This is why Republicans win elections!

[WVRevy]

This...all this crap in this forum from people deriding Obama for giving what is being WIDELY considered one of the best and most important speeches on race relations in this country in the past 30 years. People saying things like "He threw his grandmother under the bus" and "he still supports Wright" are the exact same people that the Repugs are targeting with smear attacks like the swift boating of John Kerry.

Obama took the stage yesterday with faith that Americans are smart enough and adult enough to be able to look at an extremely complex and nuanced issue and see that any solutions offered are going to have to be equally complex. He took the stage and decided to treat us like ADULTS for once, instead of repeating any campaign slogans often enough that it would sink through thick skulls and reach people that can't be bothered with more than sound bytes. He showed faith in US, as Americans, to understand how he could disagree vehemently with Reverend Wright, but still see the good in the man and everything he has done in his life.

But with an awful lot of people here, it seems that faith was misplaced. With an awful lot of people here - and on Repug sites that Freepers frequent - it seems he'd have been better off pandering to their delecate - and obviously WHITE - sensibilities. He should have come out and torn down Wright as evil and not worth respect, regardless of any accomplishments he may have had. He should have just repeated over-and-over-and-over his condemnation of the MAN, rather than the words. That, I'm sure, some people would have been able to understand. Forget nuance...forget complexity...forget circumstance and context. Let's dumb it down as much as possible so Joe Six-pack won't have to actually THINK about anything.

Simply put, if we dumb down the argument - any argument, really - we lose. The Repugs have us beat six-ways-from Sunday when it comes to simply expressing their "solutions". The liberal argument is the intellectual argument 95% of the time, and it takes more than a paragraph - or a sound byte - to make that argument. You can't argue "Choice" without using reason against emotion. You can't argue "equality for all" without using logic to combat fear. And you sure as hell can't argue "Race" without talking about how things need to change on ALL sides of the equation. The Repugs can't make those arguments. They just CAN'T. When it comes to specifics, their argument almost always falls apart.

But here, on this very board, we have any number of people that seem to be arguing for running on the Repug's terms. Obama gives perhaps the most impressive political speech of my lifetime (stretching back to the VERY early 70's), and all people can come up with are slams about throwing his grandmother under the bus and more slams for not throwing Wright - a family friend and someone he has a 20 year relationship with - far ENOUGH under.

I'm honestly starting to think whoever said "We get the government we deserve," was absolutely right...And I'm not sure this country DESERVES the president Barack Obama could be.