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The Daily Show provides way more than laughs. But, you probably knew that already. On Monday, they did this piece where they interviewed people at Palin and Obama rallies. You should watch it if you haven’t already, but I’ll sum it up this way: McCain supporters are terrified of an Obama presidency; they think that America as they know it will cease to exist. Obama supporters are terrified of a McCain presidency; they don’t think this country can take another four years, and the very thought of a President Palin makes them want to cry.
Of course, I identify with the Obama supporters. To me, this is not just politics. We have to do something, and electing McCain would be the equivalent of doing nothing. It’s emotional. It’s serious. It’s scary.
But, how do I make sense of these fervent McCain supporters who feel the same urgency I do, but think so differently about the solutions we need? I think they’re wrong. Maybe that’s arrogant or pretentious, but we cannot all be right. So, that’s how I continue to support Obama in the face of opposition.
But, what do we do with a country that’s so polarized, especially in a time of such crisis? I don’t know. I really don’t. As others have characterized him, I think that Obama is a unifying figure. Unlike McCain-Palin, his message is not divisive, and it’s not about fear. Still, there are people who won’t come around. I hear them repeat those tired and untrue claims about Obama the Muslim terrorist socialist, and I think, “How can you believe that crap? Where is your reason?”
It always happens with The Daily Show. As soon as I stop laughing, I become a little more discouraged about the state of this great nation of ours (to borrow a line from Palin).
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Is there a FAIL politics? because everyone who says Obama is muslim needs to be featured on it.
The ugly answer is that most of the population isn’t educated, so they are more willing to believe whatever lies right wing radio talk show hosts such as Limbaugh spews.
The other day I saw Sean Hannity’s special in-depth report on Obama and I had to stop watching after a while. The editing was atrocious. He would say something such as, “Look at how Obama wants to teach Kindergartners sex education,” and then the clip would show Obama laughing and saying the same thing, and before he could say anything else it would cut back to Hannity.
If you didn’t know any better, you wouldn’t have known that Obama was poking fun at the extremists who equate sex education with life saving skills being taught to Kindergartners to protect them from sexual predators. By default it might fall under the sexual education category, but obviously once you know about the plan it’s not the same thing.
Can you imagine what these people think when news reporters say, “I’m so scared of an Obama Presidency. He’s a socialist.” We’re taught to believe that news media should be unbiased, so if you’re favorite anchor Sean Hannity fears for America, then wouldn’t you?
I know that sort of generalizes a lot of the McCain/Palin supporters, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that played a larger role into why people support them instead of Obama.
I love Stewart, but what amazes me is how focused the Democrats are on the issues versus how focused the Republicans are on the person. This is even how it was with Clinton: Republicans saw a man who was faulty, while Democrats saw a candidate who was good for Americans.