The flagrant rhetoric which commonly flows from John Boehner’s style of leadership is evident with his reply to the President’s veto of the Keystone XL Pipeline. http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/24/politics/obama-keystone-veto/. In Politics and Communication in America, Andrew Chadwick suggests in Chapter 7, key themes revolving around The Internet and Politics. Chadwick explains, in one of those themes, “In the online world it is much more likely that we will seek out like-minded people and have our views reinforced rather than challenged by alternative perspectives” (136). John Boehner’s claims that “The American People” want jobs; he asserts that the President is acting on the advice of “left-fringed extremists and anarchists” by ignoring the 200,000 new jobs that the Keystone Pipeline will create. He goes on to downplay the real issues as every day cost of doing business with his “call to action” for President Obama to listen to the American People and “build this pipeline!”Andrew Chadwick states that the potential for exchange of information can be invaluable to gather facts about any issue; however, he also cautions the negative consequences (as seen in this clip), “this does not mean that voters will be better educated on a particular issue” (138). The sense of Community is easily manipulated and controlled and often leads to investigating only what like-minded participants promote.
Boehner and supporters of the Keystone XL Pipeline do not want the American People to understand who will benefit from this business venture; more importantly, they want to deflect from the serious issues that will forever affect our world long after the profits have been made by the select few who stand to profit. Among the many reasons for voters to become aware of what is at stake are serious environmental issues from the fossil fuel emission, threat to the safety of several water aquifers, the jobs myths, and attempt to break yet another treaty with Indigenous Peoples’ Property rights. (http://www.labor4sustainability.org/articles/5-reasons-why-the-keystone-pipeline-is-bad-for-the-economy/). In addition, it is common knowledge (or it should be), that the Koch Brothers have a monumental stake in this proposal for their economic benefit, not the American People (http://kochcash.org/justreleased/).
Lastly, some of the “left-fringed extremists and anarchists” that Boehner is referring to can be found in an extensive report by ProCon.org at (http://alternativeenergy.procon.org/view.answers.php?questionID=001628) and includes statements from experts from the Departments of Meteorology and Geosciences at Penn State, The Natural Resources Defense Council, The League of Conservation Voters,1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers, and The Indigenous Environmental Network, to name a few. It is high time for Mr. Boehner to polish up his credibility and presentation if he is expecting educated Americans to believe his rhetoric of misinformation.
