GOP Reaches Out to Low Information Voters

No not that guy.

 No not those people.

No not him

The Republican Party reaches out to low information voters, a term that describes anyone who is not in agreement with the Republican Party’s platform.  Realizing that not all voters are as smart as the GOP, members of congress have begun an outreach program to inform voters of their platform, hoping once voters have been educated about the GOP agenda, they will become Republicans.

Bingo!  Low information voters.

The latest outrage for the GOP and Democrats alike has been Vladimir Putin’s op-ed in the New York Times.  The flash point for many Americans was Putin’s questioning “American Exceptionalism” calling it dangerous.  Here is an excerpt from Putin’s op-ed:

“My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.”

It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation. There are big countries and small countries, rich and poor, those with long democratic traditions and those still finding their way to democracy. Their policies differ, too. We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.

These statements by Putin have been widely condemned by both Republicans and Democrats, but maybe we should take what Putin said in context.  Previously in his op-ed he said:

“Relations between us (the U.S. and Russia) have passed through different stages. We stood against each other during the cold war. But we were also allies once, and defeated the Nazis together. The universal international organization — the United Nations — was then established to prevent such devastation from ever happening again”.

The American people would be well served to brush up on the history Putin speaks of before they condemn the statement made by Putin.  Here is one example of a country citing their “exceptionalism”:

“The national government will maintain and defend the foundations on which the power of our nation rests.  It will offer strong protection to Christianity as the very basis of our collective morality.  Today Christians stand at the head of our country.  We want to fill our culture again with the Christian spirit.  We want to burn out all the recent immoral developments in literature, in theatre, and in the press – in short, we want to burn out the poison of immorality which has entered into our whole life and culture as a result of Liberal excess during the past years.”

Adolph Hitler

Senators and presidential hopefuls Rand Paul and Ted Cruz will head to Iowa this week as featured speakers at a closed-door event for conservative pastors that has been organized by David Lane, an anti-gay, anti-choice, anti-Mormon, Christian-nation absolutist who has declared war, not only on secularism and separation of church and state, but also on establishment Republicans who don’t embrace his vision of an America in which the Bible serves as “the principle textbook” for public education and a “Christian culture” has been “re-established.” He decries Supreme Court rulings on prayer and Bible reading in public schools, and says, “It’s easily defended that America was founded by Christians, as a Christian nation.”

People for the American Way

The GOP is reaching out to the people of Egypt who have struggled to establish a representative government in spite of U.S. interference.  Here is the press conference these stalwart Christian Republicans gave Egypt:

Remember when Republicans and Democrats were sane?  If not watch this:

We had a Vice-President under FDR named Henry Wallace who also warned us about this exceptionalism and was rejected by the Democratic Party for it.  

“They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.  They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest.  Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection.”

Vice President Henry Wallace speaking of American Facists.

One humorous note, John McCain was on Jake Tapper's "The Lead" and when asked what he thought about Putin's Op-Ed in the NY Times McCain stated he would like to write on op-ed for Pravda.  Pravda has since taken up John McCain on his offer.  We're waiting to see if McCain is up for the challenge.

In a first-of-its kind arrangement, the editors of Russian newspaper Pravda have tentatively agreed to publish a column by Sen. John McCain that will attack the leadership of Russian President Vladimir Putin. The agreement comes one day after Putin criticized the United States in a widely-read column in The New York Times.

"If John McCain wants to write something for us, he is welcome," Dmitry Sudakov, the English editor of Pravda tells The Cable. "Mr. McCain has been an active anti-Russian politician for many years already. We have been critical of his stance on Russia and international politics in our materials, but we would be only pleased to publish a story penned by such a prominent politician as John McCain."

When The Cable reached the senator's office with the offer, McCain's communications director Brian Rogers responded within minutes. "On the record: Senator McCain would be glad to write something for Pravda, so we'll be reaching out to Dmitry with a submission."

The beginning of this surprising arrangement all started last night when your trusty Cable guywatched an interview between McCain and CNN's Jake Tapper about Putin's latest op-ed. 

In a nod to Russia's restrictive press policies (Russia is ranked 148th out of 179 in the world for respecting press freedoms by Reporters Without Borders), McCain joked "I would love to have a commentary in Pravda." 

So the fun has just begun.  Lets hope McCain is true to his word.

By Patricia Baeten

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