FreeDuck wrote:Not to stir the pot, but I'm curious how exactly Obama "followers" are acting that is so off-putting. I wonder, for instance, if it compares at all with the kinds of comments you can read from Hillary supporters at the bottom of just about every online article on the subject. Maybe I'm just missing half the picture or not paying close enough attention.
Maybe it's the sites I read, but I come across a lot more posts by Obama supporters than Hillary supporters.. there's usually just a couple of those around. And they're usually less well spoken and articulate, which increases their underdog status.
So yeah it may be that because there are simply so many more Obama posters than Hillary posters, that you'll also have a lot more brash, condescendingly agressive, smug and intolerant ones too, and those are the ones you tend to remember.. maybe. I dunno.
I guess there's two general streaks that have stuck in my craw, to just handle a particularly unreasonably broad brush.
One is the presentation of Obama's side as the smart and educated one and Hillary supporters just being "the great unwashed". It's true that Hillary draws more of her support from those with lower income and education (which draws me
to her, if anything), while Obama's core support remains the overlapping groups of the well-educated and well-off. But I hate the condescending classism that sometimes shines through the comments of Obama supporters. Where it's clear that they look down on Clinton supporters, and consider themselves to be better able to make the right choice because they have a higher education. Well, guess what, it's the better educated half of the population that has been voting in Republicans all these years. More working class type people dont need a graduate degree to sense which of the candidates is more sensitive to where they're coming from..
The other thing is this politics of zeal and persuasion. And yeah, thats hard to quantify... I mean, a lot of the Obama = messianic stuff borders on smears. And genuine enthusiasm and spiritedness is actually a very good thing. But there is just something about many Obama supporters, like - you cant have a level-headed critical conversation with 'em anymore, they're too invested, they'll just campaign at you. And I dont wanna be campaigned at, I can make up my own mind thank you very much, I just wanna shoot some bull about politics. No, I cant draw the line/border between this stuff either, it's just something you feel...
Like, OK - imagine this scene. You're in a neighbourhood pub, sitting at the bar or at the big round table, some people hanging out there too, a conversation strikes up. Everyone's got their say, everyone's got something to grumble about, you're just shooting the crap. Then this young guy joins the conversation, and he's, like, a believer. Starts trying to convince you that his guy is just special, is different, starts rolling out the whole campaign leaflet stuff. Every time someone comes out with some opinion, he namechecks the date and speech involved and gives you his candidate's talking points, and most, most of all, just genuinely and empathically implores you that his guy, now he is a Good Man and can just be Trusted!
Yeah, yeah, caricature I know
But that guy would be the Obama guy :wink: .
(Well, the moderate version. The batshit insane version of same would be a Ron Paul guy.)
And there's nothing wrong with him, and its a good thing that there's guys like him and a better thing still that so many more people have been moved to that kind of conviction in these elections than in many past -- its just that you want him on the streetcorner winning souls, not at your table in the pub
