# Pledge to America **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [September 24, 2010, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879 "2010-09-24T14:47:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/21 "2010-09-24T21:52:23Z")
The interesting question is where they **got** those pix of big crowds with no dark faces in them. GOP events, perhaps? ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 24, 2010, 10:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/22 "2010-09-24T22:15:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Some of those pictures have hundreds of people in them. If the pictures were of a cross-section of “Real America”, as they’d like us to think, there would be dozens of blacks in in them. You can’t even excuse this by pointing out that most blacks are not Republicans, since this is supposed to be a pledge to America, not just a pledge to the Republican party. Clearly they meant “real” America. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/23 "2010-09-25T01:11:48Z")
> [@BrainGlutton](#): > > The interesting question is where they **got** those pix of big crowds with no dark faces in them. Hockey games? I live in one of the most non-white areas in the country (Asians and Hispanics, not Blacks), and if you ever go to a SJ Sharks game, it’s the Whitest crowd you can imagine. ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 2:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/24 "2010-09-25T02:09:30Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > > > The interesting question is where they **got** those pix of big crowds with no dark faces in them. > > Hockey games? I live in one of the most non-white areas in the country (Asians and Hispanics, not Blacks), and if you ever go to a SJ Sharks game, it’s the Whitest crowd you can imagine. The hockey mom bulldog mother grizzly’s influence is everywhere. Dead fish. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/25 "2010-09-25T15:19:15Z")
A [good op-ed](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB)by Krugman today. I particularly like the following from the Tax Policy Center: > [@](#): > > Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.” ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [September 25, 2010, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/26 "2010-09-25T16:20:03Z")
> [@Chefguy](#): > > A [good op-ed](http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/24/opinion/24krugman.html?src=ISMR_HP_LO_MST_FB)by Krugman today. I particularly like the following from the Tax Policy Center: > > > [@](#): > > > > Howard Gleckman of the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center has done the math. As he points out, the only way to balance the budget by 2020, while simultaneously (a) making the Bush tax cuts permanent and (b) protecting all the programs Republicans say they won’t cut, is to completely abolish the rest of the federal government: “No more national parks, no more Small Business Administration loans, no more export subsidies, no more N.I.H. No more Medicaid (one-third of its budget pays for long-term care for our parents and others with disabilities). No more child health or child nutrition programs. No more highway construction. No more homeland security. Oh, and no more Congress.” So? That’ll just mean a total victory. Everything they’ve been shooting for all these years. Finally, the megacorporations will be able to step into the light and take over in name as well as in fact. -Joe ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/27 "2010-09-27T13:27:39Z")
> [@otternell](#): > > The first section before the forward sounds pretty aspirational. Is there anything policy oriented - like an actual goal that they are trying to achieve? Someway to measure accountability? Of course not. [Boehner says](http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20017649-503544.html): > [@](#): > > Once Americans understand how big the problem is, then we can begin to talk about potential solutions. Actual meaning: _Forget about what we did before. [Here, look at the monkey. Look at the silly monkey!](http://www.southparkstudios.com/clips/150882/?tag=The+Chewbacca+Defense)_ ---
**Author:** ![Frylock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ce7236/32.png) [@Frylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frylock)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2010, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879/28 "2010-09-27T14:18:08Z")
> [@howye](#): > > > [@brix11](#): > > > > And I am strangely fascinated by the image selection, which seems to equate patriotism with angry white people. > > Without looking I knew this would be the case. Then I went and counted the non-white people I could find in the pictures. I found two black people, one asian - I think, and one orange-American. I saw just one brown person featured in the whole thing. (There may have been others in the background in shots of multiple people.) And that one brown person was grinning and bowing, in a servile uniform, to an older white gentleman in a suit. I mean, they don’t even have a _token black person_ in the whole thing. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pledge-to-america/554879.md?page=1)