Friday's Meditation
Rob Long ·
June 15, 2012 at 8:41pm
Simply this:
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Comments:
Apr '11
Re: Friday's Meditation
The suggestion that Reagan didn't complain, extensively, about the economy he inherited strikes me as clearly and obviously untrue. I think he was genuinely transformative, as you know since on another thread I've been lauding his successes as amazing while you've been relegating them to bad ideas, reactive, and/ or not what liberals really care about.
Praising him for the things he wasn't good on isn't great history, but it makes sense for back slapping feelgood things like this. I was just saying that it works better if you don't think about it too hard. If the argument is that he's merely somewhat less obsessive about it than Obama, then that's kind of true, but that's a challenging reading of the photo to sustain.
Jun '10
Re: Friday's Meditation
James, why should I have to explain this: Reagan may well have complained about Carter but he fixed the bad economy at the same time. Also, because he was a winner the Carter malaise was less and less an actual problem on the ground for him to worry about as he moved the country forward.
The intent of the picture above is to show what Reagan did in comparison to what Obama does. Obama did not fix the economy, he made it worse (just like Carter's years did on the Misery Index) and so -- not being a winner instead he is a whiner -- Obama's complaining has to get more shrill as things go on.
Another thing is the word "complain" -- much of Reagan's points were in explanation not in complaining. Obama is only complaining and making excuses and this is his problem because he is a loser.
I'm all for telling the truth, James, but interpreting statements and symbolism isn't an exercise in literalism but in using the abstract portion of our minds.
Apr '11
Re: Friday's Meditation
Larry Koler:
Another thing is the word "complain" -- much of Reagan's points were in explanation not in complaining. Obama isonly complaining and making excusesand this is his problem because he is aloser.
I'm all for telling the truth, James, but interpreting statements and symbolism isn't an exercise in literalism but in using the abstract portion of our minds. ·
The caption is a short statement: "[Reagan] [didn't] complain about the economy [and this is a generally applicable admirable quality]". To make it true, you're having to both deny the plain meaning and to read in another plainly absent statement. I simply don't believe that the author of the photoshop was using a circuitous method of saying "winners fix the economy", because the sentence he chose was so far from that. My guess is that the photoshop is by someone who doesn't know much about Reagan, but knows he was an awesome guy. I'm all for calling Obama a loser, and think it's a fun pic. Because the point it's making is a preaching to the choir one, it's not too important that it's rebuttable.