Friday, October 5, 2012

Mitt Romney Versus Big Bird: Education Versus Demagoguery?


 Even tough US Republican Party presidential hopeful Mitt Romney won the first round of the 2012 US Presidential Debates so far, should he have antagonized Sesame Street’s Big Bird?

By: Ringo Bones

Since 2010, the TEA Party movement has been attacking every American taxpayer funded education and arts programs that don’t cater to their draconian and literal interpretation of White Anglo Saxon Evangelical Christianity. Eager to capitalize on the “conservative American vote, US Republican Party presidential hopeful Mitt Romney quickly seized the moment to denigrate the public money used to fund PBS. Sadly, Romney's rather harsh "political smack-down" on the most beloved of all children's  educational characters had most baby boomers and generation Xers wondering if Mitt Romney is nothing more than a demagogue mouthpiece of the right-wing ultra-conservative branch of the US Republican Party. But is his decision to antagonize Sesame Street’s Big Bird just a bit over the top?

Mitt Romney got the obligatory political flack during the past few weeks after that notorious hidden camera footage of him denigrating the 47% of America as “freeloaders” who are too dependent on US government handouts in his own private fundraiser ceremony went viral on the internet. Already in trouble for being a “rich aloof” and uncaring towards the poor, this is something Mitt Romney doesn’t need so close to November’s elections. But should the Republican presidential hopeful pick a fight on Big Bird too? Would Romney use his Mormon faith to justify the "Children of Ham" reasoning and logic - thus making racism the next step? 

To American voters aged 60 and younger, Sesame Street’s Big Bird is seen as an revered and venerable educator and an entertainer that had been with them during the tumultuous years of their childhood. Given the recent unrest in the Muslim world over that notorious anti-Islam film denigrating the Prophet Mohammad, it seems like the US Republican Party presidential hopeful Mitt Romney is trying to incite a riot among America’s late baby-boomers and generation X-ers. Given that the long time residents of Sesame Street - especially Big Bird - are already not amused, will this political gaffe eventually hurts his prospects for the 2012 US Presidency?