Tuesday, February 17, 2015

"War" Examples: 2012

EXAMPLES AND ANALYSIS: 2012 "War"
"[A]nd we're going to pass something that will undo a hundred years of labor relations. And there will be blood. There will be repercussions. We will relive the Battle of the Overpass".
-- State Rep. Douglas Geiss (D-Taylor and Romulus, MI), December 11, 2012, on the floor of the Michigan House of Representatives.

Comment: Geiss is indulging in violent rhetoric, and "war" rhetoric in particular. The Battle of the Overpass was a violent incident between members of the United Auto Workers union and Ford Motor Company security guards in the 1930's in Michigan.

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"In just a few weeks, when the calendar flips to 2013, millions of Americans will get their first taste of Obamacare -- a $2,500 cap on their flexible spending accounts. That’s down from the previous $5,000 cap -- and thus equivalent to a tax hike for any family that had been putting more into their FSAs to cover out-of-pocket healthcare expenses. But it’s also emblematic of a more troubling problem with Obamacare -- its undeclared war on consumer-directed health care. … The tragedy is that President Obama is forcing his centralized approach to health care on consumers just as they’re demanding more autonomy -- and as the tools that empower them to do so are coming online. As the federal government tries to appropriate ever-more of people’s healthcare decisions for itself under the auspices of Obamacare, perhaps patients will fight back."
-- Columnist Sally Pipes, December 10, 2012.

Comment: Pipes is indulging in "war" rhetoric.

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"Personalities matter. This president has a chance as he did in ‘09 to come in and say 'I’m going to sit down and work with you. We’re going to be bipartisan, we’re going to put the country first', or he has a chance to do what he did in ’09, which is say, 'I’m going to write a stimulus package with only Democrats and ram it through unread'. He can continue down the road he’s on right now. He -- he guarantees a permanent war because everybody on the right at every level sooner or later is going to get sick of it."
-- Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich (R-GA), December 9, 2012, on NBC's "Meet the Press".

Comment: Gingrich is indulging in many kinds of rhetoric here: "bipartisan" rhetoric, patriotism rhetoric (how is Obama not putting the country first?), and "war" rhetoric.

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"Dot 1. Obama tells Joe the Plumber that we need to raise taxes not to decrease our deficit, but because we “need to spread the wealth around.” Dot 2. Obama admits to Charlie Gibson that raising capital gains may well result in reduced revenues to the government, but he wants those taxes to go up anyway “out of fairness.” In other words, It’s not “fair” that these people earn all that money on their investment income. Dot 3. Obama tells the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (evil capitalists) “at some point you have to admit you’ve made enough money.” Dot 4. Obama submits a “fiscal cliff” plan to the congress (and the media) that not only calls for tax increases on the rich, but also for more spending! Here he shows that he wants the higher taxes so that he’ll have more money to spend, not for deficit reduction. If you connect these dots you will see that Obama’s insistence on a tax increase on the rich has absolutely nothing in the world to do with reducing our deficit. His primary motive is that he believes the wealthy in this country do not deserve the money they have. That money is ill-gotten games --- earned by oppressing the middle class. And Obama is going to correct this problem by seizing the money from those evil exploitive rich people and spend it on his constituency. Remember … Obama also said that America is great because of government spending. Money spent by government is good. Money spent by rich people is bad. This is ALL class warfare. Every bit of it."
-- Radio pundit Neal Boortz, December 4, 2012.

Comment: Boortz is demonizing Obama, accusing him of believing that rich people are evil. Boortz is also indulging in "war" rhetoric by saying Obama is engaging in "class warfare".

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"Ultimately, conservatives must wage and win a war for our culture, not of traditional social issues, but one far more fundamental, of liberty versus tyranny. We must reignite those flames of freedom that once burned brilliantly with limited government and free-market capitalism, making America the most prosperous nation in human history. Where to start? We need voters. Our first step should be to exploit the natural divisions in the Democrats’ fragile alliance, starting with the one between those willing to work and those not willing. Retirees played by the rules and worked hard for their Social Security and Medicare benefits and certainly are entitled to them, at least insomuch as they were taxed for them. The real threat to their benefits is not Republicans’ reform of these programs for future generations but rather the squandering of those funds now on food stamps, “Obama phones,” disability giveaways and other welfare spending that all too often goes to people who sit on their sofas and game the system."
-- Columnist Dr. Milton R. Wolf, November 28, 2012.

Comment: Wolf is engaging in "war" rhetoric. In addition, he is perhaps also engaging in "divisive" rhetoric by advocating that conservatives "exploit the natural divisions in the Democrats’ fragile alliance".

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"Sign our petition today and become one of One Million strong telling Republicans to end their radical War on Women."
-- Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) website, March 7, 2012.

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"Electric cars and the liberal war with science"
-- The title of a column by Charles Lane (the title was later changed to "Electric cars and liberals’ refusal to accept science"), March 5, 2012.

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"Republicans' war on common sense"
-- The title of a column by LZ Granderson, February 28, 2012.

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