LoneLaugher
Diamond Member
These "would have" hypotheticals are really quite pointless. They're an exercise in partisanship, nothing more.
As C. S. Lewis pointed out as one of the "morals" of the Narnia books, we can never know what would have happened.
I think the point is clear. All this conservative harping has little, if anything, to do with Sgt Bergdahl. It's simply an attempt to USE the Sgt's status, regardless of what it is, to criticize Obama. So, if Bergdahl was never released by the Taliban because Obama had refused to release the 5 men imprisoned at Gitmo, despite what conservatives are saying about that approach being the better course of action, they would STILL pummel Obama with it by saying that an American POW should be brought home instead of being left to languish and possibly die in Afghanistan just to hold on to a few Taliban who wouldn't affect the outcome of the war one way or the other. Then conservatives would run around the country tying yellow ribbons to trees like Tony Orlando and Dawn.
It's true, and EVERYONE knows it's true.
There is little doubt they'd be bashing him 24/7/365. The point the Doctor was making was "so? tell us something we don't know." Now, that isn't your job of course and we all use the news of the day to get our feelings across.
Just to echo Doc's point (perhaps) I offer this;
Don't you hate it when conservatives tell you how liberals think? Obviously, if you're going to ask a liberal what she/he thinks, the last person you'd ask is a conservative who can't wrap their heads around equal pay for equal work or why contraception today reduces welfare tomorrow. I'm sure conservatives hate it when you (or I--I'm guilty as well in the past) tell them what they think. There is no doubt here that the conservatives would have bashed POTUS mercilessly. It is no longer a thought...it's a reflex. If he says it's partly cloudy, he'll be bashed for not saying it's partly sunny. It's a given like the sunrise.
But by embodying the "Conservatives feel this way..." you don't exactly elevate the argument or the forum. Again, this isn't your job of course and feel free to take any track you wish...it's the norm. I would hope, however, that my fellow liberals would recognize that we'll have a GOP/Conservative POTUS soon; do you want to really emmulate the BS we've seen for 6 years?
You are correct on many fronts. Especially regarding the fact that it is not his ( nor our ) job to elevate the forum. We all forget this from time to time.....and we are invariably disappointed.
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