President to make speech indoctrinating schoolkids; OUTRAGE follows
As incredible as it may seem:
House Democrats criticized (the president) yesterday for using Education Department funds to produce and broadcast a speech that he made Tuesday at a Northwest Washington junior high school.
The Democratic critics accused (him) of turning government money for education to his own political use, namely, an ongoing effort to inoculate himself against their charges of inattention to domestic issues. The speech at Alice Deal Junior High School, broadcast live on radio and television, urged students to study hard, avoid drugs and turn in troublemakers.
“The Department of Education should not be producing paid political advertising for the president, it should be helping us to produce smarter students,” House Majority Leader Richard A. Gephardt (D-Mo.) said. “And the president should be doing more about education than saying, ‘Lights, camera, action.’ ”
Oh wait, that story’s from 1991. They don’t mind it nearly so much now that it’s their own Golden Boy doing it.
For my money, Stephen’s right and Allahpundit’s wrong on this one. Bob, mostly in agreement with AP, makes some admittedly good points:
First, as I already noted, Obama has a dismal record of being able to make converts out of kids, and can generally only affect children through those soft-skulled souls that have willingly chucked aside reason in order to maintain their community-based reality. While the children of liberals may be enthralled, the children of more rational moderates and independents and conservatives will recognize an infomercial when they see one. They will afford the President no more time or respect that they would any other huckster, and will tune him out within moments.
Further, forbidding your children from hearing his empty platitudes gives the impression that there is something in his speech that constitutes a threat to what they are being taught at home. It makes him forbidden fruit, instead of merely a fruitcake. It also teaches them that they should quit or skulk away when they encounter a bad idea of a problem, instead of taking it head-on. I want my kids to face life by taking on challenges, not shirking them.
Fair enough. But my concern has less to do with the practical aspects of success or failure and more to do with the idea of drawing lines; sure, it’s not likely to be all that effective as a tool of indoctrination…by itself. But this is just another brick in a very large wall, a wall that’s been a long time a-building. It’s a wall that needs to be torn down completely. And you don’t do that by shrugging and going along with adding more bricks because, hey, it’s only a few bricks and, what the hell, a few bricks never hurt anything.
But in the end, I think maybe Doug’s the one who might really be onto something.
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And that's why he continues to oppose teen alcoholism in all its forms.