Shreveport's Forum Prints Ridiculous Opinions about Obama

In response to Louis Avellone's recent article on Barack Obama, et. al., in the Forum, let me say this: He gets just about everything wrong, as usual. The recent article makes the ridiculous claim that Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin were supporters of religion. Avellone, no doubt, already knows that both men were non-sectarian deists who followed no religion at all, and that both men were critical of what they believed to be irrational claims made by the faithful of there own time (Thomas Jefferson once famously produced a redacted version of the New Testement in which he took out passages relating to the miraculous and supernatural elements.), yet Avellone sees fit to smear both of these venerable Americans with the taint of religion.

Shameless as the above example is, at least these men are dead and run no risk of ever having to read this drivel; however, not content to malign the dead, Avellone saves most of his weird negativity for the current Democrat presidential front runner, Barack Obama. And he continues to harp on the unbelievably silly issue of a lapel flag pin.

Why does Avellone insist on saying things like, "remember Obama still refuses to wear a flag lapel pin"? There is here, of course, a meaning implicit in the selection of the words. For example, why "Refuses"? Here is the implication that a person is obliged to have a wearable flag on his person (at least in camera range), or he is unfit to hold the office of President. This belief is so obviously not true that even Avellone doesn't bother to try to support it. He just mentions it over and over again, which is an old rhetorical trick that saves one the bother of having to make sense. In this way the cognitive process is bypassed and in its place is merely the politics of images and slogans, which happens to also be everything that is currently wrong with this country's political environment.

It is probably true that a small number of marginalized, ignorant people will believe that things like a candidates lapel pin or his personal religious beliefs should be considered when casting one's ballot, but for most of us, it's just further proof that Obama's detractors have so little in way of substantive criticism—If for no other reason than this, Louis Avellone's recent Forum article is a hopeful one for Obama supporters.