First Susan maligned Herman Green for saying something he clearly didn't say. Now she makes a wild unsubstantiated statement that President Obama "is destroying our country". This is to demand that Susan explain, in objective non-inflammatory terms, how it is that she thinks that the President Obama is doing so.

-David Walters

Oh, I heartily agree that it is a turning point/defining moment, etc. Just that I think the current President is destroying the country, so I’m coming from a different perspective than yours.

From: oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net [mailto:oe-bounces@lists.wedgeblade.net] On Behalf Of Herman Greene
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 1:33 PM
To: 'Order Ecumenical Community'
Subject: Re: [Oe List ...] A good reflection on Romney

There are those moments in history that are defining moments. I could be wrong Susan, but I think this is one of them. It is kind of the end of an era and so I sent the email as one commenatator’s (not my) statement of what has become evident. Take it for what it’s worth, but consider that this is a turning point in American politics and that the debate (the one that will never end) will now be carried out on a different basis.

First, I find it offensive that there is an assumption that everyone on the listserv is a Democrat or espouses that party’s platform. Look up the definition of “group think”.

Second, I find it offensive to perpetuate negatively distorted characterizations of one candidate (and I’ve often found that this listserv also perpetuates characterizations of others that are just as distorted through bias on perceived positives). That’s the Kool-aid part.

And yes, the Kool-aid analogy could be attributed to all of us, myself included, who participated fanatically in something called the Spirit Movement that came pretty close to being a cult. You’re right.

As one who is retired, pay no federal income tax, plus in two months from today I will qualify for Medicare - I am proud to say that I am part of the 47% that Romney spewed so much contempt for in the video referenced in Herman's comment.

I didn't know that Herman was in the Kool-Aid business, although if Joe M athews was with us and still teaching RS-1, he certainly would be accused of such.

-David Walters

Just for the record, not everyone on this listserv has drunk your KoolAid, and I’m offended by your language in the message below and the one that succeeds it.

The Real Romney

Jonathan Chait says the hidden camera video that went viral yesterday exposes Mitt Romney "as a far more sinister character than I had imagined. Here is the sneering plutocrat, fully in thrall to a series of pernicious myths that are at the heart of the mania that has seized his party. He believes that market incomes in the United States are a perfect reflection of merit. Far from seeing his own privileged upbringing as the private-school educated son of an auto executive-turned-governor as an obvious refutation of that belief, Romney cites his own life, preposterously, as a confirmation of it..."

"The revelations in this video come to me as a genuine shock. I have never hated Romney. I presumed his ideological makeover since he set out to run for president was largely phony, even if he was now committed to carry through with it, and to whatever extent he'd come to believe his own lines, he was oblivious or naïve about the damage he would inflict upon the poor, sick, and vulnerable. It seems unavoidable now to conclude that Romney's embrace of Paul Ryanism is born of actual contempt for the looters and moochers, a class war on behalf of his own class."