From an interesting Democratic Strategist blog-article:
However, whether the author so intends or not, this also raises the obvious question of whether racism or nativism is worse. “Wrenching social and cultural change in general” is an ineluctable fact of life in the modern world, and more so with every decade. Is there any better name than “idiot” for people who can’t accept that and struggle against it?
It is also interesting and relevant that, geographically, the liberal/conservative political divide in America today is not North-South, East-West, or Coasts-Heartland, but City-Countryside. The “red-state-blue-state” meme oversimplifies the picture. See this map, which breaks down the vote by county, and shades from solid red to purple to solid blue.
In this landscape, the Countryside/conservatives/nativists cannot hope to win; they are too far outnumbered, and the cities have all the money, power and energy.
This has almost certainly always been true.
The problem isn’t that they are going to lose. That is historically inevitable. The problem is how many are they going to kill in the process?
Yes, well, I’m still holding out hope that their eliminationism is all talk and bluster.
But things like this, however silly, make me wonder . . . :rolleyes:
If Obama’s name was Barry O’Bama and his dad was from Ireland. Do you really think they’d be conspiracy theories about him being born in Dublin ? I strongly suspect not.
There were conspiracy theories about McCain from many of the same groups and with the same logic. But as he lost, they’re not enarly as fun for the conspiracy theorists.
Isn’t this just another word for the “culture war” we’ve been hearing about for years? I work with a woman who is constantly whining about “those people from the Pearl District”. That is a section of Portland with expensive condos, high priced restaurants, and trendy stores. It is probably whiter (but gayer) than Portland as a whole. She lives in the suburbs and sees the people in the Pearl as snobby,self-absorbed, and too green. She hates bicyclists as well, but given the large minority of asshole bicyclists in town who run red lights and stop signs I can forgive her for that.
She is really pretty obsessed with her hatred of people from the Pearl. The only real justification I can see is that people from downtown frequently ask “why are you way out here?”. Ignoring the fact that there are a lot of people living way out there for whom the location is convenient.
Of course she is conservative and fits the usual profile: taxes are too high, mass transit is wasteful, climate change is a fraud. I think the fact that Obama is liberal is much more of an issue than the fact he is black.
Cite?
I fundamentally agree with the author, although I find “tribalism” to be more to my liking. As DanBlather notes in his example, there is also a strain of economic reverse-snobbery that one sees, where it is “us regular folks” against “them stuck-up people”.
Bottom line - accusations of racism is probably inaccurate.
No there was no conspiracy about it McCain WAS born outside of the US (in a Naval base in Panama). Most people agreed that would qualify him as “natural born”, but the issue has never been settled in court, hence the discussion.
Thats quite different from the attacks on Obama, which are purely the result of his father being an African from a Muslim Country. I his father had been from a European country it would barely have been worth a mention, let alone a long drawn out attack campaign.
Not in Panama; in the Panama Canal Zone, which was US territory.
But it also wouldn’t have happened if he was a conservative. Then it would be “here is a Black man that worked hard, studied hard, and overcame the fact that he came from a single parent family. This shows that the US is not racist and anyone can succeed if they just try”.
That being the point. It isn’t a US territory now, but was a territory, but NOT part the US when he was born, those born there were only given Citizenship rights AFTER McCain’s birth. Does that mean he was “natural born” ? Personally I’d say yes, but to say otherwise is by no means a crazy racist conspiracy theory.
But 150 years ago certainly yes. (Or likely, in any case.)
I see this all the time in my town, which is an incredible mix of ethnicities. The old time residents, who have been here for decades and who were born here, do resent the various groups moving in and driving up prices and being different. It goes for groups with more or less money than they have, both. Some of the resentment comes the other way also.
It’s not a crazy racist conspiracy theory, but it is a crazy conspiracy theory, because even if McCain were born outside the US, the fact that both his parents were US citizens means that he was a natural born citizen.
It means he was a citizen, not necessarily a nature born at least according to the pretty well respected law professor quoted in that article. There is a huge difference between debating a particular knotty unclear bit of constitutional law, and make unfounded accusations about secret (and completely nonsensical) conspiracies to smuggle babies back into the country and a forge birth certificates.
Make it fifty and I’ll go along, as I remember all the “Kennedy will take orders from the Vatican” crap back then.
