Opus 2012-191, On the Street: “Check Your Facts”

We were making a quick run through Cosco to price some window air conditioners.  As we went down the aisle my wife began to do her soapbox preaching about Obama and the mess he has made of things.  Some people took one look, turned the other way and quickly departed.  One lady chose to engage. 

It was an interesting and frustrating discussion.

It was interesting because it is always challenging to dialog with someone who is willing to discuss issues.  It was frustrating because it was so typical of other discussions.

She was such a perfect poster child for the Obama campaign.  She was roughly my age.  She spoke well.  She was a retired public employee for Los Angeles County which means she was not hurting financially, yet.  She claimed to be a Republican.  Yet she voted for Obama last time and was not sure she could vote for Romney.  After all, he put all those people out of work.  At that she began reciting all the Obama/Media talking points. 

The extreme frustration was when she claimed that we needed to get our facts straight.  She did her research and would not believe anything we wanted to tell her.  So I started asking about specific sources.  I asked if she had read the Koran.  No.  Had she actually listened to Rush.  That started a tirade about Rush that assured me that she had not listened to him even though she said she had.  Anyone who tells me that Rush is harsh and hostile has obviously never listened to more than sound bites from Saturday Night Live.

I agree.  Check your facts.  The point I differ is that I actually try to do it instead of just listening to the same old mantra of the Progressive Press.  Check the actual numbers on employment.  How do you like the price of gas?  How big is the deficit again?  How much bigger than the terrible example Bush set?  What did Obama actually have to say about his goals in the autobiographies (two, count them) that he wrote?

November is coming. 

homo unius libri