Oct 22 2008
Willful Ignorance
In Florida this week, Obama, referring to the John McCain’s views on the economy said, “Instead of common sense solutions, month after month, they’ve offered little more than willful ignorance, wishful thinking, and outdated ideology.” I want to focus on Obama’s mention of ‘willful ignorance’ because I believe that is more of a universal theme and is at the core of most of the issues we are facing today.
Willful ignorance has lead us to times of war, economic failure, and further dissolution of the middle class.
Willful ignorance put us in Iraq. By ignoring the facts…no real evidence of WMDs, we ended up fighting an open-ended war with a society and culture simply not ready for democracy, losing $10 Billion a month just to fight that war and most importantly now killing over 4,000 American Soldiers.
Willful ignorance destroyed the economy and greatly reduced opportunities for success and independence among the middle class. To say that Wall Street, banks and corporate executives thought their excessive greed would last forever is simply a joke.
And, yes, I also blame the consumer, running up credit cards without saving for the future and applying for loans they knew were a stretch. Those were all conscious decisions, and a conscious, willful choice was made to ignore the obvious ramifications of those decisions.
The ignorance continues…
Watching McCain and Palin, with their empty rhetoric and pointless, directionless, anti-Obama attacks. I believe even the most clueless among us are feeling what’s wrong with this picture. So, to ignore this, is again ‘willful ignorance.’
It’s also willful ignorance that we don’t acknowledge the realities of Joe The Plumber. 1) He wasn’t a licensed plumber, 2) He owes back taxes, and 3) The Plumbing business he wants to buy makes well under the $250,000 tax bracket that Obama’s tax plan affects, so ‘Joe’, in reality, will pay less in taxes under Obama.
Why are the very citizens of our nation, who are the most negatively affected by the policies McCain represents give the most support to those people and their now failed policies? And “Joe The Plumber” being fully aware that his business actually would NOT even qualify for a tax increase under Obama, yet continues this charade (his name isn’t even Joe, by the way) simply to support the other candidate, is quite a definitive example of willful ignorance.
Why? Obama is different, and ‘Joe’ is afraid. Most willful ignorance is fear based, and it’s tearing us apart. I gotta say people, with a clear head, a fearless outlook on the future, whatever that future may bring, the decision now, more than ever should be a clear one to everyone, including ‘Joe.’
I will do the right thing on November 4th…you should too.
