Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

If you are still in the gop, you are either an extremist yourself, or in bed with those who are.

When I decide to be condescending, you won’t have to dream up a fantasy about it.

They think we are photo bombing their nice little lives.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

Let’s show the world that autocracy can be defeated.

Today’s gop: why go just far enough when too far is right there?

Good lord, these people are nuts.

Wake up. Grow up. Get in the fight.

You don’t get rid of your umbrella while it’s still raining.

Following reporting rules is only for the little people, apparently.

Reality always lies in wait for … Democrats.

The fundamental promise of conservatism all over the world is a return to an idealized past that never existed.

Dead end MAGA boomers crying about Talyor Swift being a Dem is my kind of music. Turn it up.

Tick tock motherfuckers!

Israel is using food as a weapon of war. Unforgivable.

The arc of the moral universe doesn’t bend itself. it’s up to us.

… riddled with inexplicable and elementary errors of law and fact

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

We know you aren’t a Democrat but since you seem confused let me help you.

This fight is for everything.

Dear Washington Post, you are the darkness now.

I was confident that someone would point it out and thought why not me.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

Peak wingnut was a lie.

You are here: Home / Politics / Biden Administration in Action / Proud Democrat Open Thread: Madam Vice-President

Proud Democrat Open Thread: Madam Vice-President

by | 147 Comments

This post is in: , , ,

Victoria Brownsworth, at Philadelphia Gay News — “Black History Month: White Democrats Have a Kamala Harris Problem”:

… Replacement theory — the concept that Western elites, sometimes manipulated by Jews, want to “replace” and disempower white Americans — is a prominent conspiracy among white conservatives, particularly MAGAs.

It is this panoply of racist theories and their historical foundational legacy that underpins so much political discourse in the U.S. It’s also, arguably, behind the ongoing demand among white male pundits and some Democratic strategists to get President Biden to step out of the 2024 campaign or at the very least, change vice presidents to a white man, like California Gov. Gavin Newsom, or even a white woman, like Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Headlines like “Democrats have a Kamala Harris problem” and “Democrats’ weird answers on Kamala Harris” and “The Kamala Harris Problem” and “The Case for Biden to Drop Kamala Harris” abound — unprecedented in recent American politics.

The anti-Kamala caucusing has only escalated since 2020 when Biden was vetting vice presidential candidates. White male Democrats — the smallest voting bloc in the Democratic “Big Tent” — have not voted majority Democratic in any national election since LBJ passed that legislation, which was widely perceived as making him a “race traitor.” Yet, they still feel entitled to speak over and through Black women, who are the largest Democratic voting bloc.

The last all-white, all-male ticket in the Democratic party was in 2004 with John Kerry and John Edwards. That is also the first time Democrats have lost the popular vote since 1988…

Regardless of what some white Democrats might think, Harris is both beloved and admired among the Democratic base — including among LGBTQ+ people — for her long history of support for historically marginalized people. For 20 years, Harris has been fighting for LGBTQ+ rights. She was marrying lesbian and gay couples in San Francisco as District Attorney in 2004, before same sex-marriage was legal. She even reconnected with a gay male couple, Bradley Witherspoon and Raymond Cabone, whom she married on Feb.13, 2004, a day before Valentine’s Day…

Should Biden decide now to withdraw, which is extremely unlikely, he would endorse Harris. Voters would vote for Biden-Harris on the ballot and Harris would accrue his delegates — and the nomination. Who other than Dean Phillips would challenge her? The die is cast.

It’s nearly all white male pundits and late-night comedians (also all white men) doing this hand-wringing over Biden’s age. The Black Caucus is strongly supportive of Biden. It’s implausible that Gavin Newsom, Pete Buttigieg or Gretchen Whitmer would set themselves up as write-in candidates against Harris: even if they wanted to — that’s career suicide for any future candidacy in 2028 or 2032…

New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, who was close friends with Harris when they were in the Senate together, highlights Harris’s work on key issues of HBCU funding, police reform, expanding access to health care and LGBTQ rights. Booker told CNN, “I can’t think of a time that I’ve seen somebody have earned her chops but not get the credit where credit is due.”

Senate Pro Tempore Patty Murray was succinct, summing up the concern of many white pundits that Harris will be the next president — and expand the presidency beyond white men forever: “Everyone who says you can’t do something,” she said, “is afraid that you will.”

Reader Interactions

147Comments

  3. 3.

    Baud

    Everyone who says you can’t do something,” she said, “is afraid that you will.”

    That’s lovely.

  4. 4.

    rikyrah

    LarryO preached last night. I wish that one of the FrontpPagers would find the entire video of his first segment. He went 28 minutes, gave a history lesson and was blistering on all those  “let’s dump Biden ” clowns.

  6. 6.

    narya

    This whole narrative–that there’s an Ur white person (christian, natch) who is being “replaced”–only works if “whiteness” has value. I realize that there’s a multi-century effort to privilege whiteness and maleness–but that also means you have to CREATE whiteness and maleness, you have to create the boundaries that let a person know where they and others fit on those spectra. What a futile, hateful, tiring effort. Seeing my VP out there doing the work, and seeing at least some people welcoming and cheering her, is so much happier. I love the variety of folks in this administration, and the competence and joy they bring to the work.

  7. 7.

    Baud

    @narya:

    Eh, I’m willing to regard white ethnic groups like any other human tribe: a group of people with a shared identity and culture that they want to preserve.

    The question for me is what tools the broader society will let them use to preserve it. For us liberals, oppression is not one such tool.

  8. 8.

    Another Scott

    USA population: 342M
    World population: 8,100M

    The USA has 4.2% of the world’s population.

    It’s time RWNJ people got used to it – WASE (white anglo-saxon evangelicals) are a tiny, tiny subset of humans, and even Americans. They can’t hold the rest of us down forever.

    Cheers,
    Scott.

  10. 10.

    RSA

    White male Democrats — the smallest voting bloc in the Democratic “Big Tent” — have not voted majority Democratic in any national election since LBJ passed that legislation…

    I think the writer forgot the subject of the sentence halfway through, because it would be very surprising if most white male Democrats were voting for other parties’ candidates.

  12. 12.

    Baud

    @RSA:

    Also, they’re not the smallest voting block of Dems by numbers.

    The subject should probably be white males” and smallest should be “smallest per capita “.

    ETA: Editors don’t exist anymore

  15. 15.

    HinTN

    “I am absolutely ready”

    That is exactly what they fear.

    Off to listen to Larry O. (Having given up the electric teevee machine I don’t hear him regularly like I used to do. )

  18. 18.

    narya

    @Baud: I’ll give you that, I guess, up to a point, and I totally agree on the “no oppression” piece. Ethnic identity in this country is just kinda weird–we’re all immigrants from other places, after all.

  19. 19.

    sab

    I remember that in 2020 in the jackal demographic Harris was hardly anyone’s number one choice but she was everyone’s number two choice. We all liked her a lot but most of us liked somebody else better. Biden was about number 14 as a first choice.

  20. 20.

    Caveatimperator

    @Baud:

    Within 21st century American context, I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a single distinct “white” culture that needs to be preserved.

    There’s a bunch of cultures from Europe, mostly made of white people.

    And there’s American culture, which has historically been white dominated but doesn’t have to be.

    The Americans who fear white people being replaced do not believe that black people or immigrants from Asia and Latin America can be real Americans. They do not believe they can adapt to our culture. They don’t believe that their American born children will pick up American cultural customs. And they sure as hell don’t believe that they have anything to contribute to our culture. They don’t want immigrants’ food or music or literature to get absorbed into the American cultural consciousness.

    Their definition of whiteness is absolutely an exclusionary one based on oppression.

  23. 23.

    Baud

    @narya:

    Ethnic identity in this country is just kinda weird–we’re all immigrants from other places, after all

    Sure, but just substitute a minority ethnic group into your original analysis to see how well it works.

     

    @Caveatimperator:

    Within 21st century American context, I’m not sure there’s such a thing as a single distinct “white” culture that needs to be preserved.

    There’s a bunch of cultures from Europe, mostly made of white people.

    Correct. I agree. There are plenty of white ethnic cultures that are perfectly fine as cultures, but there is no “white” culture that isn’t grounded in racism. The reason “blackness” is different is because of the shared history of slavery that erased traditional tribal affiliations and resulted in a shared black culture. But human minds hate asymmetry so racists seized on the idea that if blackness is legitimate, than whiteness must be.

  24. 24.

    msdc

    @Baud: Yes, that was an absurd statement. It might be true that white men as a whole have the lowest support for Democratic candidates of any racial demographic, but white men are absolutely not the smallest voting bloc in the Democratic coalition. They are the second largest (after white women) because the electorate is predominantly white, even within the Democratic party.

  25. 25.

    Caveatimperator

    The “let’s replace Biden” talking points all come down to two unspoken assumptions.

    1. People who make this argument don’t like Harris but don’t want to say that out loud.
    2.  They don’t accept that Biden won the primary in 2020 because a lot of voters like him. It’s an attempt to project their own opinions onto the electorate because they think their own opinions are more legitimate.
  26. 26.

    Caveatimperator

    @Baud:

    Furthermore, correct me if I’m wrong, but my understanding is that “blackness” plays out very differently in countries where most black people are African immigrants and their children. Many of their struggles overlap, but they aren’t the same culture as each other.

  28. 28.

    Baud

    @Caveatimperator: My knowledge on the subject is limited, but that sounds right to me.

    Africans were enslaved in Latin America too, and their experiences, while also negative, are different than AAs in the U.S.

  29. 29.

    waspuppet

    Should Biden decide now to withdraw, which is extremely unlikely, he would endorse Harris. Voters would vote for Biden-Harris on the ballot and Harris would accrue his delegates — and the nomination.

    Not a single highly paid pundit calling for Biden to step aside has addressed this incredibly simple fact. They all just think he would disappear.

  33. 33.

    narya

    @Baud: This:

    There are plenty of white ethnic cultures that are perfectly fine as cultures, but there is no “white” culture that isn’t grounded in racism.

    @Omnes Omnibus: Totally get that–but my family is weird. My maternal grandmother was an Italian immigrant, as were my maternal grandfather’s parents. But dad’s side is all Germanic, and in this country longer (and weren’t happy my dad was marrying an Italian atheist, didn’t baptize the kids, etc.), so it’s familial more than anything. I think what I’m trying to say is that my family’s story is eventually everyone’s–people marry “outside” the group.

    One of the things that makes me a little happy is the ads I see that have all kinds of family groupings–multi-racial couples, gay couples, etc. Would NOT have seen that when I was a kid.

    Edit: typo fix

    Edit 2: Also, I suspect that the atheism, i.e., no church affiliations, is a factor in my family. My understanding is that for many folks, the family worries about whether someone will convert.

  35. 35.

    Nelle

    @sab: Absolutely.  My husband and niece went to a house party to support her in late Nov of 2019, in Iowa,just a few days before she withdrew.  They were totally impressed.  I had to miss as we were hosting a house full of relatives (they slipped away!).

  37. 37.

    Baud

    @sab:

    Biden was about number 14 as a first choice.

    And the few here that had Biden first did so solely because he polled better against Trump.

    After 2016 election, the 2020 primary is the thing that convinced me the most not to try to predict what the people want.

  38. 38.

    Eyeroller

    @Caveatimperator: Plenty of the “replace Biden” yappers have not been at all reluctant to claim that Harris is a “problem” because she is “unpopular” and “unqualified.”  What they don’t say is why they think she is “unqualified.”  And I still believe it has more to do with “woman” than “black” but together they are especially potent for these types.

  40. 40.

    catclub

    CNN article pulled. Did anyone else see a big top block article in the business section yesterday afternoon? And then they replaced it with an empty block and said “the content is being reviewed” ?
    I do not remember what the subject was – it was too fast?

  41. 41.

    p.a.

    If there could just be an agreement that they’d give up their racism in exchange for national holidays celebrating their great cultural contributions; mayonnaise and jello molds.  But no.

     

    More seriously, has American white xtian fundamentalism generated anything that could be even generously interpreted as great art?  Music?  Literature?  Painting?  Sculpture?  Not snarking: I don’t know much about it bedsides the vile politics, so there may be stuff I’m not aware of.  Gospel songs?  Hymns?  Church architecture?

  42. 42.

    sab

    @schrodingers_cat: I was Warren but I voted for Biden because after South Carolina he was inevitable. I think Warren is very much better in the Senate than anywhere near the executive branch.

    Harris belongs in the executive branch.

  45. 45.

    Caveatimperator

    @p.a.:

    Semi-related: one of my crackpot theories for why racist Southerners glorify the Confederacy so much (besides the obvious racism) is because so much of the best of Southern culture either comes from black people or requires you to appreciate the experiences of black people.

    Jazz? Check. Blues? Mostly check. Soul food? Check. A whole bunch of literature from the South? Check. Mark Twain may have been white, but his most famous novel is a biting criticism of slavery and the assumptions white people used to justify it.

    Glorifying the Confederacy means you don’t need to think about what it means to be black in America, or admit that black people have created great things.

  46. 46.

    TBone

    Comment of the Day (so far):

    “Congress holds the purse and have bled the border dry…but sure, blame the old guy”

  47. 47.

    catclub

    @p.a.: More seriously, has American white xtian fundamentalism generated anything that could be even generously interpreted as great art?

     

    Not sure about generated, but almost all the early rock and soul performers were exiles from fundamentalist churches. Elvis for example.

  48. 48.

    Baud

    @schrodingers_cat: I think it’s unlikely he would have won. But he might have continued on for a while. And who knows, if he and Biden competed for the same voters, Bernie might have won. Or maybe Buttigieg, who had his fair share of supporters

    ETA: The media loved Bloomberg, so they would have pushed him for a while if he had a decent showing.

  51. 51.

    sab

    @Baud: I still like Buttigieg and hope he stays in the Cabinet for many years because he is a good manager. I have a Buttigieg Explorers t-shirt from his campaign. Also too I have a grandmother’s crush on his spouse.

  52. 52.

    hueyplong

    @waspuppet: Agree, and its counterpart is the absurdist fantasy that if N Haley were to become the GOP nominee she’s beat Biden, as if Trump could be disappeared without there being a variety of conspiracy theories among Trumpsters about how Judas Haley worked with the deep state to betray the orange god.  The concept of Trumpsters happily pivoting to Haley is a theory I’m willing and maybe even anxious to see tested.

  53. 53.

    Omnes Omnibus

    @schrodingers_cat: There was a weird period before the SC primary where a lot of people were freaking out that the choice would come down to Sanders or Bloomberg.  There are also was a lot of contempt for Biden’s “This is America, we are better than this” rhetoric.  That is interesting to me because I thought that rhetoric was exactly what primary voters would seize on as a reason to vote for him.

  55. 55.

    catclub

    @Baud:

    ETA: The media loved Bloomberg, so they would have pushed him for a while if he had a decent showing.

     

    The media ALWAYS loves billionaires. The people already hated Bloomberg pretty thoroughly. The media loved that Utah Billionaire who was also governor and ambassador, but who is os memorable I only remember the media fluffing him but not his name.

  56. 56.

    topclimber

    Anecdotal only, but I have never met a white male Democrat who shit-talks Harris.

    Maybe I don’t get around much? Could be. It would be my one firm credential as a member of the Washington Press Corps.

  57. 57.

    schrodingers_cat

    @Omnes Omnibus: Balloon Juice is not representative of the Democratic primary electorate and the media even more so. We here are a self selected group of mostly college educated non-normies. Also both media and the BJ comment section is whiter than the D electorate.

  58. 58.

    cain

    “I can’t think of a time that I’ve seen somebody have earned her chops but not get the credit where credit is due.”

    I believe that would be Hillary Clinton. One of the most maligned politicians in the U.S.

  62. 62.

    Betty Cracker

    @RSA: It’s a poorly written column. Brownworth also says black women are “the largest Democratic voting bloc,” which isn’t true. I think she means a higher percentage of black women back Democrats than any other bloc, but that’s a different thing.

    Also, I call bullshit on the entire premise that “white Democrats have a Kamala Harris problem.” The sources cited include a Republican Fox News drone’s column at The Hill and an overblown WaPo piece on alleged waffling by a couple of elected Democrats when asked about Harris as a running mate more than a year before the 2024 election.

    IIRC, approval ratings for Harris among Dems is something like 80% — higher than Biden’s. Pundits might have a Kamala Harris problem. I haven’t seen any evidence that Democrats do.

  63. 63.

    Yarrow

    @sab:  Harris was my first choice but her campaign didn’t really catch fire and I was a bit worried. Then Biden entered the race saying the election was the battle for the soul of America, and that was it for me. He was my guy from that minute on.

    He understood the main issue for me. It wasn’t policy, although that’s important, but at that moment – and this one – we’re fighting for what this country is about. What we stand for. He got it. He had my vote from that moment on and I’ve been a big supporter ever since.

  65. 65.

    schrodingers_cat

    @schrodingers_cat:Let me clarify what I mean by representative before someone jumps on me. I mean statistically representative of the D electorate. BJ comment section wouldn’t be a good sample representing the population of D primary voters. That’s something to keep in mind when we extrapolate based on this sample.

    The press being innumerate and stupid and/or R lackeys pretends like they and their buddies are representative of what Ds want. They are not. Also Dems are deemed uncool. So they get attacked by those who consider themselves cool, lefties included.

  72. 72.

    sab

    Part of why I am okay with Biden being old (I just turned 70 and my co-workers are very surprised that I am so old but my joints and my heart have felt every minute) is that he has such an excellent working VP.

  74. 74.

    Yarrow

    @Timill:  From that column on Harris:

    . Her empathic rhetoric tying abortion to “freedom” has helped reset the pro-choice message.

    I note that Texas Senate Dem candidate (primary candidate not yet actual candidate) Colin Allred is using that exact language in his ads. Equating abortion access with freedom. It’s excellent framing. I’ve mentioned it here before. ALL Democratic candidates should be doing that. Republicans have rhetorically owned the word “freedom” for too long. Dems have a great opportunity to take that word right back with an issue that resonates with a lot of voters.

  77. 77.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Yarrow: “Get Big Government off your back” always seemed like a scam to me even when it was Ronnie Reagan’s tagline. There was always this unspoken “and onto *their* backs”. It was always about who you were.

  79. 79.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Omnes Omnibus:

    There are also was a lot of contempt for Biden’s “This is America, we are better than this” rhetoric.

    That’s an online smarty-pants thing. Normal people understand what he means by that.

  80. 80.

    Yarrow

    @Matt McIrvin:  Of course. But messaging works when it’s repeated enough times. Back in the day, Republicans got their talking points and repeated them incessantly. It worked. They “owned” the word and idea of freedom. Dems have the opportunity to take it back and need to do so.

  82. 82.

    rikyrah

    @Caveatimperator:

    The “let’s replace Biden” talking points all come down to two unspoken assumptions.

    1. People who make this argument don’t like Harris but don’t want to say that out loud.

    2.  They don’t accept that Biden won the primary in 2020 because a lot of voters like him. It’s an attempt to project their own opinions onto the electorate because they think their own opinions are more legitimate

     

    Glad to get back to this comment.

    #1 – you noticed how when all the rest of the people dropped out in 2020, that was the end of the coverage. Nobody went over their campaigns. There were no think pieces on them. The exception was Kamala Harris. She had dropped out before there was even one vote cast, yet there were repeated articles about her.

    Uh huh

    They are still butt hurt that their coordinated attack on Kamala Harris didn’t prevent Joe Biden from choosing her as his running mate.

    #2. THIS THIS THIS

    We call have to back to early 2020. It was after Iowa and New Hampshire. There were articles after article about how Joe Biden should do the right thing and drop out. How he was a dead candidate walking, and should just bow out gracefully.

     

    Before any sizeable part of the BASE of the Democratic Party had their chance to actually vote…they were trying to run Biden out of the Primary.

    I remember when James Clyburn endorsed Biden. There was a mocking undertone by the MSM….

    ” How much do endorsements REALLY matter?”

    I mean, they had already declared Biden DOA. What could an endorsement by Clyburn actually mean?

    I remember the night of the South Carolina 2020 Primary like it was yesterday. The MSM was SHOOKETH. Go back and look at those videos. They were STUNNED. The entire lot of them.

    That they could call South Carolina at basically 7:02 pm

    They were stumbling and mumbling, trying to explain what had happened.

    What they never saw coming.

    They’ve never gotten over that.

  85. 85.

    Yarrow

    @schrodingers_cat: Well, they’re not remotely cool, so what do they know. Best I can tell with young people (who seem to be the ones who determine what’s “cool”), Republicans are the lamest of the lame and considered horrible people. Dems may not be “cool” but they’re not that.

  86. 86.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Baud: The 2020 Bloomberg and Bernie booms were both about being plurality frontrunner in a closely divided field. They were inherently unsustainable.

    I remember that when Warren took down Bloomberg at that debate, the Sanders supporters took it as an attack on *them*, because their whole theory of how Bernie could win depended on the field remaining divided just so. It was ridiculous.

  87. 87.

    schrodingers_cat

    @TBone: Klein, MY, Dave Weigel etc. I don’t think they are cool, They think they are cool. NYT editors and reporters. Folks who write for MSM rags.

    They all have a sneering disdain for all things Ds no matter what their own ideological persuasion is.

  88. 88.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Caveatimperator: THIS!  White Culture is exclusionary by design, just like Whiteness itself.  It only exists to keep Black People (and other brown people) out.  The only way something could be threatened by the inclusion of Black People, is if that thing depended on their exclusion.  If Black People suddenly start playing and listening to Country Music, it isn’t threatened in any way.  Unless you think their presence somehow ruins it.  Same goes for Nascar, Gun Clubs, Wes Anderson films, The GOP or any other thing we mostly associate with White People.  If you ever spend a few minutes talking to the people who clutch their pearls over White Culture, it always becomes abundantly clear that they just want to return to the days of racial segregation.

  90. 90.

    Yarrow

    @schrodingers_cat:  So the not super old, but no longer young, white male media types who are seeing their own increasing irrelevance and are terrified? Those guys? They wouldn’t know cool if it bit them in the face.

  91. 91.

    Yarrow

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    If Black People suddenly start playing and listening to Country Music, it isn’t threatened in any way. Unless you think their presence somehow ruins it.

    That’s exactly what the Dukes of Hazzard actor (John Schneider?) said about Beyonce making country music. “Why can’t they just let us have our country music.” Racist asshole.

  92. 92.

    japa21

    1. MVP is the MVP

    2. The day Biden entered the race, he was my first choice and Kamala was my second.  And, contra Baud, it wasn’t because he polled better against Trump.  It was because I felt he would do the best job as President.  I remember Betty thinking he was too conservative and I told her that she would be surprised.  That during his time with Obama he had actually become the more progressive of the two.

    3.  I was pleased as punch when he announced his running mate.  I am really pissed off that the media has ignored her and what she has done.

  94. 94.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Yarrow: Abortion, contraception, LGBT rights. Someone on Twitter a few years ago asked “why are you for trans rights?” and “freedom and justice!” was all I could say. I mean, isn’t that obviously about freedom? Freedom isn’t just freedom to live the way I live, that’s not freedom.

    The right’s concept of freedom is an open-air prison shaped exactly like the way they already live. Ours is a version they can’t even imagine.

  95. 95.

    Eunicecycle

    @Matt McIrvin: The Rs want to be free to again be their bigoted selves and not be reprimanded for it. They don’t want to have to see gay couples or Trans people. That’s their idea of freedom.

  96. 96.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @rikyrah: That’s because the MSM pundits (outside of Fox News Nazis) were mostly Berniebros and Warren-stans.  Very Online Progressives were all incredibly shook and spent the next month or two making absolute asses of themselves with hissy fits, snake emojis and DNC conspiracy theories.  All because they didn’t realize how out of touch they were with the base of the Dem Party.

  97. 97.

    Halteclere

    If I were a high-level politician I’d get my staff to think of all “working man”-type job sites I might visit, and then get myself familiar and comfortable with the appropriate PPE (Personal Protection Equipment). And get the PPE in a used condition! I think VP Harris looks natural in these photos, but no one wants to look like a poser like DeSantis in never-used white boots!

    Before going to a construction site get some fitted Redwing steel-toed boots, go hiking in them and get them scuffed up. Get your own hard hat (and get stickers from various sites on it!), wear it until it becomes a natural act. Get your own safety vest, and also get it in used condition. Nothing more quickly identifiers visitor from workers than who is using ill-fitting brand-new PPE.

  98. 98.

    M31

    @Caveatimperator: Jazz? Check. Blues? Mostly check. Soul food? Check.

    couple of years ago it came out that Jack Daniels himself learned his craft from a black man

    I don’t know about every barbeque pit in the nation but the ones I visited in NC all had a kindly black man out back doing all the real work staying up all night keeping those coals just right

    shit now I want a NC style BBQ sandwich with cole slaw on it and some hushpuppies

    oh yeah and don’t forget banjos come from Africa, lol

    edited to add a cool fretless gourd banjo vid:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ea9GzQ7331w

  100. 100.

    JML

    @UncleEbeneezer: i think this is an important point in looking at why Kamala Harris is being set up like this. A lot of lefties were seriously opposed to her during the primaries and pushed hard on the narrative of “kamala is a kop” and that she was somehow lacking because she had come up through law enforcement. (Ignoring that for decades it was one of the only ways female candidates could get taken seriously, doubly so for black women, and wouldn’t just open the prisons and let all the scary people out.) They thought they had blocked her when she ended her presidential campaign, and then Biden picked her for VP. You’d be amazed at how many hardcore lefties bear a grudge on that one.

    Combine that far-left resentment and mistrust with institutional racism and suddenly you have a media-driven narrative that Democratic voters don’t like Harris. It’s crap, it’s offensive, and the people pushing it should be DQ’d from being taken seriously.

    (I was a Warren fan, but I always liked Harris. As comms guy I just t work campaigns with once said, “I like candidates that have shown they can win a big campaign.”)

  102. 102.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @Caveatimperator: They are forever mad that Black People actually made this country great.  It’s hard to keep telling themselves that Black People are somehow inferior, when they have given us all so many of the things we love.  American Culture IS Black Culture.  And that really bothers the racists.

    PS- If you haven’t seen it already there’s a great Netflix documentary called Is This Black Enough For You? about Black Cinema and how it shaped our modern movies.  There is also a good documentary on Fashion and the role that Black People have always played in shaping our fashion trends, but I can’t remember the name or where we saw it.

  103. 103.

    Betty Cracker

    @japa21: You were right — Biden has been far more progressive than I thought he’d be as president. After winning the nomination, he incorporated his rivals’ ideas (and personnel, in some cases) to build and sustain a coalition, which was smart and unifying. Biden understands how coalitions work on a fundamental level. It’s not about vanquishing a rival and making them suck it up; it’s about forming and acting on consensus.

  104. 104.

    Frankensteinbeck

    While I was definitely Warren-curious, my first choice in 2020 was ‘whoever the black women pick’.  I figured and still do figure I owe them enough for saving my lily white ass again and again to have faith in their choices.  They didn’t steer me wrong, either, when that turned out to be Biden.

  105. 105.

    Betty Cracker

    @UncleEbeneezer: The snake emojis were directed at Warren and her supporters, so I’m not sure why you’re including them in your criticism. IIRC, during the primary, Warren supporters were the most likely bloc to say they’d support the party’s eventual nominee. They were the least hissy fit-prone group, if memory serves.

  106. 106.

    smith

    @catclub: Not sure about generated, but almost all the early rock and soul performers were exiles from fundamentalist churches. Elvis for example.

    Um, you know how much Elvis and other early rockers stole from Black artists?

  107. 107.

    Frankensteinbeck

    @Betty Cracker:

    Warren supporters were the most likely bloc to say they’d support the party’s eventual nominee.

    Pretty much.  Sanders was the choice of the “I hate Democracts!” lefties and Warren was the choice of the pragmatic lefties.

  108. 108.

    UncleEbeneezer

    @JML: Yup.  And that is all despite the fact that as CA AG she did a bunch of Progressive things (Medium piece) to work on the problem of Systemic Racism, from the inside.  IE- exactly the sort of things that Social Justice advocates want.  The whole Kamala Is A Cop thing was always a very disingenuous and gross distortion of her record and values.  I mean, Leticia James, Fani Willis and Eric Holder are also “cops” by that definition and I wouldn’t hesitate to vote for any of them for a moment based on what I know of their values.

  109. 109.

    lashonharangue

    @M31: I once told my racist ex-BIL that if it wasn’t for Blacks, Jews, and Gays there would be no American culture.  He was not happy with this observation.

  110. 110.

    Miss Bianca

    @UncleEbeneezer:

    If you ever spend a few minutes talking to the people who clutch their pearls over White Culture, it always becomes abundantly clear that they just want to return to the days of racial segregation.

    Yeah, this just about sums it up for me.

  111. 111.

    Miss Bianca

    @Halteclere:

    Before going to a construction site get some fitted Redwing steel-toed boots,

    Well, I got the boots! Hell, I’ve had ’em so long I’ve already had to resole them!

    I can haz construction site photo op now? :)

  112. 112.

    artem1s

    I can’t think of a time that I’ve seen somebody have earned her chops but not get the credit where credit is due

    Oh, c’mon Cory. I can. Oh how soon they forget.

  113. 113.

    wjca

    @Yarrow: So the not super old, but no longer young, white male media types who are seeing their own increasing irrelevance and are terrified?

    Perhaps they are just jealous, because Biden is white and has gotten old, but managed to remain relevant?

  114. 114.

    Citizen Alan

    @Matt McIrvin: Agreed. His most famous quote should be

    The nine eleven scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and i’m here to help (those people).”

  115. 115.

    lowtechcyclist

    Neither Biden nor Harris was among my top choices in 2020, but it didn’t take me long to re-evaluate once they were in office. Biden has of course been the best President of my lifetime, and that’s just in the first three years.  And MVP will be an excellent President should anything happen to Biden.

  116. 116.

    wjca

    @smith: Um, you know how much Elvis and other early rockers stole from Black artists?

    The guy who was Elvis’ first producer (IIRC) was explicitly looking for “A white boy who sings like a negro.  He’ll be a huge star.”  Elvis was who he settled on.

  117. 117.

    Citizen Alan

    @Matt McIrvin: I also vividly remember Buttagieg and Klobuchar dropping out at around the same time and endorsing biden The collective screams from the bernie bros were audible all the way down and mississippi. ” No! You are supposed to stay in longer and tear each other apart so that bernie could win at the convention just like trump did!”

  118. 118.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Betty Cracker: Warren and Harris themselves pretty much refused to fight during the primary campaign and made clear that they were friends, so it made mutual resentment hard to sustain. My plan was always to vote for Warren in the primary and support the nominee, who would probably not be Elizabeth Warren. And when Biden picked Harris as his running mate he went up several steps in my estimation.

    Though it did spark some absolute terror in his opposition– there’s a weird fear of Harris becoming President to this day that extends to centrist pundits, and I’ve never understood it except in the ugliest terms.

  119. 119.

    BethanyAnne

    I love Warren, and she was my first choice. But I figured she wouldn’t win, and that’s fine. Biden has been great! He’s totally made me a fan :)

  120. 120.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Citizen Alan: Except that Trump was the leader in the 2016 primary race by a *huge* margin from the instant he entered– it was really no contest–there was just a lot of denial about it. Just like there still seem to be people who don’t think he will be the nominee this time.

  122. 122.

    Paul in KY

    @Caveatimperator: They’ve already lost on all that cultural shit. My take (from speaking over years to some racist GQPer types) is that they think that when non-whites have their majority, they’ll just pass a bunch of laws that change the US into a  Black Dictatorship ™ and all the whites will get it good and hard.

    It’s crazy, but that’s what some of their fevered dreams consist of.

  126. 126.

    Paul in KY

    @sab: And TFG was/is!?!?!? Maybe he thinks TFG wasn’t either. Does he know she was Cali-freaking-fornia Attorney General & US Senator & now Veep. That’s as ‘qualified’ as just about all POTUSes elected.

    He has problems with her skin colour/gender, but isn’t willing to say that, IMO.

  127. 127.

    Paul in KY

    @Yarrow: We sure have alot of ‘un-cool’ celebs that are Dems.

    Damn, I sure wish Kid Rock & that Aldean feller & that cool Cameron guy were Dems. Boy are they cool…

  128. 128.

    Matt McIrvin

    @Caveatimperator: The “ADOS” thing was an attempt to drive a wedge between different camps of Black Americans to Harris’s detriment (basically a “not Black enough” ratfuck attack). While Harris dropped out of the primary race early, it didn’t really work– you didn’t hear much of it during the general election campaign.

  130. 130.

    wjca

    @Paul in KY: We sure have alot of ‘un-cool’ celebs that are Dems.

    Damn, I sure wish Kid Rock & that Aldean feller & that cool Cameron guy were Dems. Boy are they cool…

    Absolutely.  Taylor Swift — so uncool!

    /snark

  131. 131.

    Paul in KY

    @TBone: If you have to question your ‘coolness’…you are not cool. Kinda like being at the poker table and if you can’t spot the mark…

  135. 135.

    Paul in KY

    @Frankensteinbeck: I never wanted Bernie cause the sumbitch wouldn’t be a ‘proud’ Democrat and I know that the GQP had & still has a warehouse full of Anti-Bernie oppo they were going to unleash on him if he’d ever got the nom.

  137. 137.

    Paul in KY

    @wjca: A terrible example for today’s youth! Owning your own copyrights and working like a dog on your craft & being your own boss…all Commie Stuff!

  140. 140.

    rikyrah

    @wjca:

    The guy who was Elvis’ first producer (IIRC) was explicitly looking for “A white boy who sings like a negro.  He’ll be a huge star.”  Elvis was who he settled on.

     

    I knew that Elvis had stolen songs and dance moves from Black artists.

    It’s been in the last 3 years that I found out that he literally took his SOUND. His VOICE from a Black artist.

    I was done.

  141. 141.

    wjca

    @rikyrah: It’s been in the last 3 years that I found out that he literally took his SOUND. His VOICE from a Black artist.

    I was done.

    Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

  146. 146.

    cckids

    @wjca: Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

    You forgot the rest of it. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.

    Oscar Wilde

  147. 147.

    SoupCatcher

    This has been rolling around in my head for a while, and what better place to put it than at the bottom of an old thread =)
    The rage at the heart of MAGA is that they know what their parents, grandparents, etc. used to be able to do in public to any persecuted minority group.
    There’s three pictures that I think of as markers for where we’ve come from and where MAGA wants to return.
    The great-grandparents of MAGA are the children in the pictures of lynchings of African Americans from the first half of the twentieth century. The postcards that towns made to commemorate the event used as a pretext to go sundown. The executions that were done in broad daylight, with the whole town present. People smiling, posing with the victim’s body, sometimes charred beyond recognition, often missing pieces that were taken as souvenirs.
    The grandparents of MAGA are the adults screaming hate in the pictures of Ruby Bridges walking to school. Public executions by the entire town are no longer an option. They can’t do what their parents could do. But yelling abuse at a child on the sidewalk without consequence, and going about your business with all of your neighbors for the rest of your life, that’s still an option.
    The third picture is the fenceline where Matthew Shepard was executed. I can populate that picture with any number of people I grew up with.
    As the song goes, you have to be carefully taught to hate.

Comments are closed.