Gregg,

In my personal experience knowing a lot of republicans, I think that a lot of them got caught in the bread and circus.

I think that as human beings, most of them are truly intelligent and honestly want what they feel is best for the nation, and they have good ideas. The problem is that these ideas then get muddled with other, bad ideas that come out of that conservative media or just really bad statements that some folks made in the party, including Romney himself (particularly in the infamous 47% speech), or even worse, just bizarro conspiracy theories and claims.

I had one particularly mind-numbing conversation with an old jr highschool friend and her mother on FB. Romney said some zinger,a and she replied "lets hear the kenyan respond to that!" and I said "please tell me that you are not one of those birthers!? I'm shocked that you would feel at all comfortable aligning with such an idea!'

She then asserted that I should look at incredibly biased web site X. I posted citizenship and naturalization law for the US, Kenya, and Indonesia, all of which clearly spell out how one acquires citizenship. That was it. Not even a position paper -- quite literally just the laws themselves. I then asked: was Obama's mother a natural citizen of the US?

She answered yes. Then said "but he was also a natural citizen of Kenya through his father." And I said, "true, but according to kenyan law (link), he has to claim that at age 18 to maintain dual citizenship, and there's no evidence that he claimed it. And the same is also true for indonesia (link)." Therefore, is Obama -- by dint of his mother's natural citizenship as well as his active rejection of either two other dual citizenships he could have had -- a natural american citizen who then qualifies for the presidency?

And she said "yes, but I read his book, and he seems so interested in his kenyan heritage as to be. . . well, not very american in my book." And I said "didn't you spend a lot of time studying your german heritage, taking german language lessons (along with french, like me), as well as studying up on your family history and culture both in Germany as well as their journey of immigration? Does studying your history as a German make you less american? Or does it just make you interested in the culture of your heritage, a normal study for a person of that age? It is ok to study European heritage, but not african or central american or asian?"

I also pointed out that she travelled internationally a lot, and yet hadn't visited all 50 states, and that she also loved to study all kinds of languages and cultures -- does that make her less american?

At this point, her mother pipes in some nonsense about how smart my friend is and how I'm completely "swayed by liberal professors" and "unable to think clearly" because of it. I tell her to not be so patronizing. I'm 15 years post college and those "liberal professors" and managed to get through a relatively conservative law school (since coproprate law tends to the conservative) well enough to ascertain whether or not this "birther argument" has any validity, TYVM.

She then gives me the "when you're my age, you'll understand" argument, and I said "I would hope that when i age I continue to grow in enough wisdom to continue to respect people regardless of their perceived political leanings. I have no issue with Friend being republican, but I feel that this particular argument is a waste of her time, effort, and thought-energy. I'm simply asserting my own shock at her participation in this ideology, because she's the last person that I would consider a racist, or who would entertain such a ridiculous idea.

At whihc point my friend suggests separating us, and I assert that I doubt such is necessary, but would she answer the question? She concedes that Obama -- as the laws of all three countries are written, just facts, no partisan or biased websites, but literally the straight up laws as they are written -- is in fact a natural american citizen. She also then admits that studying a person's heritage doesn't make them less american, and therefore, it stands to reason that just because obama happened to think about kenya and she happened to think about germany (and I interjected, and I think about the british isles and scandinavia) does not make any of us less American.

I even asserted that, living in a foreign country by choice also makes one no less american, and it is -- in my experience -- the experience with other cultures that helps us discover just how American we truly are!

I told her that I would expect no less from her, and was really, truly shocked by the idea that she would hold tightly to this (racist in origin) idea.

To me, she's a smart girl who got caught in some bread and circus.

If we can dialogue about it (as we did), then we usually discover that she doesn't actually stand by that ridiculous idea when provided with *facts*. And I think most people are like this.

For me, the Romney 47% speech was really no big deal. I think that it was an idiotic communication of a standard idea of business: go for the new market, rather than trying to draw the current market away from your competitors. It's the reason my business is growing. I focus on getting people who work a lot and are busy and in this particular area of town and brand new to yoga into yoga classes. Brand new to yoga is 96% of the population! Yoga population is 4%. Do I want to fight over 4% with other yoga studios/teachers, or do I want to expand into a new market (draw in some of the 96%)?

I got what he ws saying, which is why I didn't rail against it too much. I think he said it stupidly (not as stupidly as O'Reilly, btu still), but I think sometimes we all do that anyway. And, I suppose he figured he was among friends, where our stupid stuff is sort of glossed over because we all get the general idea and know that the other one isn't really a dumbass (i'm not saying Romney is a dumbass, just that sometimes I say things not-gracefully, but my husband knows I'm not mean, you know? that i'm not a dumbass.).

So, I don't really cotton to anyone on either side getting all circus-y. It's why I asked about O'Reilly. If he is a voice for the party, then all they have to blame is themselves (and read that last blog that Red Fox posted, because it does sum it up nicely). But, if he's just an idiot, and most people view him as that, then no harm done, he's bread and circus.

And there's no need for me -- or anyone else -- to get too caught in bread and circus.