Does it matter? There a is long tradition of wacky hats and other silly stuff at political conventions.
Public state universities are often a big part of a state’s self-identity, and local leaders and pols are often alumni. In relatively small states, those university’s football teams often have the most devoted fans, as witness the thousands who turn out for late fall games in the northern tier of states. Florida is not exactly a small state, but to a certain extent, the lynchpins of its identity elsewhere–its “Florida-ness”–consist of Disney and the Northeastern snowbirds who winter or retire there. Its internal history and origins are not widely known or appreciated elsewhere. For example, its more recent identity as a tourist destination has completely eclipsed its 19th century history; it fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War, but one rarely hears it mentioned in that regard, the way one does South Carolina or Mississippi.
In this regard it seems to be similar to places like Minnesota, Wisconsin, and the Dakotas. I would not at all be surprised or shocked to see a Wisconsin delegate wearing a badger hat, for example.
With bigger states not so much though. The public universities in California, for example, comprise numerous campuses that, for the purposes of athletic conferences, are completely different schools and have different mascots. So there is little or no motivation or reason to use a college mascot as a general symbol of the state.
Back to the OP. That’s creepy beyond belief. Whoever thought that up, what were they thinking? “We want the world to know that our candidate’s followers are batshit insane?” Nowadays people will do anything to get their 15 minutes (or seconds in this case) of fame, no matter how degrading. I guess it was either this or the Jerry Springer show for these people.
Hijacking a little, when I first saw that “pigs/llpstick” phrase in a political headline, my mind immediately jumped to Hillary Clinton. Just my free association, for what it’s worth.
I’m well aware of that connection. Hell, I was almost eaten by an alligator in Florida before, but that’s neither here nor there. The point is that it definitely does have some history; a history that wouldn’t necessarily be out of place or mean anything nefarious at a University of Florida football game or at Gatorland Zoo or something like that, but at a political convention, there are some connotations.
Yeah, the connotation (and thought process) probably was, “Hey, I’m a Florida delegate, we wore alligator hats to show we’re from Florida…wouldn’t it be funny if our mascot were eating an Obama doll?”
I can almost guarantee you that was the end of the thought process. Now if MCCAIN had done this, it might mean something…but not just Joe Delegate out on the convention floor…
I’m a fervent Obama supporter, a Floridian, and a Florida Gator alum, and I think this is the sort of manufactured outrage that’s akin to the “lipstick on a pig means Obama thinks Palin is a pig” bullshit. It’s a reach to say that Gator hats are meant to be racist…although, big lips are another traditional racist black depiction…hey, wait a minute, the pic in the OP is racist, too!
I find it rather entertaining to see that so many people are willing to assume that a rather elderly man from Florida, a state where lynching was downright regular right up through the 40s, was completely unaware of the historical racial implications of “alligator bait”.
Seriously?
Hey, if saying that racism is dead would actually make it so, I’d stick my fingers in my ears and “lalalalaIcan’thearyou” with the rest of you. But while I could use a little more bliss in my life, I still can’t bring myself to choose ignorance.
I’m not sure why this wound up in Great Debates, but it is not a debate, it is too tepid for the Pit and it is too hostile for MPSIMS, so I am going to put it out of my misery.
Closed