Brainwashing Our School Children

The issue that really helped me focus on what I could do with this blog was President Obama's first address to school children, back in September of 2009. Just an example, but check out some of the comments below this right-wing column. People were extraordinarily upset that the President was going to address their children and use the opportunity to indoctrinate them in some way.

Two people I know talked to me about what a bad thing they thought this was. I asked each of them if they would have had the same reaction if George W. Bush had addressed school children. They both claimed rather energetically that they would have. They are both full of shit.

I found it interesting that, less than 8 months into his term in office, people hated Obama so much that they invented this type of irrational opposition to such a benign event. I think it shows that, from the day he took office, millions of Americans hated Barack Obama, for no reason other than that some right-wing pundit, or politician, or acquaintance, told them they should.

I also noticed a year later that when Obama addressed kids again, nothing happened. That issue just got dropped, and I had not even thought about it until I saw an article pointing out that there were no protests this year. I realized that there is constant, overwhelming, barrage of this kind of stuff coming from right wing media every day. There is so much of it that we forget some of it, but it does the damage it is intended to do.

So I decided to chronicle as much of the worst stuff as I can. When the next election comes, I want to be able to go back and remind people of all the many, many lies the Republican Party counts on to keep its base coming back.