So, I was driving my kids to their respective after school activities yesterday, when all of a sudden, I see, in the bleakness of crabgrass growing on the easement, a sign, white background, bold red print and it says “OBAMA OUT, G-D IN, VOTE ROMNEY .” I was so irritated I couldn’t stand it, I had to yell out in the car, “Kids, THAT is offensive, to suggest that people who vote for Obama vote against G-d.” I continued my explanation that G-d is neither Republican or Democrat, and certainly NOT interested in political parties ,but, instead, concerned about about our own personal behavior towards one another.
Apparently these signs were all over the Haymarket area, by the entrance to the Boy Scouts Camp, Camp Schneider, all along route 15, even lining James Long Park.
Do people actually believe this kind of exclusionary message works? Do people believe it will draw more votes?
My ten year old son said it best last night. He said, “Mom, listen, when people say mean things it pushes other people away. Maybe that is why John McCain lost, he said things that pushed people away. I don’t even think Mitt Romney would approve of those signs. You should be glad they are up, all it does it make those people look bad and make people not want to vote for Romney.”
Whether those signs will have that effect, I don’t know, but, as I contemplated my son’s grown up words, I realized, even more importantly than this election, I have a wise and thoughtful kid.
Out of the mouth of babes……..
Of course, the Democrats booed God when God was put back into the platform…against their wishes.
Instead of being derogatory, perhaps that sign is just accurately describing the wishes of the Democrat party.
Cargo,
Why, why would you choose, as a smart guy, to say something so woefully inaccurate. The delegates were booing the process of the change, not G-d, good grief!
Personally, its pathetic to think that having G-d in your platform actually brings about compassion and empathy. I think that 47% would wonder where G-d was in Romney statement that lacked total compassion and instead was full of disdain for his fellow Americans.
I know I am a heathen Jew, but I am pretty sure the message of Jesus was to care for your less fortunate brethern, the poor, the sick, that whole leprosy thing right? I am going out on a limb here, so stay with me, but I think that some of those people I have described might, just might, fit into that 47% ………….
Yes, Romney, he sure does have a direct line to the message of G-d 🙁 ……………… NOT.
@Cargosquid
That is just effen offensive. They weren’t booing God, they were booing trying to cram him down everyone’s throat like they owned him and because their vote had just been negated.
How many elections are you all going to have to lose before you wake up to the fact that this is a pluralistic society and that not everyone wants God to go to the polls with them?
I started in here to tell Elena that her sign fit right in with the main threadI put up for today…about the angry elephant when I stumbled on the Cargo comment. I actually didn’t hear booing either.
@Elena
I wonder who put those signs up. What possesses someone to do something that disrespectful?
God, God, God, Goddy-God-God! Goooooooooooooooooooooooood! 🙂
@slowpokerodriguez
May I ask your age?
@punchak
42
@Elena
You are correct, Elena. However, Jesus taught that it was an individual responsibility to care for the poor. He did not demand that the government (Roman or Jewish) should take care of the poor and starving. It is not an act of compassion to take care of the unfortunate when it’s mandated by government.
If you get past the class warfare and delve a little more deeply, you would see that Romney has a history of generous charitable giving and altruistic good deeds. Obama’s record is good since he came under national scrutiny, but not before. I give Romney far more chops for his personal record than Obama’s record of using the government to dramatically expand the number of Americans receiving aid.
Government should be used to provide temporary assistance to get people back on their feet. Long term welfare (not social security!) should be phased out (with some exceptions like for the mentally challenged), because it amounts to redistribution of wealth and removes incentive to become productive.
@Kelly, I don’t recall biblical teachings being specific about where the charity was to come from. Local govt was fairly entrenched in synagogues. Does it matter if you toss a coin in a cup? Give at church? Give to some place like the Red Cross? I don’t think it matters.
You could also not have a religious bone in your body and still feel the ethical need to take care of those who cannot take care of themselves.
Tell me, would you just let people starve to death?
I think we probably don’t know a lot about what we have traditonally thought of as welfare. I include myself in that also.
Mr. Howler is still bitching about a program that ended in 1996. 🙄
After all the negative comments directed at productive and successful people by Obama, one passage from Romney and the entire world is up in arms. Sort of like what’s going on in the middle east, or at least the same mindset in action.
What are some of those negative comments directed at productive and successful people? I can’t think of any.
All I can think of is Sandra Fluke being called a slut by rush Limbaugh.
Elena- faith and faith through acts are totally different.
The Holy Roman Empoers thought their right to rule was divine, they died out.
I just went back through these comments and no one has commented on what Elena wrote about.
I am equally guilty.
Does anyone have an opinion about someone putting out an offensive sign like that?
They were booing because they did not like it that the Democrats demonstrated their ideas of democracy.
They were booing that having removed God from the platform, the PR flacks of the Democrats forced a fake vote to put God back in.
Thus, the idea of having God mentioned in the platform was unpopular. Thus, they booed when God was put back into the platform.
Personally I don’t care if God is in either platform.
They booed because of how it was done…it over-rode their wishes. So what. They weren’t booing God.
How would you know anyway? Do you have the inside track on the democratic mind?
Ironic, “They booed because of how it was done…it over-rode their wishes.”, that’s how a lot of people feel about Obama’s actions pushing Obamacare down the nation’s throat. I guess the results of that vote was the Dems form of democracy in action. Majority, what majority, we don’t need no stinking majority!
Let’s distinguish between some of the Democrats who were at the convention and the nation as a whole.
There was no shortage of booing on the Capitol grounds the day that thing was signed–ACA. The booers on the Capitol grounds didn’t boo for all non democrats.
I happen to believe that thinking people can find ways to express themselves better but that’s just me.
SA, you might end up liking AcA. You never know. What is it that you hate about it at the moment? I am curious.
I’m not as upset about Obamacare as I am about the way it was pushed through to law. That was the point of my last post, and your quote brings up a stunning example of just how it was done while on national TV. If that type of democracy is what you look forward to within your own party, then have at it.
SA, I am an independent who leans Democrat, not for the party but the policies.
I am not sure how any thing gets enacted into law these days. I think you at least separate what from how.
I fear most things will pass like that from here on out.
That is how I feel about all those reproductive issues that got slammed through Virginia last session and then as late as last week, so while I don’t necessarily agree, I understand where you are coming from.
I don’t see what is so offensive suggesting that Romney and the Republicans are much more closely representative of our religious values than the secular and certainly ant-religous views of the Democrates, be it with respect to the first amendment and the Catholic Church’s stance on condoms, separation of church and state vice separation from church and state, charity vs welfare and government dependence or its stance on abortion. The spin offerred here regarding the booing of God versus the booing of the process is laughable and does not come close to fitting with the video. It is like arguing that Bengazi was about our insensitivity to muslems in a video clip vice simple murderous hateful anti-American terrorism. Christ does tell us to give unto Ceaser what is Ceasers but to then give unto God that which is his, your faith, worship, and obedeiance to his law. That is exhibited, in part, by individual good works, love of neighbor and charity, but these are not the end all nor are they alone sufficient for salvation – old or new testement.
one question–do you really think the Democrats were booing God and why do you think that if yes?
Blue said :
I suppose it depends on who “our” is. Do you really think that the Democrats have anti-religious views? Sorry, I find that very offensive. Just because religious views differ from yours doesn’t make them more or less religious.
Blacks, Latinos, Whites, Jews, all have big blocks of voters in the Democratic party. You don’t find a more devote group of people than the religious black community. Latinos? I always thought they were very devote also. Whites–Lots of what I could call liberal Catholics in that mix as well as lots of folks from the more liberal protestant churches. Most of them are heavily into first amendment separation of Church and state mainly because they don’t want to have to suffer though religion consuming them in the public square.
Jews–heavy jewish block with the Dems. Many Jews are religious. I certainly don’t think that Republicans own religion as far as their political party goes.
Now, I would say that even though the Democrats have deeply religious people as part of the party, many would rather not have that dragged into the platform. Most Democrats do believe strongly in separation of church and state. They welcome those who are secular without putting them through the religious litmus test.
You obviously want more from your political party than I want from mine.
I will have to think about your last part…that sounded a little like a sermon. That’s fine for church but not for political party. Its the reason that so many people like me left the republican part in the 80s. The tent was getting a little too smallfor all of us.
I agree that having God listed in your political platform is irrelevent. Compassion and empathy are personal traits. Communisim was compasionate if you accept that the intent was/is to make everyone equal and to provide for the everyone’s basic needs. Its the coersion and loss of individual freedom that becomes the problem. In every case, the first step was to kill off the churches as an alternative power base, then eliminate free speech through correctness, increase dependency through food and health care and then coorelate individual prosperity to conformance.
To say that the 47% would wonder where God was in Romney statement, suggests a very, very limited understandig of the man, his faith in Christ and and his church.
@Moon-howler
“Do you really think that the Democrats have anti-religious views? Yes. I think the Democratic Party has been completely taken over by the radicals of the 60s in ways that many or even most Democrates do not yet understand. To say that the current Democratic Party is the secular party is understating it and is politically correct.
@Blue, I would say then that you know very little about the democratic party.
How come you think you understand the radicals of the 60s and the Democrats dont?
I think the radicals of the 60s are fairly irrelevant now. Most of them settled down and became strong capitalists.
@Moon-howler
I strongly disagree. When the Clinton DLC was ousted it was the radical socialists that moved in. That was the real fight during the 2007-8 primaries and they have now solidified their hold on the party. Consider those that surround him; its not just that they come out of the Daly machine.
Blue, are you trying to convince me you are a Democrat? It isn’t working.
Old 60’s radicals. Not so much. they ar ekeeping them pretty well hidden.
Geez NO, but are you going to deny your flower girl roots now too?
And for what its worth, I kind of admire those who have been able to hold on to Peace, Love and Woodstock. Insanity is a good defense.
@blue
Afraid there are no flower girl roots. I was engaged to a Marine who was a Vietnam Vet in the pre-Mr. Howler days. He was a local business man working for an oil company.
I don’t know why you think you know me. The only thing flower girl about me was ironed hair and an occassional joint–very occassional.
Conservatives Sowed Idea of Health Care Mandate, Only to Spurn It Later
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/health/policy/health-care-mandate-was-first-backed-by-conservatives.html?_r=0
Maybe some of you are too young to remember….