[Homestead] Obama fans, what say ye?

Clansgian at wmconnect.com Clansgian at wmconnect.com
Mon Apr 14 14:09:00 EDT 2008



> Only if YOU have THAT bias, that take on meaning. How is it deeply  
> offensive to you--he did not refer to someone in your circumstances at  
> all.

Are you making the 'no dog in the fight' argument?  We can only take offense 
if a candiate says offensive things about us directly?

>And surely you have an  
understanding that your lifestyle biases how you see the far different  

choice made by the rest of the population.





So .... since the rural Pennsylvanians have different values than the rest of 
the country (although they aren't that far off), then it's OK for Obama to 
beliitle them?





Here's the quote:



"And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion 
or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or 
anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."





Let's distill it to the parts in question, it doesn't change it grammatically 
to do so:



"..they cling to guns or religion ... as a way to explain their frustrations."



How is it possible to read this as not being pejorative??    Try some 
grammatically parallel sentences:

Gene plants cherry trees as a way to have cherry pies.
Don drives 1000 miles as a way of getting to Heartwood.

In every construction like that the common interpretation of the English 
language is one only does the first in order to accomplish the second.  Obama is 
saying that people "cling" to guns and religion in order to explain their 
frustration.  NOT because those are things they value.

Let's try another parallel construction:

Gene goes to Heartwood each spring as a way of beating his bad debts in 
Phoenix.

Gene might remonstrate that he has no bad debts to beat and that he goes to 
Heartwood for entirely different reasons than that.  Do you well to take 
offense at the above comment?

Likewise those caught in Obama's wide net (supporters of gun rights and 
religious rights) take offense by saying they are not attempting to explain away 
their frustrations and they support those rights for entirely different reasons 
than Obama states.









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