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• Friday, November 28, 2008 06:02 PM

  To Retired Military Patriot: Thanks so much for the link to the Chomsky speech.

  I agreed with almost everything that he said.

  A couple of quibbles: Obama's Army? -- not going to touch that one. It sounds a bit too organized to me, but there will be debates about that concept for a long time to come.

  (I've caught lots of flack in the past for insisting that his victory was not so much grassroots as Astroturf.)

  Is the populace to the left of the two major parties? That would depend upon how one defines left. For instance, one could take a single issue like abortion and debate endlessly about just where people are actually positioned. Abortion -- scary word. Are they positioned where they think they are or, when actually confronted with tough choices themselves, are they positioned more to the left?

  Lots of things bothered me about the entire election. Early on it was obvious that certain candidates were being marginalized by the media -- Paul, Gravel, Kucinich. They intially tried to do it with Huckabee but he found a way to be too colorful for marginalization.

  The true sexism directed at Senator Clinton disgusted and outraged me. My anger probably made me seem more a partisan for her than I really was.

  Doubts? So many doubts. Disgusted by her Bosnian lie and the word "obliterate." Disgusted by Obama's wimpy health policy and his near substance-less campaign. Unless the average person was paying lots of attention, most of them would have no idea where he stood. He was like Cleopatra, enchanting with his "infinite variety." He seduced more than he persuaded.

  CHANGE -- when I first saw that on a sign it amazed me. What genuis! We ALL wanted change. Uh.... change to what exactly?

  "We are the ones we have been waiting for." We are the people -- yada, yada, yada. What a way to flatter a constituency.

  "Yes, we can!" -- Si, se puede -- borrowed from the United Farmworkers. Obama is a great borrower.

  From the Chomsky speech: the goal of advertising is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices.

  Agree completely. Why do people fall so easily? Why don't we teach our students to be skeptical consumers? Why don't we make that old adage "Question Authority!" mean something besides merely questioning Mom and Dad? The most radical thing a teacher can teach is how to think and it is also the most risky. When a teacher teaches that, her students may question her. Now that's a triumph!

  I have nothing against Obama. I am actually quite glad he won over McCain. I cried after his victory speech election night. Tears of joy!

  But now, he is the authority we must question.

  —AKA Smith Read AKA Smith's other letters
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