2o years or so, we have witnessed the emergence of conservative political commentators such as Rush Limbaugh, aka the ” voice of conservativism “, Sean Hannity, Ann Coulter, the most controversial columnist out there, Glen Beck and a few others. One of those others being Michele Malkin. Malkin is a contributor to a conservative publication called ” Human Events”. Her book, ” Culture of Corruption ” is on the New York Times #1 best seller’s list. Yesterday, while on the wildly popular social networking site Facebook, I came across a post on the Human Events page which said ” Michelle Malkin: There are an estimated 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming alone — enough to potentially free us from Saudi oil dependence. Yet as Obama’s interior secretary, Salazar has wielded his power to halt plans to lease oil shale rights in the West. ” It is a quote from her recent article titled ” The Democrat’s War on the West. ” Well, I happen to disagree with part of this statement, that part being ” enough to potentially free us from Saudi oil dependence. ” I don’t agree that America is dependent on Saudi oil, so, naturally, I posted a comment. That comment, in its entirety said this ” Less than 20% of the amount of oil America uses a day comes from the middle east. It doesn’t sound like we’re dependent on Saudi oil. As an American who, strives for truth in politics and government, I find it necessary to ask you to refrain from misleading the public in this fashion. I agree with you in principle that Secretary Salazar is dead wrong. America must continue to utilize domestic oil sources and other energy forms. ” I felt Malkin’s statement was inaccurate and misleading. I still do. Well, after posting my comment, the flood gates opened. One person commented that I was not being honest because I did not include the percentages from other countries. My response was ” My point was one particular statement in the article. I felt insulted by it because I knew differently. I knew the statement wasn’t factual. These kinds of deceptions lead to things like the ” Fairness doctrine “. BS is still BS even if it comes from a Republican. It is a deceptive statement and I stand by my comment. I don’t believe any good comes from getting anything from countries of that ilk. There has to be a better way and a better source. Maybe we should find out how much it would hurt to cut off whatever percentage of oil we get from the Middle East. I’ll tell you right now , that source would be replaced in a hurry. ” Another commenter posted this gem ” From the U.S. Energy Information Administration:
“In 2008, about 57% of the petroleum consumed by the United States was imported from foreign countries.”

Can you read Willard? OVER 50% of our consumption is IMPORTED!

Why do we need to import that amount?!?! My response was this, ” insulting my intelligence gets you this. Malkin’s statement that I commented on was about America being dependent on SAUDI OIL! Maybe YOU should learn how to read. Or, more importantly, learn some comprehension! Let me put this in easy terms so the less learned like yourself can understand AMERICA IS NOT DEPENDENT ON SAUDI OIL! It is wrong to state that we are.
One thing I do agree with, we do import way too much oil. I believe i touched on that in my first comment. This person responded with ” In order to insult something it must be possessed. ” Now, I may not be the brightest bulb in the lamp, but I certainly am not a moron. Another person made this comment ” f you want to know what people like Willard W Masters are up to buy “Rules For Radicals” by Saul Alinski and “The Coming Insurrection” by The Invisible Committee. He is looking at RFR for tactics and TCI for strategy. Here is a link: ” Obviously, I will not post the link. This same person referred to me as a ” socialist poser “. That comment was removed from the page. This went on and on and, is still going on. One of my most important comments was this ” Its funny how Republicans accuse democrats of name calling and insults when we don’t agree with them. Yet, its perfectly acceptable for one republican to do the exact same thing to a fellow republican when he disagrees with one of the ” lords of conservativeism “! The last time I checked, I had a right to my opinion and, a right to express that opinion. ( Names removed ), I don’t know who gave you two gentlemen the right to call me uneducated and a socialist poser, and at this point I really don’t care. The fact of the matter is, I will continue to express my opinion the way I see fit and I don’t care who doesn’t like it! I have never been, nor will I ever be a member of anyone’s flock! ”

There has been some back-peddling on the part of one of those who made comments.

I guess what it comes down to is, the Republican Party’s policy of tolerance and acceptance died with Ronald Reagan. It has been replaced with the ” if you’re not with us, you’re against us ” policy. Translation, if you don’t blindly follow the rantings of the ” lords of conservativeism ” you are the enemy.

So much for the idea of thinking for ourselves, and, the concepts of free speech and expression.

Share

Copyright © 2005-2024 Raweditorial All rights reserved.
This site is using the Desk Mess Mirrored theme, v2.5, from BuyNowShop.com.