YOU CAN LEAD A HORSE TO WATER ...

One of the great experiences I get from communicating on FB, via e-mail, or on the many other social networking paths that we have around us today is reading stuff from really stupid people. I especially enjoy reading their stuff when they like to claim they're smart. Check this out. 

I saw the collection of pictures on train systems below ...

Before sharing this picture I decided to comment on the FB site where I originally saw the collection of train pictures. I wanted to explain that our nation's infrastructure is crumbling because it is not being maintained or rebuilt ...

If we understand this we can begin to understand why we're not making any progress when it comes to our nation's infrastructure future, and on the jobs front today. Here's my FB comments on our infrastructure system (and our jobs problem):

• Let's make this real simple ... it's the GOP and their never ending effort to make sure President Obama has a no jobs agenda to run on in 2012. From ignoring his jobs proposals, the threat of record filibusters in the Senate, and Eric Cantor's magical budgets which gut middle class programs, the goal is to make President Obama a one term president ... even if it means stiffing workers and the progress of our nation.

Several of the follow up FB comments were the standard, "We don't have the money ...", "We like our cars so we won't use this ...", etc. But then I saw these comments pop up:

• ... Mark grow and get a life 

  ... remember BHO had two years of senate houe control and could hardly pass a bill 

  ... mark would not know the truth if it bit him on the ass!

I know. Pure genius. The writer really put me in my place.

But I was really delighted to see this private FB correspondence, which was sent directly to me from the same person who told me to get a life:

• • ... you are as dumb as dirt! I graduated fro CSUB with a degree in History and call tell from your dribble you know nothing about what is going on. You are just another left wing wacko out of touch with reality. Remember BHO had both the house and senate and could not pass a bill out of either except health care which will be shortly be overturned. So now you blam the GOP....HaHaHa....only 4 more months...

After chuckling and thinking this would be a great example for my next book because of how it demonstrates what it's like when you engage really stupid people in conversation, I decided to respond privately with the following:

• ... I could start by walking you through the filibuster threats and the GOP's acknowledged strategy to stonewall President Obama but your commentary suggests that, as an intellectual cripple, you're not up to the walk. Seriously, are personal attacks all that you're up for? But thanks for a quote that just might make it in my next book (or on my blog) ;-)

Since I was on a roll I decided to follow up on the more public (original) FB site where all this started. I wanted to explain that, as a nation, we should be able to walk and chew gum at the same time. So I wrote the following about our ability to do several big things in the past:

• 
  

  [Look], Abraham Lincoln signed into law the Homestead Act, the Morrill Act, the National Banking Act, and a bill that chartered the first transcontinental railroad. He was thinking about our future and our national infrastructures. You can't say we have to ignore the future because George Bush put us in a financial hole. More importantly, Lincoln did all of this while managing the Civil War and all the debts we were racking up at the time. Funny what you can do when you don't have recalcitrant political enemies acting like political anchor ... Hey, [Chuckles], since you don't seem to understand the reality behind filibusters let's start with this ... http://markmartinezshow.blogspot.com/search?q=filibuster

Then I followed it up with this ...

• [Chuckles], if you don't want to scroll through the filibuster links you can focus on this ... http://markmartinezshow.blogspot.com/2012/05/fighting-reality.html
  

  
  

  MARK MARTINEZ' BLOG: FIGHTING REALITY

At the end of the day I should have just led Chuckles & Friends to this post on the GOP's 30 year long race to the bottom strategy. But it really doesn't matter. Chuckles & Friends stopped posting. This is par for this crowd. Sigh ...

As my Dad used to say, "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink."

Long story short? If Abraham Lincoln could afford to take time out of the Civil War to make policy and plan for the future - while pushing forward with the concept of Manifest Destiny - we can afford to build for the future of our nation today. Unfortunately we're stuck with the Party of No, and a petulant leadership that cares more about power today than it does about the future of America.

- Mark