The party switch of Parker Griffith is giving the Politico vapers. And it probably pisses Pelosi and Hoyer off. And Democrats should by all means contest races in Alabama. But white southerners are batshit crazy wingers, by and large, and there’s just no way around that. Regional polarization is the wave of the future.
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[…] Still. […]
Laura W
I thought Viognier was the wave of the future.
Wrong thread?
DougJ
I thought Viognier was the wave of the future.
No, it’s too subtle.
keestadoll
Can we start a new acronym for this variety of news, the kind that’s not at all a shock nor should be cause for concern?
Here’s one suggestion: WGAS (Who Gives A Shit)
dr. bloor
If nothing else, recent events should shatter the Myth of 60 in the Senate and the notion that Pelosi has the majority equivalent of an 800 pound Gorilla this term. These guys are who they are, and the letter after their names means very little except when the gavel is at stake. None of those Blue Dog districts are sending anybody more to our liking to DC anytime soon.
arguingwithsignposts
Moar Smudge, because I’m tired of this shit, still. Watching season 3 of 30 Rock.
demkat620
So I guess the future is no longer Cao, its Griffith.
Doesn’t seem very catchy to me but maybe it will catch on.
MobiusKlein
A Dog Bites a Man
The Birds Fly South for Winter
And Cracker joins Gop
donovong
“white southerners are batshit crazy wingers”
Oh, really? Want to clarify that statement?
Love,
a white liberal-as-hell born southerner.
gbear
Isn’t losing Griffith about as big a loss as losing the SO that constantly reminded you of what a worthless scumbag you are? Or the coworker who rates a going away party the day after he leaves? Isn’t Griffith’s story is the kind of thing The Onion writes in it’s sleep?
John O
@keestadoll:
I sure would remember that one. The number of times I mutter that to myself reading MSM headlines it would be easy.
Annie
@arguingwithsignposts:
Have you tried the laser light yet? Maybe a good Christmas present for Lady Smudge…
DougJ
Oh, really? Want to clarify that statement?
I said “by and large”.
Seebach
@donovong: Funny how many white southerns are more proud of their Southern-ness than their liberalness. I’m white and born in the South, and I hate it. I wish I wasn’t. If my state had to be dissolved and given to another country for the sake of America, I would be happy to assist.
John O
@donovong:
I don’t think DougJ was speaking in terms of individuals, donovong.
Ain’t no arguin’ about it in terms of body politic, though.
Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle
And it probably pisses Pelosi and Hoyer off.
Pelosi yes, Hoyer no. Hoyer is a conservative. He only votes the way he does because he is in upper leadership. I really hope someone has a word with Van Hollen and Rahmbo though. I wonder how they feel about seeing that $1.2 million pissed away.
South of I-10
@donovong: Thanks! I just typed out a whole paragraph and deleted it. You said it better. We are down here changing hearts and minds.
arguingwithsignposts
@Annie:
No laser light yet, although I have one around here somewhere.
DougJ
I have more respect for southern liberals than for almost anyone else politicall, Mudcat O’Malley or whatever that guy’s name is, notwithstanding. But as a group, white southerners are a little to the right of Franco.
ds
By the fact that they voted 90% for McCain and are the driving force behind the conservative movement.
The Civil War could have only happened in a situation where Southern whites were paranoid, delusional, and vastly overestimating their own strength.
Things haven’t changed much since then.
Seebach
@South of I-10: Yes, yes, Glory Be to the South, which can be Yet Redeemed, so Don’t Make Fun of It, just because it Started a Civil War.
Bo Alawine
Not all of us are.
Please, don’t write all of us white Southerners off.
demkat620
OT but whoever came up with this 2010 = 2k10 shit needs their ass beat.
Knock it off. Stop trying to force your ridiculous attempt to be cool on anybody else.
Corner Stone
That is one cracker ass cracker.
Seebach
@DougJ: You jerk. You didn’t even mention how many schools us white liberals is painting in the South. We’re turning a corner.
Lev
The news should be the stuff that matters the most to the largest amount of people.
The news usually is the stuff that matters the most to the chattering classes.
The first statement rephrases Walter Cronkite. I can’t even imagine what the news would be like if people still did it that way. What sort of stories would people write about? I guess the filibuster would be the biggest story out there, since it affects literally everyone in a massive way. And yet the major story of the day is somebody nobody’s ever heard of switches parties, and now you’ll never hear of him again.
Regnad Kcin
@dr. bloor: They are who we thought they were…
John O
Southern hard-core liberals are brave and patriotic and heroic, indeed.
And I’m not even a Dem, at least by every (inclusive) measure.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
This asshat qualified as a “more” Democrat, sure as shit not a “better” one. We don’t need him, in fact, the caucus will be stronger as a result.
Not that the Village Heathers will see it that way. Clearly this will be a sign of John McCain’s resurgence on the national political scene.
DougJ
OT but whoever came up with this 2010 = 2k10 shit needs their ass beat.
What is that about? I haven’t heard of it
Jim
Just now Rachel Maddow is talking about this guy, and the Republican he barely beat last time is going to run against him in the GOP primary because he’s not a real Republican
How do you feel about MMX?
Seebach
@demkat620: Yeah, that’s lame crap. ZOIO ZOLO is better.
MikeJ
@Seebach:
Many of us had the good sense to get out.
Jim
In the name of Molly Ivins, I salute them.
Seebach
@MikeJ: I’m trying. But if you’re waiting on a significant other to finish a degree, it becomes a game of patience and endurance. I’m not sure if people know this, but in Texas, there is a bumper sticker that says “I wasn’t born in Texas, but I got here as fast as I could.” Consider what that means, and how afraid you need to be.
John O
@DougJ:
Seconded. Never heard it.
DougJ, you’re in deeper than I am.
Left Coast Tom
I easily prefer Viognier to batshit crazy wingers.
beltane
Regional polarization is the American way. I don’t see Massachusetts and Mississippi being on the same page in the near future.
John O
OT, fantastic South Park series on Comedy Central this week and I think next.
‘Night, all.
AhabTRuler
It needs to to be OWGAS (Oh, Who Gives A Shit, both because it emphasizes the exasperation inherent in the sentiment and because it onomatopoeiatically suggests the physical sensation of encountering such an item.
Max
From what I’ve read, this guy is going to get primaried and Club for Growth is coming out against him. I would bet he loses in 2010.
He made a dumb move.
Speaking of the south, what is the hive’s opinion on the chance of Crist – D?
CK Dexter Haven
Dailykos is having a full scale war between Jane Hamsher supporters and Obama supporters.
Kryptik
@Calvin Jones and the 13th Apostle:
I was going to say something along these lines.
The moment Pelosi would say she’s pissed about this, Hoyer would probably call a conference the next day stating just how glad he is for Griffith.
Hoyer always seems particularly intent on undermining anything Pelosi says the day after, no matter what.
JD Rhoades
@donovong:
What donovong said. Merry Christmas from North Carolina!
South of I-10
@Seebach: You don’t know me. There are things that I love so much about this place (which have nothing to do with politics) and there are things that I hate (which generally have everything to do with politics). I don’t remember advocating for the civil war or the confederacy, so I really don’t understand the condescension. I guess if it makes you feel better at the end of the day, have at it.
Bob In Pacifica
Jim, I’ve got MMX on my TV. Makes the sound real good.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@beltane:
How ’bout never being on the same page. Okay, declaring war against Japan but that’s about it.
ds
Haven’t you heard of averages?
And most white Southerners I met who claim to be liberals, end up having crazy ass beliefs on at least few issues. There’s something in the water over there.
Anywayz, all this defection did was save the DCCC millions of dollars in pointlessly defending this seat even though he showed no indication of actually supporting any Democratic issues.
And before someone claims that his seat might determine which party gets majority control, he already ruled out voting for Pelosi as majority leader. That already made him operationally a Republican.
Seebach
@South of I-10: No, I don’t know you. But I know Southerners always have to jump and whine anyone calls the South a cracker-ass wasteland. Maybe if it was less cracker-ass and batshit insane, people wouldn’t make as much fun.
Why be so OFFENDED if it’s not true?
JD Rhoades
Naw, we never got past cipherin’ in school.
JD Rhoades
This may be the single stupidest thing ever said on Balloon Juice.
Try telling a Jewish person “hey, I hear all Jews are greedy money grubbers!” Then when they get offended, ask why they get offended if it’s not true.
Asshole.
Seebach
@JD Rhoades: You’re right. The South has been unfairly scapegoated for holding back all progress in America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The Confederates truly are America’s Jews.
JD Rhoades
@Seebach:
Go fuck yourself, you smug cocksucker.
Mike in NC
Vapors. If it happens about 70 more times, it might be worth worrying about.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@JD Rhoades:
Hmmm, sounds like you’re a product of the MS/TX/KS/AL/pickyourstereotypicalignintstatethatunderfundspublicschools.
I’m guessing school vouchers and prayer would have helped immensely.
PeakVT
And Democrats should by all means contest races in Alabama.
Just not with Democrats that completely suck.
Seebach
@JD Rhoades: I’ll enjoy fucking myself. At least I don’t have to have fucking over America on my conscience.
Look, just accept that the South is disgusting. But no… your regional identity trumps your conscience. So when the new Civil War starts, I’m sure you’ll side with the teabaggers.
Jim
@CK Dexter Haven:
I read a GOS comment thread today for the first time in years. There was a long discussion on whether or not the diary in question met the official standard of a diary. Almost made me look up my long in number, so I could find someone who troll-rated a comment and I could fight with them over whether or not this was abuse of the troll rating. Fun stuff.
JD Rhoades
@Seebach:
That’s better.
South of I-10
@Seebach: Enjoy your stereotypes, I am done.
JD Rhoades
.
Heh.
Seebach
@JD Rhoades: Hee hee. Look, just say “If the South secedes, I swear that I will fight on Obama’s side, and not on the side of my beloved homeland.” That’s all I want. But I’m sure you won’t. Pie pie pie.
JD Rhoades
@Seebach:
You know, you’re right about that!
donovong
@DougJ: I know. i was just poking you in the ribs a bit. However, it would appear that there are some seriously assholish personages taking the opportunity to do some serious south-bashing.
Hold my hat – I’m goin’ back in there!
Seebach
@donovong: Nah, I’m done. Trolling isn’t that much fun. And your confederates have pretty much proven you’re all humorless gits with “pride” issues.
SteveinSC
@Seebach: “…The South has been unfairly scapegoated for holding back all progress in America throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. The Confederates truly are America’s Jews.”
What?
Seebach
@SteveinSC: I think it’s distasteful to compare stereotypes of the South with anti-Semitic tropes. But apparently Southerners here are under the impression that the best defense against those stereotypes is to compare themselves to Jews and how those stereotypes are untrue.
Seebach
@donovong: Dude, I live in the South. You can’t pull the wool over my eyes. I see the rednecks, the racists, and the scumbags! The fact that it’s all a big misunderstanding is not gonna fly.
JD Rhoades
Which is why Obama carried Florida, Virginia, and North Carolina. And Houston just elected an openly gay mayor, something New York City has yet to do.
Montysano
Parker Griffith is my congressman. We worked for a more progressive candidate, but here in the seat of the military/industrial complex, he mopped the floor with her. So I held my nose and pulled the lever for him. So, good riddance to bad trash.
And @ Seebach: please don’t forget that one of the great social justice movements in history started here in Alabama, and it’s legacy continues. There are people in Selma who have done more to move this country forward than most. So: please fuck off.
Seebach
@JD Rhoades: If you really want to compare politicians, we can start with George W. Bush, and move on through Jesse Helms and Strom Thurmond. But yeah… Houston’s mayor. That’s cool.
Seebach
@Montysano: A social justice movement starting in Selma, Alabama? Perhaps you could remind me why that social justice movement was necessary. Was there anything particular about the area that might have caused a grievance for these brave individuals, who were cheered on and accepted by the entire populace, no doubt?
amorphous
I for one will be happy to get out of Texas. I served my five year sentence. Though since I have been in Austin, I was one of the lucky ones.
Off to the north! (east or west, I dunno yet.)
amorphous
@Seebach: I have read this entire thread, and I’ll be honest, I don’t understand wtf point you’re trying to make here. That the South is in general more racist than other regions of the country? Well fucking duh.
Montysano
@Seebach:
Can you tell me why you feel the need to diminish their accomplishment in this “cracker-ass wasteland”? Painting with such a broad brush is the sign of a small brain.
Seebach
@amorphous: The point is, anytime anyone comments that the South tends to be where the center of the conservative movement is, which is beyond doubt, all of the southerners have to jump on and cry:
NUH-UH! We’re not ALL like that! Don’t make fun of us!
So… uh… DougJ wasn’t talking about you, then. But nooo! The Honor of the South must be defended at all times. It can never just be taken in stride.
@Montysano: I did not intend to diminish their incredible accomplishment, for which many people suffered and died. But the fact is, those citizens had to protest in Alabama because the other residents of Alabama were doing everything in their power to treat them as sub-human. So, the South gets credit for civil rights? Does the Confederacy then claim credit for ending slavery?
Lex
Re Griffith, the fun part? Is that we will hear about him one more time: when he loses next year in the GOP primary.
Having lived in both North Carolina and New York City, I would just say that pretty much anybody can be a decent human being in New York City. It takes some stones to be one down here. My great-uncle Thomas Hay pastored a prominent Presbyterian congregation in Little Rock in the Brown v. Board era, and he went to sleep with a shotgun under his bed, sent the wife and kids out of town and called Orval Faubus out from the pulpit for the racist SOB he was. (The fun part was that Faubus couldn’t afford, for political reasons, to alienate that congregation, so he went around town muttering quietly about what a shame it was that T. Hay had gone ’round the bend.)
That’s part of the reason why our percentage of batshit crazy is higher than those of other regions, which in turn is part of the reason why we are so enamored of firearms: Those of us who are NOT batshit crazy need protection from those of us who are, so a lot of us (including, and I speak from experience here, many of the journalists, and, as previously observed, some clergy) carry. Don’t judge.
Montysano
@Seebach:
Walking it back, are we? What happened to “cracker-ass wasteland”?
Well… yeah, to a significant degree. The people that were on the vanguard of that movement, who put their lives on the line, were Southerners. The people who caused the problem? Also Southerners. Thus the problem with the broad brush approach.
Seebach
@Montysano: Nah, I’m not walking it back, because it drives you motherlanders nuts. You were getting on DougJ’s case for saying, simply:
And people took offense to that. I, personally, am not a batshit crazy winger, so I understood DougJ was not referring to me. If you assume anytime anyone says something bad about the south, it is an insult to her maiden honor, you have issues.
And it’s hilarious to poke y’all with a stick, cuz y’all scurry like possums when’in I do.
amorphous
@Seebach: Well, can you blame them? There’s generalizing, and there’s overgeneralizing. When you are a member of a group that is being generalized about (in this case, Southerners), but you are the opposite of the generalization (in this case being batshit crazy wingers), I can see why you’d be the first one to point out that this isn’t always the case for fear of this being an overgeneralization. I don’t think it’s such a BFD that some people want to quickly (and repeatedly) distance themselves from something they perceive as vile.
Do they have to defend themselves in semi-anonymous comments on some random blog? No. Do you have to care when they do? No.
amorphous
Let’s just call it “das Vaterland”, get our Godwin on, and be done with it. Here I’ll do it:
All Southerners are worse than Hitler.
/thread
Corner Stone
@amorphous: You know who else was worse than Hitler?
Corner Stone
@Seebach:
Texas is a beautiful state. Has a lot of things to do and see and enjoy here, irrespective of asshole crackers like me that live here.
In fact, I’m pretty sure you could do lots of activities in Texas and never once run into me.
amorphous
@Corner Stone: You guessed it: Frank Stallone.
Corner Stone
@amorphous: I was going to go with Trevor Horn but, eh. Frank Stallone will do.
Midnight Marauder
@Corner Stone:
That’s a relief.
Sly
As opposed to what motivating principle that dominated American politics for the past 220 years…?
The liberal/centrist/conservative divide has always been a fabrication of people who need simple and large categories into which they can easily divide people. The reality is that regional politics, and the polarization that has always accompanied it, is as American as it gets.
@Montysano:
Personally, I only refer to the South as a “cracker-ass wasteland” when in the company of Southern wingers who insist I’m a Northern Liberal Elitist who wants to tax them to death and force them all to watch Michael Moore movies. I also make repeated reference to that Great American Hero, General William Tecumseh Sherman, because he didn’t have any pussy Geneva Conventions to stop him from savaging the insurgents of his day, by God.
It’s all an act, of course, and most of the Southerners I’ve met personally I’ve come to like. You simply can’t make BBQ that good and be all bad.
Jim
I think Frank Stallone was the greatest celebrity sibling ever.
Corner Stone
@Midnight Marauder: Yep. In fact, as long as you stay away from the glory hole in the 24 hour News/Video by Numbers on Elgin/Westheimer there’s about a 100% chance you’ll never run into me.
Otherwise at least say “Green Balloons!” before you leave.
Corner Stone
@Jim: I don’t know anymore. I go back and forth on the Dillon brothers. Has Kevin now surpassed Matt? Or did Matt just retake the lead?
It’s a fucking tough call.
Jim
@Corner Stone:
Now, see, I put Jim Belushi below Frank Stallone, but above Kevin Dillon.
Midnight Marauder
@Corner Stone:
Westheimer? You don’t fucking say?! Me and Westheiiiimer (as the cool kids/Mexicanos used to say) go way back. I went to high school at Lamar, and I always used to get a kick out of how our namesake was Mirabeau B. Lamar and our mascot was the Redskins…even though good ol’ Mirabeau had a well document history of hating and exterminating the evil injuns.
But I guess that’s Texas for you, right?
+4
Texas Dem
Parker Griffith (never trust someone who has two last names) is beyond stupid if he thinks that someone who (1) voted for Pelosi for speaker, (2) supports the Democratic party about 85 % of the time, (3) donated money to Howard Dean, and (4) is an earmark whore, will have any future in the GOP. Redstate and Club for Shrinkage are already chomping at the bit to primary his ass. The attack ads almost write themselves. My guess is that this guy will get swamped in the GOP primary, and that will discourage other potential party switchers. Thank God the GOP is so stupid–that’s the best thing we have going for us right now.
amorphous
@Corner Stone: What about the JoBros? Or do they only break all the records once the Bonus Jonas is old enough to rock?
Corner Stone
@Jim: Listen, both you and amorphous – this conversation begins, ends and revolves sideways with the Swayze brothers.
And the rest of you can go straight to hell if you disagree.
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@Jim:
You neglected to mention the delicious, nutty, crunchy part of Rachael’s report on this that talks about the scrotal tongue-bathing that Steele gave Dick Armey on Monday in welcoming the RNC and himself working closely with FreedomWorks, DIck Armey and the Teabaggers. That happy marriage was ended today, one day later, when the defecting Democratic congresscritter found out that while the RNC was welcoming him with open arms and would support him in the upcoming election, the guy that he barely beat in the last election is going to continue running against him with support from the teabaggers and places like Redstate.
I love the sound of brawling wingnuts. It sounds like… victory.
@CK Dexter Haven:
So far it looks like the sane are beating down the insane
or
Kos teabaggers taking it on the chin!
“… smug cocksucker.”
Imagine the facial expression that would result from someone polishing a knob with a smug look on their face. Something just seems wrong in combining those two facial expressions but words to describe it fail me.
amorphous
@Corner Stone: There’s a Swayze brother?
I just Googled it. I had no idea. I hope Don Swayze doesn’t comment here, this would be embarrassing for both of us.
This has been “Swayze Revelatory Theatre” with your host, amorphous.
jager
My first week at Fort Benning, one of my buddies (from New Orleans) told me all I have ever needed to know about the South…”If you start to get hot and heavy with a Baptist Girl, she’ll look you right in the eye and say, “Ah ain’t nevah done nothin lahke this befo” and then proceed to give the most incredible blow job you’ve ever had!
DougL (frmrly: Conservatively Liberal)
@jager:
Frank Zappa says that Catholic Girls are the best.
“With a tongue like a cow, she could make you go wow!”
Anne Laurie
@beltane:
How do Mississippians feel about the (pinstriped) Yankees?
mandarama
My DH is from Mass. I’m from MS. He grew up with right-wing Rush-fan parents, and I grew up with a mom slightly left of Bernie Sanders. Over the years, I’ve pulled him steadily leftward. Having gone to NE prep schools and so on, he actually believed a lot of the economic bullshit peddled by the R’s. I was the first rural poor person he’d ever really known.
No doubt that many of my high school friends back home are strong with the wingnut. But please, there’s no need to sweep that wide brush. There are plenty of progressives in the south, and we defend our region because we plan to keep working on it rather than writing it off. Just like Molly Ivins.
mandarama
@Anne Laurie:
Based on my experience, we don’t. Baseball only counts if it’s your local high school team going to State. The only real sport to most Mississippians is college football. And probably right now, the Saints’ efforts.
Anne Laurie
@Lex:
You sure that was NYC? I was born there, and got out as soon as I legally could (age 17-1/2) because the longer I lived there, the meaner and more misanthropic I became. Macro vs. micro, I s’pose.
mandarama
@jager:
Heh. When the Clinton scandal broke and everyone was yelling about how he’d lied when he said he did not have sex with that woman, I kept thinking, “He’s not lying, by Baptist standards!”
HeartlandLiberal
Just to defend John from any criticism of his blanket condemnation:
I was born in Alabama, reared there (if you are a Southerner, you will understand that usage); went to college there (Birmingham-Southern, still one of the best four year colleges in the nation, far as I am concerned). Heck, I was a teenager when George Wallace was running for governor and actually attended a Wallace rally once when he was campaigning in a town where I was staying with an uncle one summer. Took pictures of him for the local paper my uncle operated.
I fled the state in 1969 after college. I have lived in Illinois (Urbana/Champaign, grad school), Germany, Tennessee, and been in Indiana since 1985.
Although we stayed in touch with relatives, and visited every year until my mom died 8 years ago, I can only say this about my homeland, of which I consider my self an expatriate:
Hell will freeze over solid before I would ever move back to live there.
One of my brothers is not speaking to me right now, because I called him on his racist Obama email by responding to a CC: list of all his friends, and “embarassed” him. My other brother does not want to speak to me for similar reasons. I still remember how he counseled me so sagely and seriously on the invasion of Iraq, and how of course there were all those WMDs, blah blah blah, and oh, no Black person has EVER been executed who was innocent and did not have it coming. Seriously. That was our last substantive conversation years ago.
Don’t kid yourself. The vast majority of whites in the south are in fact racist, bigoted, conservative, bat-shit crazy racists who go to church every Sunday and praise Jeebus. I guarantee if you move to the South, you will be asked when forming meeting people for the first time within five minutes to verify what church you are a member of.
This is not a fantasy, parody, or stereotype. It is the Gospel truth. It is one we in the liberal community call: reality.
bob h
Regional polarization is the wave of the future.
One wishes that regional divorce were, too. These people are an albatross around our necks.
Napoleon
Speaking of the south, the Senate HCR bill has not even come up for a final vote but a bunch of Republican state AGs, lead by South Carolina’s AG, at the request of one of the leaders of the push to overturn Bill Clinton’s democratic election with an impeachment, Lindsey Graham and in addition Jim DeMint, have now opened an investigation of the Ben Nelson/Nebraska deal Harry Reid struck as part of the pending HCR bill.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/22/AR2009122203690.html?hpid=sec-politics
JD Rhoades
Probably don’t hate them any worse than Bostonians do.
Circular Firing Squads?
Regional polarization AND party purification. They seem to want to work that NY-23 magic again.
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/12/laura-ingraham-picks-sides-in-va-05—against-primary-candidate-she-says-is-too-moderate.php
aimai
Oh, yay, a hundred flame thread in which I have absolutely no position. Except–leave the jews out of it, pleeaz, we’ve got our own problems with the South having been both slave owners and non white for the duration of the nation.
aimai
JD Rhoades
@aimai:
The point was not that Southerners=Jews. The point of the analogy was to point out the sheer fuckwittery of seebach’s saying “Well, you wouldn’t object to the stereotype if it wasn’t true.”
Let’s try another one, then: I think people here would (and have) objected to the Rethuglican trope “All liberals are like seebach: elitist snobs who hate working class white people.” Does that make it true?
Doesn’t have to be. But it’s harder when bigots insist on writing off entire regions, including the people in those regions who are working to change things.
But, you know, I remembered after a few posts that it’s impossible to argue with a bigot, or a troll. So thanks again to whoever invented the pie filter.
JD Rhoades
@Napoleon:
So they’re contending now that cutting a deal with a Senator to get votes on a bill makes the bill unconstitutional? Do they REALLY want to go there?
JD Rhoades
@mandarama:
Molly is my hero. I started writing my newspaper column largely because of her. RIP.
Steve M.
I say whistle past Dixie.
Napoleon
@JD Rhoades:
Of course they do. They have no way to grind the country to a halt with investigations on a national level so they are going to start trying to grind the country to a halt on the state level. I would be willing to bet that if HCR passes there will be red states that refuse to impiment it.
DZ
Haven’t any non-Southerners heard of Morris Dees?
JD Rhoades
@Steve M.:
Yeah, good luck with that.
El Cid
It should be recalled that these sorts of claims are the kind of things which can be compared with polling and survey data.
FWIW, Southern whites are significantly more religious, in terms of declaring beliefs, and in terms of church attendance over a majority claim to attend church regularly, though black Southerners attend church more than white Southerners. So I’m not sure if this would count as a ‘vast majority’.
In terms of measures of racism in response to specific question, such as opposition to racial inter-marriage, however, a still disappointing 20% of Southern whites agree that inter-racial marriage should be forbidden, though that is certainly not a ‘vast majority’. Though a ‘vast majority’ of Southern whites, nearly 90%, say they would vote for a black President.
This is not a defense of how shitty in general the treason-loving, nation-hating white conservative Southerners have treated this country and its people, and how much these backwards assholes have made us, but on occasion it’s worthwhile to know the numbers and how ‘the South’ breaks down.
Today’s South isn’t the South of the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s, but it did come from there.
Mothra
It’s tough being a Democrat in a red state, but we are getting stronger and bolder here in Tennessee.
JD Rhoades
@El Cid:
thanks for that link, especially this from the opening paragraph:
Heh.
Uloborus
I’m another Southerner, born ‘n bred in the briar patch, who pretty much supports the description of the place as full of racist, ignorant crackers. I moved to LA as soon as I could, and am not happy I had to move back.
I actually respect and like the ‘don’t write us off, because this can be fought’ argument. You may be right that the stereotype is harmful, because it inclines us to give up on the place. But it is basically TRUE. We may be liberals, there may be brave and noble liberals in the South – there are, and way more than is obvious. But the population is the fountain of ignorant Christianist ultra-conservatism, as the McDonalds (don’t ask) full of Medicare recipients arguing with each other about just *how* bad health care reform was I just walked out of reminded me. Vividly.
And yet, one of them was explaining, and getting away with, explaining that he votes Dem because he just can’t support the Republican anti-abortion stance. Even these people are human. But anyone who wants to claim over 50% of them are awful people? I can’t argue with that.
mandarama
@Mothra:
Agreed. I live here in TN and was proud of our huge group of volunteers last fall.
Our 5am group of visibility volunteers at Belmont (debate site) totally punked John Rich on the CBS early show. He had to sing his John McCain song with a HUGE group of Obama signs behind him. He actually was visibly unnerved, though we were all polite. There were 3 McCain supporters there. That was an awesome moment.
mandarama
@bob h:
*These people are an albatross around our necks.*
I understand that sentiment. It must be hard for the rest of the country to fathom how the South’s cultural identity works, even with Faulkner’s work as a blueprint. But beware of easy stereotyping. It’s a complex region, and very much a part of the US despite secession talk from both residents and critics.
Basically, liberals here have enough of a job turning a slow ship around without disdain from our compatriots who come from other places.
El Cid
Remember that in the South, the growth in Northern immigrants, Latinos, and the return of African Americans from other parts of the country change the political outlook of many areas demographically. Conversion is harder than outnumbering.
El Cid
And then there’s this from the super-advanced political paradise known as South Carolina’s political leadership:
Okay, Senator Lindsey. The reason you can’t support health care reform is ‘cuz they’s so many damn n***ers in South Carolina. Okey dokie.
kimora
El Cid, I’d take Miz Lindsey seriously, he spends alot of time on his knees……in prayer of course. Hope y’all didn’t think I meant anything else. Also, he know sleazy, hell they roomed together in College along with skanky, smarmy and dreamy dream Dirk the German exchange student…