"This time of year, the only thing more annoying than holiday traffic is an awkward conversation with family about politics," DNC Digital Director Matt Compton wrote in an email announcing the site. "We designed YourRepublicanUncle.com so that it look greats and loads quickly on your phone -- no getting ambushed when you go back for seconds on stuffing."I like the line drawing in the sidebar of a table place setting with a mobile phone next to the knife, presumably open to Your Republican Uncle, so you can be a good Thanksgiving companion by referring to the Democratic talking points during dinner.
What if an aspect of being a Republican uncle is expecting nieces and nephews to speak sincerely drawing on thoughts that actually exist in their head? And not keeping the iPhone on the table?
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73 comments:
I'm nobody's uncle, but if any family member tries to pull that crap on me they're going to find out what "myth" means!
(Just joking. I love my Democrat friends and relatives, and they me, I think, so we generally eschew talking politics on festive occasions.)
What if an aspect of being a Republican uncle is expecting nieces and nephews to speak sincerely drawing on thoughts that actually exist in their head?
If they could keep a coherent thought in their heads and articulate them, then they wouldn't rely on others to provide talking points for the dinner table.
Does it strike anyone else as funny though that while we have a President who has become infamous for having to rely on a teleprompter for pretty much every public occasion, his party has gotten to the point where they feel it's essential to send out talking points for the people who voted for them in order to help them get through Thanksgiving dinner?
So, Democrats are bratty kids and Republicans are the wise uncles. I can go with that.
I'm a republican uncle, and I want a socialized medical system.
Wow.... on the very first page, it cleverly defeats... one of Paul Ryan's Talking Points from the 2012 campaign...
The DNC... we have to live in the past, because the present is kind of a bummer...
So, I imagine that Uncle Jake opening up the conversation with 'So, Billy, how's your work on that new website going?" isn't the best way to keep comity in the family.
If any of my far leftist relatives even starts that conversation. Dinner is over.
A proper Republican uncle would insist that the phone be turned off and put away during dinner.
I have a very diverse family, politically. A long time ago - meaning generations - it was agreed to keep the discussion of politics away from the table during the holidays.
To do otherwise is tacky.
Politics are left till after dinner, when the men retire to the library for bourbon, brandy and cigars, while the women tend to the dishes and children.
;-)
When a guest in the home of close relatives never miss an opportunity to shit on their rug.
I doubt ObamaCare will come up at my family's Thanksgiving; they'll be too busy bashing Scott Walker.
1. Charge - illegal immigrants take away American jobs.
2. Defense - 28% of all small businesses are started by immigrants.
What is wrong is with this "Defense"? Bueller, Bueller...
Maybe the demographic that this appeals to can bone up on these talking points in comfort of their parents basements before making an ass of themselves at the dinner table.
While we will be having Democrat relatives for thanksgiving, none of them believe in DNC factoids or illogical "defenses" to charges against Obama.
I have a very diverse family, politically. A long time ago - meaning generations - it was agreed to keep the discussion of politics away from the table during the holidays.
***********
THIS.
Families & friends that cannot rise above politics for at least a few days a year deserve an all out battle in which all are bludgeoned by turkey drumsticks.
What we need is a parallel guide to getting through dinner with your way-left-of-center parents. My version would start with the overriding rule: Do not talk politics at dinner. If someone in your family insists on bringing up politics at dinner, change the subject. Just don't go there. If forced to, say that you'd rather talk about something else, though it's better to move on to another topic as unobtrusively as you can.
I love the assumption that the young are always to the left of their elders. Or that the young aren't smart enough to avoid political conversations at family gatherings, so you might as well have your talking points all prepared.
"1. Charge - illegal immigrants take away American jobs.
2. Defense - 28% of all small businesses are started by immigrants."
Not too convincing. You are trying to imply, I guess, that 28% of illegal immigrants start a business. Which you know to be bogus. There very little relation between points 1 and 2.
It will be fun in future ruins to try and build a timeline.
I put it at about 1998 that the cells of corruption had replicated enough through the DemocRat Party leadership that they began to overwhelm their decency, and it has been metastasizing ever since.
It overtook green peace and Sierra Club, mainlined through Gore to pimp for BigPharma in Africa and insist on full price for aids drugs. And remember the suitcases of Chinese cash? So much acceleration of singular world control of so many things. Revolving doors of influence concentrating wealth at every turn.
Seemingly unrelated, but of the same Power-drunk Hydra: I remember a Martin Luther King Day in the early "Oughts" -- 2003 maybe? -- when I howled "no!!!" at the radio because Hillary was using that holiday's speech to defame a sitting President. Really? Have you nothing higher in you?
The worst kind of crime, I thought then, to rob us of a non-partisan celebratory national day for petty party chits.
Now it's Thanksgiving they are willing to deflower, but so much has already been raped between then and now...( What difference, at this point, does it make?)
I look forward to a future when our nieces and nephews can have some distance from this era, and we can clink a glass on Thanksgiving Day without Directives from our Distant Overseers, and laugh at how crazy all this was. Hope we aren't standing in the ruins after all.
Anyone who brings up politics or religion at a diverse family gathering is an idiot, regardless of where he stands on said subjects.
I've got a nephew who could probably use those talking points. He's an educated fool with a fancy degree. Not as fancy as mine, but then I'm not a fool.
He pulled this sort of ctapola at a family Thanksgiving dinner a few years back and insulted one of my non-family guests. I can put up with his nonsense where family is concerned. Many families have a closet case of some sort--and this nephew is ours .
But I will not tolerate someone insulting a guest in my house. I've forbade his presence again.
Do they have a Libertarian Uncle app?
Thank you Mr. Charlie. You are now officially recognized as being more intelligent than President Obama.
There's no "Your Wacky Obamaloving Cousin" app from the RNC because the proper response is just to point and laugh....
Keeping things light, festive and positive is simple. The first time someone utters an unwelcome political statement the host or hostess -or perhaps both in unison- shout,"Shut the fuck up asshole". This puts the offender on behavioral notice in a frank yet sensitive manner. With tranquility thus restored the chastened guest resumes civil discourse. Ta da!
See, the DNC completely admits that democrats can't think for themselves, but need a teleprompter.
My apologies. I meant to say in the post above that the admonition was "constructive" not "sensitive". Sensitive is reserved for telling your daughter's Democrat boyfriend that he is a douche bag. Obviously a common Thanksgiving table conversation. Straight from the shoulder, I say.
But I will not tolerate someone insulting a guest in my house. I've forbade his presence again
I hope you made him apologize to the guest, and that you explained to him just what was objectionable about his behavior.
Kids have to learn.
Luke, I am your uncle....
You know?
A time like thanksgiving or almost any holiday is such a gift for families to remember and share both within and across generations that which makes them family. Why would you want to invite strangers' politics into it?
The obvious and very sad answer is that for the statists there is no family; there is no reality; there is no identity outside of politics.
There is no private identity. There is no shared experience and remembrance outside of the state.
Government is the only thing to which we all belong.
I never would have thought anything like this could have been proposed much less celebrated in America.
My sister in law brought up gun control last Christmas- right after the Newtown shooting.Among a group of people with widely covering opinions. I told her could not think of a worse topic at a worse time.The night ended disastrously, because she wouldn't let out go.
Shorter version: don't give an inch.
Thanksgiving is a holiday to recognize what you have, not what you want. Neither Democrats nor Republicans are welcome at the dinner table. Leave the talking points at home.
People who would use yourrepublicanuncle.com for talking points on politics must have mush for brains. Most of the site's so-called "facts" really don't address the criticism but rely on fallacies and wordplay.
Most people get angry when they think someone is not taking them seriously, and this site seems to have the perfect recipe for starting a throbbing-vein shouting match. Happy Thanksgiving, and somebody better put the cranberry sauce back in the kitchen.
My brother and I discuss politics all the time. Just because we disagree is no reason we should avoid talking. He is far too smart to need talking points. We have had many good discussions but I realize that no arguments could change my brother's attachment to the SEIU and the left. The SEIU supplies the comradeship and power he has always needed.
Those talking points are creepy since they show how far along the left has progressed in brainwashing the nations youth. Beyond that is the question about whether they are correct or lies?
I'd say most of their claims for the past are factual accurate but their claims for the future are just as much lies and when Obama said "if you like your health insurance you can keep it." The way the facts are used is a problem since they are used to create a false impression. For example, immigrants have indeed created many jobs. Fracking for oil and natural gas was developed by a legal immigrant. It is disingenuous to defend illegal immigration by mixing the pool of immigrants and then attributing accomplishments by legal immigrants to illegal immigrants. Illegal immigrants are usually the poorest least educated strata of the society they come from. The highest small business most of these immigrants would be able to start would be lawn maintenance companies, masonry companies etc. These are all honorable pursuits but they do take jobs from unskilled Americans who could be doing that work. Because the pool of unskilled labor is increased relative to the total population the wages for unskilled labor are depressed.
The talking points about climate are probably the worst. Even if 97% of scientists actually agreed, that would not make it correct. Science is decided by experimental data, not by a consensus. Some nonscientist conservatives like Rush call global warming a hoax. Many of the projects the Democrats have carried through in response to global warming are indeed hoaxes, but the scientists who are skeptics take global warming seriously. They are opened to scientific experimentation but not to the politicized abuse of science which distorts facts to support an ideology. They recognize that computer models do not have the same validity to replace experimentation especially when the computer models have been sloppily written with many built in fudge factors to give the desired results - global warming. They also point out that historically humanity generally prospers during periods of global warming since there are vastly increased crop yields and improved nutrition when the weather is warm.
My family tradition is to marry a democrat and convert them, that way no uncomfortable holiday dinners.
Too bad yourrepublicanuncle.com doesn't have a comment capability:
"I used your points on my Republican father, and he cut off my tuition. Does that violate my 1st Amendment rights?"
"The obvious and very sad answer is that for the statists there is no family; there is no reality; there is no identity outside of politics.
There is no private identity. There is no shared experience and remembrance outside of the state.
Government is the only thing to which we all belong.
I never would have thought anything like this could have been proposed much less celebrated in America."
11/27/13, 8:17 PM
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This is about the most ridiculous over the top generality I've read recently. Seriously? I don't know if you consider me a statist or not, but my family and friends mean the world to me and many of them are Republicans. We gather in love and affection and respect every holiday. Politics usually is not discussed and when it is, it's short sweet and respectful. Some of you are so polarized that you sound as if you aren't describing fellow Americans. Good grief.
Whatever it's worth, I bid you a Happy Thanksgiving, mine always is.
Well, what's to complain about if the journolist ethic spreads to family relationships? Nothing is more important than keeping up with the current party line.
This blog post was an eerie echo of past efforts to make sure the younger generation stayed true to the correct line, despite whatever influence in some other direction the older generation might try to bring to bear. It's a hallmark of fanatical indoctrination generally, be it political or religious. O and his team have an especially creepy way of combining the two.
It's pathetic that there are people for whom politics is the ONLY THING THAT COUNTS. I spent most of my adult life in Washington, DC where politics is the principal topic of conversation (what else could we talk about? Most of that time there was no DC baseball team, and the football team was named after a potato). But not around the Thanksgiving dinner table, for God's sake!
I'm tempted to say that this shows the difference between Republicans and Democrats, but in fact most Democrats that I know wouldn't do any such thing. I think it's only the fanatics, who seem to flock around the current administration, who behave the way myrepublicanuncle.com implies.
@Inga
You are not a statist (whatever that means) then but take it from someone who has spent years in Eastern Europe before and after the SU. A true leftist is expected to put everything after the Party and the "revolution".
My sister is a complete wacko liberal. Even these talking points couldnt help her. They are so out of date. I think they just copied and pasted from 2 or 3 years ago. Nothing about the "you can keep it" lie or the global warming "pause."
Tonight we were duscussing ObamaCare and my sister had to resort to two arguments. One, every president lies for our own good and two, its the Republicans fault for not cooperating. The discussion ended with tears about how Obama has tried so hard and has been kneecapped every inch. We just laughed at her.
"The highest small business most of these immigrants would be able to start would be lawn maintenance companies, masonry companies etc. These are all honorable pursuits but they do take jobs from unskilled Americans who could be doing that work. Because the pool of unskilled labor is increased relative to the total population the wages for unskilled labor are depressed."
The illegals have ruined the dry wall industry in California. No ethical contractor can use legal or union dry wallers and make a living. Much the same is true of Florida with landscaping.
"Obama has tried so hard and has been kneecapped every inch."
I feel like a real ingrate.
Sounds like another of Inga's many fairy tales. The fantasy world of Nurse Betty, LPN.
The Democratic Party: "Telling People What To Think Is Our Business."
@original Mike
We should all feel very bad about how much we have disappointed Obama. He really deserves a much better quality of subjects.
Inga,
Nice job of ignoring the first part of my comment. But that aside, ofa is advising people how to bring up obamacare over the holiday. The DNC is offering political talking points for the holiday. As I recall, government is the only thing to which we all belong was a slogan of the last Democratic convention.
Indeed, someone's rhetoric is over the top. But it's not mine.
We can at least pretend to believe the lies. He's doing it for us.
The DNC providing talking points for Thanksgiving dinner?
Ugly, ugly, ugly.
I think the point should be that politics should not be discussed during Thanksgiving dinner, esp if some of the participants are Dems so brain dead that they need official talking points to make their arguments.
I don't think that they have any idea how lame this all sounds. Are Dem voters so dense and uneducated in the issues that they need someone to think for them? Apparently so. I think it a bit embarassing when leftists show up here spouting official talking points - imagine the embarrassment to be caught out using such in an extended family setting, making points designed to make the President look good, and not really understanding the issues well enough to open their mouths. Good little naive foot soldiers, willing to look silly in front of family and close friendse in order to push the Great One's agenda.
Spinelli, watching you unravel the last few days has been a pleasure. You are a real popular guy over there, not, lmao.
No religion, no politics, no shop talk.
1. Rub chin and say, "These are interesting times indeed. Thank you for sharing you unique views on this matter".
2. Look at the boor's hands to make sure that he/she has a rather full beer/wine/cocktail.
3. Say, "I'm heading over to the bar for a refill, may I bring you something?"
4. As they decline, for they are already sufficiently provisioned, walk away.
5. Do not return. . . . ever.
"We designed YourRepublicanUncle.com so that it look greats and loads quickly on your phone -- no getting ambushed when you go back for seconds on stuffing."
Wasn't that obsession with aesthetics and the appearance of techno-wizardry cited as one of the factors that contributed to the HealthCare.gov development debacle?
"Pass the cranberry sauce, please."
Republican Uncle: "I'm SO glad you stood up and offered to pay more so that people my age who are well off can have cheaper health care. I wasn't so happy at first that the young healthy people would have to foot the bill, but since you all voted to pay more, I guess I'll just say thanks!"
What Republican Uncle clearly thinks is "my niece/nephew is an idiot."
if you need to constantly refer to a propaganda website to argue your point, maybe you should stick to talking about the football games, and whether Aunt Edna's rice pudding was better this year or last.
And Chuck wins today with:
"So, Democrats are bratty kids and Republicans are the wise uncles. I can go with that."
If you have to sit at the Thansgiving table with your talking points printed out, you are probably losing the argument.
CWJ,
“Tutto nello Stato, niente al di fuori dello Stato, nulla contro lo Stato”
Kirk -- DNC talking points always sound better in the original Italian.
November 25, 2013
Ace of Spades' Talking Points for Talking With Your Obnoxious Progressive Family Members About Obamacare This Thanksgiving
1. Hey remember when you said that Obamacare was going to work great, and then, when people asked you how it actually worked, you sort of implied they were stupid for not knowing, and yet you never provided any evidence that you had any idea of how it was supposed to work yourself? Yeah, you were wrong to do that.
2. Remember when you called me crazy for saying Obama wanted to "spread the wealth around," based on not a scrap of evidence except for Obama himself saying he wanted to spread the wealth around? Yeah, there's a NYT article that says that Obamacare is fundamentally a redistributive program -- which means it "spreads the wealth around." Yeah you were wrong on that, too.
3. Remember when you said that it was only "REPUBLICAN LIES!!111!!" that Obama's "if you like your plan, you can keep your plan" promise was itself a lie? I hate to keep coming back to this point, but you were way wrong on that one too.
4. Remember the "if you like your doctor" pledge? Yeah I feel like a broken record here, but you were wrong.
5. Remember when you gleefully, giddily declared the end of the Republican Party and a new era of Proud Progressive dominance? Yeah, the current political Big Story is whether or not Obamacare will wind up discrediting progressivism for just an election cycle or two, or as much as a generation. It looks like you were wrong about that.
6. Remember when you were so confident, arrogant, snotty, sneering, and dismissive about legitimate and informed concerns about Obamacare? You were wrong. And you weren't just wrong on the facts, but you were wrong on a human level. You very nearly screamed your ignorant opinions and shouted down dissent. You sneered at people as ignorant who actually knew more than you did, and you indulged in entirely-unwarranted moral preening about your alleged concern for the poor. Despite the fact that you never do anything to actually aid the poor. Apparently shouting at relatives is your idea of "charity."
Yeah you were wrong. You are wrong.
I know you won't apologize, but at least keep your stupid mouth shut this year and let us all digest in peace.
http://ace.mu.nu/archives/345231.php
Such a great example of the " Ideology Orthodoxy Or Die " syndrome of the Left. The Republican Uncle is portrayed as the enemy.
With the left the individual is non existent. This is not Uncle and Nephew talking policy or views, it is a "Republican" Uncle being enlightened to the ruling class view of today's Democratic Party.
If I was a 60's liberal or a Democrat from the 60's and 70's and I am neither, I would be pretty pissed off right now with the drive to despotism with the current Party Leadership. But that Lord of the Flies mass punishments of anyone who dares disagree with the The View of the Liberal/Progressive ruling class seems quite effective on those who dare.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Cheers!
The DNC website talking points is creepy stalker behavior.
I find as I get older and can no longer exert myself physically as I could when I was younger, I must find other outlets.
I now take great pleasure in annoying the smug, self satisfied, liberal young people that gather around our holiday table.
To sew doubt in their eager empty minds is one of the best things about the season.
That and a good bourbon.
Any bourbon really.
So all of you here whom I respect and admire, have a happy and warn Thanksgiving. Filled with family and friends.
As for the rest of you. Go fuck yourselves.
What a nice warm cocoon Inka lives in, where she can pretend to herself that she is not a lover of statism because she loves her family. Funny how many references to Orwell are showing up these days.
The proper response is along the lines of: "One day when you were a baby your parents conned me into changing your diaper and I accidentally dropped you on your head. We had hoped there'd be no permanent damage but the fact that you think Obamacare is working is proof that there has to have been brain damage. Perhaps Obamacare can fix what's wrong with your mind."
Are you now working on a doctorate in nursing @ Marquette after "getting a bachelors and masters degree" but only having an LPN license. It just doesn't add up. Does Althouse know you're spouting off about her and using her name @ that other law blog??
Spinelli, you are a psycho. Butthurt?
ddh said...
People who would use yourrepublicanuncle.com for talking points on politics must have mush for brains. Most of the site's so-called "facts" really don't address the criticism but rely on fallacies and wordplay.
These Talking Points are not intended to convert the opposition. Their purpose is to convince young leftists to ignore counterpoints and factual evidence counter to their beliefs which they are likely to encounter (in many cases for the first time). Since they are targeted at the faithful the requirement they make sense is not strong. The faithful are willing to make whatever assumptions or logical leaps are necessary to sustain their beliefs.
Inga said...
Spinelli, you are a psycho. Butthurt?
The internet is forever, Inga. everything you've ever commented on is accessible.
You never have to cover up for honesty.
Try it sometime.
On a blog where you aren't known.
You've polluted this watering hole.
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