"Game over... YOU LOSE!!!"
Posted on 05/23/2008 4:48:38 AM PDT by Kaslin
The youth vote is rockin' if not rollin'. Young voters who blog -- and there are lots of them -- boast they're the voting bloc that's hot. "Young voters are the new pink," a Rock the Vote blogger shouts. "Or the new orange? The new indigo?" They're like that little black dress, always poised to save the moment.
The Obama campaign boasts that it registered thousands of new young voters. Hillary had her "Hillblazers," cheered on by daughter Chelsea, and John McCain says he'll contest every youth vote in November. Why else would he stay up late to joke and spar with David Letterman and Jon Stewart? He wants to show that he's not an old dog with new tricks, but a hipster with maverick's reputation and biography of heroism to appeal to the young voters. He's a rebel with causes.
That all sounds good, but we've got to hope these younger voters know enough to understand what the debate is about. The young have been short-changed by the educationists for decades, learning not very much. The millennials, the under 30s, grew up reprising the lyrics of "Don't Know Much About History."
How much they don't know about Middle Eastern politics is especially worrisome. If the textbooks of the millennials were anything like the textbooks the kids are studying today, they're not prepared to understand what President Bush was talking about when he told the Israeli Knesset last week: "Some seem to believe we should negotiate with terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along."
They might even be incapable of identifying the terrorists, or understanding the radical theology driving them to kill innocents in the name of Allah. The American Textbook Council, an independent research organization, examined the errors and political biases in American history textbooks for public junior high and high schools, and published a report called "Islam in the Classroom." The results are terrifying. It demonstrates how editors and teachers are duped by Islamist organizations that persuaded publishers to weave misinformation -- and disinformation -- into the textbooks, exploiting ignorance, naivete and bias in the name of diversity and political correctness. Many of these texts spin an uncritical view of radical Islam, spiced with anti-Western criticism.
"In the case of Islamic activism, theological aims are often concealed in familiar, appealing civic language," the council reports. "Few publishers or editors understand history textbooks for what they are: instruments of civic education that have among their responsibilities the obligation to alert the young to threats to American ideals and security." Editors instead depend on highly biased sources for writing about subjects the authors know little or nothing about. Islamist propaganda, often not very sophisticated, is accepted as fact.
The textbooks make no distinctions between societies with law founded on separation of church and state and Muslim governments founded on primitive theology. There's no understanding of the differences between Sharia, or a religious code, and Western law derived from the consent of the governed. Distinctions between democracy and the totalitarian regimes of most Islamic countries go unremarked and unappreciated.
Prentice-Hall's high school world history textbook, "The Modern World," for example, presents the events of 9-11 with such flatness and brevity that the student learns nothing about who the "teams of terrorists" were, why they did what they did, what their political ends were. The rabidly radical Wahabbi sect in Saudi Arabia, which produced 19 of the 9-11 bombers, is merely described as "strict."
In many texts, "jihad" is cleansed of belligerence. Readers couldn't understand why jihadists should not be "appeased," nor understand an informed debate about the Israel-Palestine dispute. They get no understanding of how the only democracy in the Middle East is surrounded by powerful enemies like President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran, who calls Israel a "stinking corpse" that he promises to destroy. They learn nothing about the state-sanctioned abuse of women. Poverty and ignorance are presented as the root of extremism, with no acknowledgment that the 9-11 bombers were wealthy and educated.
Reform of such textbooks requires the strong resolve of school boards, administrators, elected officials and parents to pressure the textbook publishers to tell it like it actually is.
President Bush told a small group of Jewish, Palestinians and Israeli Arab students in Israel that they must be alert to the "poisonous" propaganda from state-owned radio and television stations in the Middle East that obstruct true peacemakers. He's right, of course. And we must be aware of the "sweet euphemisms" about radical Islam in American textbooks if we're serious about the pursuit of authentic peace.
Huh?
Rock the Vote is required to be non-partisan and non-advocacy for any party/candidate/vote for or against a particular piece of legislation. They have engaged in advocacy in the past (specifically a “Vote NO on California prop...” banner I observed).
They are 501c3 tax cheats. Defund the left.
It’s a girl thing.
They’ve been flacking for the ‘Rats for years - Jehmu Greene especially.
Notice she has graduated from a “chairperson” to “Democratic Strategist.”
That in and of itself should be enough to open an investigation of RTV.
It’s a girl thing.
Raise the voting age to 40.
Every election season a big fuss is made about the youth vote, and then they don’t show up. But if Obamania is still trendy in November, watch out. I understand the DNC has plans to bus thousands from their various college campuses to the polls in swing states.
Raise the voting age to 40.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Eliminate non free-holders, eliminate women or just eliminate single people, require a passing score on a test for knowledge of history, systems of government, the constitution etc. Sounds crazy but that is what it would take to restore sound government.
I have a 24 year old girl who works for me.
She told me last week that she “always” has voted Democratic. She voted for John Kerry in 2004 AND Al Gore in 2000.
I asked, “Are you SURE you voted for Al Gore?”
“Yes. I remember doing it.”
“You voted at the age of 16?”
“Oh... uh... Maybe I didn’t vote for Al Gore.”
(BTW, I am going to fire her today)
I forgot to mention that of course unemployed, non-taxpayers, etc. should be eliminated, that would stop me from voting in this election possibly but that is okay as long as a few million OTHER kooks are barred from the polls.
And just like P Diddy’s Vote or Die campaign, there are Hollywood stars that are not registered to vote telling our youth to vote.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6346580/
The youth vote is vastly overrated.
It's easy to be idealistic and stupid when mom and dad are paying the bills and all you have to do is roll out of bed in the morning and make it to class before noon. Forcing people to have a few years of maturity and experience under their belts before they can participate in choosing the people who impose the laws we all have to live under would do wonders in getting us back to reining in the federal government and getting the government out of our lives.
I do agree that before someone is allowed to register to vote they should have to past a test on what principles this country was founded, our history, and a test on the differences between a free-market economy and a socialist one.
Carolyn
I don't know her, but she is either a liar, (a noted Democrat Party member malady) or lacks sufficient memory banks to be of any asset to your business.
Either way? Good move.
ΜΟΛΩΝ ΛΑΒE
Good. It sounds like she deserves it.
That’s quite a list.
I would say you could have a cipher for most of those -
property owners and their spouses.
Or perhaps, POSITIVE NET TAXPAYERS.
I don’t think that would be a good move.
In my experience, through talking with people of that age group (16-25),
they tend to know everything and have THE solutions for the world’s problems.
In fact, as the gay “marriage” issue shows us, they are wiser than anyone who EVER lived throughout history.
So, instead of firing her, you should, you know, like, hire more of her, like, friends.
She is not getting fired for her political beliefs.
She is getting fired because she cannot show up to work on time.
How appropriate, comrade ...
I'm sure there's a high correlation between the two...
...so many of these kids were raised on MTV and indoctrinated in government schools that they have a Leftist world view...every time I get around my 18 yo grandson I work to counteract the nonsense he’s been taught....it’s a constant struggle....
I’m more than willing to give respect to the idea of young people voting. However I’d like to ask these wild-for-Obama kids a few questions. Such as what is the name of the senators of your state? What is the name of you congressman or woman? Can you find your state on a map? How many states are there? What is the capital of your state? What is the country to the north of us? What is the country to the south? Those and a few other questions reasonably answered would give me a little hope for these idealistic goofballs.
Rock and Roll PING
http://www.rockthevote.com/about/
Rock the Vote’s mission is to engage and build the political power of young people in order to achieve progressive change in our country.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.