Why the GOP Is Ignorant

Next Tuesday, President Obama will deliver an online speech to the nation's children just as the school year begins, in which he is scheduled to "challenge students to work hard, set educational goals, and take responsibility for their learning."

Now, one would think this is pretty standard for a president. After all, both Presidents Bush made the same sort of speech. But since the president involved is Barack Obama, the Republican Party is naturally having a hissy fit over it.

To be specific, Florida GOP chairman Jim Greer is having a hissy fit over it. In a press release sent out yesterday, Greer blasted Obama for daring to tell America's children to do their homework:

As the father of four children, I am absolutely appalled that taxpayer dollars are being used to spread President Obama's socialist ideology. The idea that school children across our nation will be forced to watch the President justify his plans for government-run health care, banks, and automobile companies, increasing taxes on those who create jobs, and racking up more debt than any other President, is not only infuriating, but goes against beliefs of the majority of Americans, while bypassing American parents through an invasive abuse of power.

And it goes downhill from there. The full thing must be seen to be believed.

From Greer's diatribe, one would think Obama plans to read to America's schoolchildren from The Communist Manifesto, lead them in a rousing chorus of "The Internationale," start the Pledge of Allegiance with "I pledge allegiance to Barack Obama" and end it with "Allahu Akbar!" It has no connection with reality whatsoever.

But since it is (a) critical of Obama and (b) completely nuts, the usual suspects - Glenn Beck, Michelle Malkin, etc - are predictably jumping all over it. Other pundits and bloggers told parents to keep their kids home from school on Tuesday, ensuring that they won't be exposed to the president with the side effect of missing any lessons which happen to be taught that day.

So not only do we have yet another example of the pettiness of right-wing rage, we also see just how much they value their kids' education. After all, if they're willing to pull them out of school to protect them from hearing someone talk about the importance of learning, one wonders from what else they're willing to protect them - the tyranny of 2+2=4, perhaps.

Let's face it - this latest in a (very) long line of supposed Obama outrages has nothing to do with what he will actually say. It's about the man himself. He could personally shoot Osama bin Laden in the head on the Fourth of July to the strains of "Onward Christian Soldiers" and he would still be attacked as a Socialist Muslim who wants to destroy America.

At least we now know why the Republicans so often appear to be deliberately ignorant. It's because they hate studying.