February 2, 2010
by Christine Carey | Online Features Editor
Another new semester, another new year, and more U.S citizens bitching about the wrongdoings of the Obama administration. I’ve come to the conclusion that it must be because every insult in every language imaginable throughout 2001-2009 had been reserved for talking shit about Bush. I bet even during the 2007-2008 Writers Guild of America Strike Jay Leno and Dave Letterman had no problems coming up with anti-Bush/Republican jokes. I mean c’mon, he was such a perfect target. Or was that Cheney’s hunting buddy?
Now, the attention is on the Obama administration. I’m sure Bush and Cheney are more than happy to have Obama take their place on Jon Stewart’s politically comedic “Daily Show.” Oh yes, I’m sure after eight years of running our economy into ruins, Bush really deserves his retirement salary of $193,400. Not to mention mailing privileges, Secret Service protection, office space, staff, travel funds, personalized stationery and transition expenses. Yes Americans, that’s where some of your hard-earned money goes when you pay your taxes. To a Republican who ran our country with a C average at Yale University. I’m sure his daddy paid for his tuition. I can just see him sipping on a girly non-alcoholic foo foo drink while sporting a shit-eating grin from here.
While Bush sits back and sucks down a virgin daiquiri, Obama is left to clean up his nasty mess while being criticized for not doing it quickly enough. I mean, really? Do you people actually think that Obama can clean up eight years of political disaster and Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” b.s. within one year? It’s enough criticism to make me think you all believe he is Jesus Christ. Get it together, people.
I’m obviously a Democrat. However, that doesn’t mean that I agree with everything every Democrat says or does. But, I also don’t agree very much with Republicans in general.
While listening to Obama’s State of the Union Address on Jan. 26 I was impressed with some of his ideas and initiatives, especially the one concerning community colleges. Now read carefully, because this concerns you. Obama asked the Senate to follow the House to pass a bill that will “revitalize” our community colleges. Obama stated that this bill should end the unwarranted taxpayer subsidies that go to banks for student loans, and take that money to increase Pell Grants and give families a $10,000 tax credit for four years of college.
Obama also stated he wanted to tell another 1 million students that, when they graduate, they will be required to pay only 10 percent of their income on student loans, and all of their debt will be forgiven after 20 years and forgiven after 10 years if they choose a career in public service. It’s enough to make me want to turn into a dog, just so I could hump his leg.
The more I think about it, the more I realize you can’t “afford” college. The only way is to be rich, a spoiled brat with a rich uncle, sleeping with the Dean of Admissions, or have a sugar daddy that’s most likely the age of Hugh Hefner.
So, since I know there is a higher percentage of Americans who aren’t rich, I suggest instead of bitching about fees and tuition, you keep up with this initiative and educate yourself and others about it to get it passed. Be politically involved. That is, unless you’re O.K. with going to bed with a stench-y, wrinkly, close to rotting corpse every night.
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While the idea of seeing the State of the Union through the eyes of a Community College student isn’t terrible on its face, articles like this one reveal why we should take care to explore carefully the idea of letting the ignorant blaze forth in mindless political commentary before setting them in front of a keyboard.
Ms. Carey is obviously quite passionate about her politics, and while that is something I find immensely laudable, she should take care not to let her knee-jerk reactionism short-cut her thinking process. There is no doubt that President Bush had a thoroughly negative influence on this nation, but to dismiss the entirety of his presidency so blithely strikes as intentional absurdity. Her immediate turn to ad hominem attacks in the middle of what is theoretically a serious political editorial makes it difficult to accept any opinions she might offer as having any serious validity.
Ms. Carey makes the immediate mistake of assuming that her audience is less intelligent than herself. “Get it together, people,” she chides, as if speaking to a classroom of second-graders. This is one of her more insulting habits, as if only she were politically aware enough to understand the true import of President Obama’s State of the Union address. With smug self-satisfaction, she admits that President Obama managed to “impress” her, implying that this is some great feat of a transcendent administration.
Unfortunately, she decides that precisely why she’s impressed is not the business of her audience. No, Ms. Carey would prefer to refer obliquely to ‘revitalization’ of the community college system, a claim simultaneously implying a present state of collapse and an anticipated rebirth. This is sufficient to garner her devotion, evidently, as she instantly switches topics while offering only a shallow exploration of the intent – but not substance – of the President’s proposed legislation.
I’ll skip past a bit more of Ms. Carey’s diatribe to focus on her concluding remarks. “The more I think about it, the more I realize you can’t ‘afford’ college,” she comments, apparently using some definition of “afford” with which I’m not familiar; either that, or seeking license for some bizarre version of irony that has the side effect of completely cloaking the intent of the statement. As one of the hundreds of thousands who have “afforded” college out of their own pockets, while not being in any sense of the word rich, I’m sure my confusion isn’t unique.
Lastly, Ms. Carey chooses to recommend political involvement to her readers. I can take no issue with this recommendation, except to say that if you do take her advice, you would be well-suited not to take after her example.
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