Response to the Response Going 'Round

I have no business background. I am the stay at home mom of five children. I eat bon bons all day and listen to Conservative Talk Radio. I would watch Fox news, but we don't choose to have cable. I think I read a book once in college, but I can't remember what it was, unless you count Diary of a Wimpy Kid, I read that five times. I am probably a racist at heart, except that one of my children is Asian and one is African. That causes a bit of a problem for me. I could figure out what to do about the contradiction, but I never actually think about anything. I would carry a sign with some bit of propaganda on it, but I can never find anything other than a purple crayon in my house.

In truth, I am pretty sure I have no marketable qualities what so ever. Yet, I have a stake in the future of this country. Those five little souls in my care force me to do so. I would like to think I have spent some time in forming my intelligence and character. The author of the response would probably prefer to believe me to be the bon bon eating, racist robot. Oh well.

Lou Pritchett, you scare me.
In many ways, you are probably no different from many other retired executives, but unlike the others, you scare me.
You scare me because you seek to leverage the credibility you achieved in the business world in order to justify your self appointed role as political commentator, despite the fact that you have not demonstrated that you possess the knowledge or the judgment to serve in that role.
As the main problem with the Obama agenda from the Tea Party Movement, be it cap and trade, health care, stimulus, or the take over of banks and car companies is economic, it seems that someone who has lived in the midst of the capitalistic system of America for so many years may have a stake and a credibility others may not. It is also his Constitutional right to express these views. Even Kyle in the basement can express an opinion in this country. However, if he begins to be listened to, he better watch his back.
You scare me because you do not have enough intellectual curiosity to look beyond the propaganda and lies coming from the right and actually take the time to pursue the readily available facts about our President before engaging in a misinformation campaign of your own. I see no facts in your own “intelligent” response.
You scare me because you have chosen to serve as a conduit for some of the most scurrilous lies and misrepresentations about the President, either out of ignorance or out of malice. Again, do you have proof or just left wing talking points as your own “intelligent” response?
You scare me because you challenge the right of all Americans who have spent part of their upbringing on foreign soil to call themselves Americans, including the sons and daughters of our service men and women, as well as the children of those in the our diplomatic corps. As you challenge the right of those who make their living in the business sector and the new media to speak as anything other than greedy hate mongers.
You scare me because you fail to appreciate the wisdom and judgment of everyday Americans, hiding behind the misguided assumption that good judgment and common sense can only come from “running a company and meeting a payroll”. Like the common Americans who are the vast majority of the Tea Party Movement?
You scare me because you dutifully repeat right wing talking points in your pronouncements, apparently willing to sacrifice your ability to think critically for the expediency of advancing a message already prepared by others whose primary purpose is not to inform, but to inflame. To agree with someone requires thinking. I find it a personal insult that because I agree with any or all that Rush Limbaugh may say means I have done no critical thinking. If I disagree with the slow and steady chipping away of the Judaeo Christian values, capitalistic private sector based economy and strong military presence in this country and abroad. This is not because I have read a sign or listened to the radio, but because I am a Conservative. The signs and the talking points reflect my world view, my world view did not come from them.
You scare me because you attempt to assign undeserved credibility to media figures who have achieved great wealth and notoriety, not because they are knowledgeable or enlightened, but because they are loud and opinionated and they have learned that commercial success comes from pandering to an audience that prefers to hear only one side of an argument, even when that side is based on lies. Have you ever listened to the commentators you despise? Case in Point: Harriet Miers. The commercial success of said commentators comes from the simple fact that they say things many other Americans agree with. Limbaugh speaks always and consistently from a Conservative perspective. This is not pandering. He makes no claim to running a debate show. Those who listen know which side of the argument he is going to make. He does not hide this fact from anyone. We do not listen to him to discover what we think. He has made his money by saying things we already believe. Successful Comedians do not make it by telling us what jokes we should find funny, but by creating material that reflects what people will find funny. Must we listen to jokes we don’t find funny to know what we do find funny? Must we listen to arguments based on communist, socialist and atheist core principals to know whether or not we still believe in the Conservative Christian way of thinking. We do not. Yet most of us are more informed than you may think.
You scare me because you are not able to distinguish between an honorable diplomatic policy that is based on diplomacy, humility and mutual respect, and an imagined policy that is based on whatever it takes to inflame the passions on the right. Or perhaps we look at History and see that it has never worked to try and appease those who hope to destroy the Jewish Nation.
You scare me because you are so completely divorced from the reality of policy proposals of the President, preferring to wrap yourself in the comfortable cocoon of lies and misrepresentations generated by the right wing echo chamber. Hu?
You scare me because you are so out of touch with everyday Americans that you cannot recognize that our current health care system is a recipe for disaster, and that any perceived need to involve government in health care is a direct result of the catastrophic failure of an inefficient, incompetent and corrupt health care industry that has proven itself unwilling or unable to regulate itself or to adequately provide for its customers. Mr. Well informed free thinker, have you seen the Conservative Proposals for health care reform that don’t have a price tag of a gazillion dollars?
You scare me because when you step forward as a willing participant in the organized misinformation campaign directed toward our president, you stand side by side in an unholy alliance with some the most extreme elements in our society: the white supremacists, the holocaust deniers, the domestic terrorists like Scott Roeder and Jim David Adkisson, and others whose stated goal is to bring about a change in society by whatever means they deem necessary, including the violent overthrow of the government. This bit of intelligence, free from malice and without the goal to inflame is above reproach. Give me a break. Last time I checked, the Tea Party was a non-violent protest movement: More like Dr. King than anyone else you mention.
And finally, you scare me because you represent a frighteningly large demographic of seemingly intelligent adults who have locked themselves off from open discussion and independent thought, choosing instead to filter out all information that does not reinforce deeply held prejudices and right wing talking points. Mr. Pritchett, there may have been a time when your opinions could have been taken seriously, but not anymore. In your letter I recognize the characteristics of yet another American who has sacrificed his ability to generate an independent thought so that he can worship at the altar of Clear Channel and Newscorp. I find that quite sad, because the ease with which seemingly intelligent Americans can be so thoroughly indoctrinated through controlled exposure to propaganda on radio and television is the most frightening thing of all.  We disagree with you. Period. You can attack our ability to think for ourselves until the cows come home. But you are wrong. Most of us worship God, I am sure you find that sad as well. We also believe and are schooled in the Liberal Arts and find our roots in Western Tradition. We find the Obama Agenda to be an attack on what we hold dear: Liberty, Democracy, Religion, Freedom of Speech, and the Spirit of Innovation fostered by the Capitalistic System.

To believe that the freedoms and rights and way of life we have come to have in America are guaranteed to last forever is a mistake. Study History. The American Experience is the exception, not the rule. Ours is a different foundation, but all foundations can crumble or be destroyed. Many of us feel that much of the current president’s agenda seeks to destroy that foundation. We find that scary, for when it falls, who knows what may emerge from the dust.