Oh, hell, Steam, we’ve already tried facts! Silver bullets, holy water, Farmer’s Almanac…nothing seems to phase him.
Err… but that’s, you know, true. There is this thing called reality. I am pretty sure you could look up an article about it on wikipedia. Or maybe look out the window? That might be faster. See all that? That’s reality. You’ve been living in it for awhile actually. It’s okay, I lived around the corner from a great thai place and didn’t notice it until after I moved. It happens to the best of us. Now that you know, just try to acknowledge it once in awhile. He’s been getting lonely lately. 
No, you don’t get it! Since when the crazy republicans state something, it is automatically true. Like the deathpanels! So if they state all famous democrats are senile, they will be put in front of death panels, and then killed. Then they can rule over this country like the founding fathers would have wanted!
But it should have been.
That would have been nice – but those Democrat congress members could have preserved decorum: sat stoicly while Bush spouted his lies, then voted against the illegal and unjustified war.
Wilson quite possibly is a racist, all Republicans are racist though? Highly unlikely. That’s a pretty broad brush there.
Oh dear, looks like someone forgot to put a specific “most” or “a lot of” qualifier in every single sentence!
I don’t think that’s true, either.
Thankfully, or else the Republican side would have had to scream out “Oh, God, George! God! God! Oh! You’re the best, George!”
Not that they weren’t already thinking it.
Possible, I suppose. But while I’ll buy that Kanye West might bum rush a stage because his ADHD is acting up, I’m very suspicious that an experienced pol, lawyer, and military officer like Wilson would knee-jerk like that. I mean, if he has a history of being insubordinate, of being in contempt of court, maybe… I would buy the possibility that he was expecting to be joined with boos or obfuscated by a litany of cries of opposition. What happened might have been like when you make an off-color comment, and everyone just happens to be silent when you say it. Or he said it too loud. But I certainly think he knew what he was doing. He’s too old and has too many experiences where decorum and reserve are requisite. He’s not like the “don’t tase me, bro” kid, in my mind.
But the problem, Jodi, is the fact that there are so many catch phrases that dismiss any possibility of racial bias - “race card,” “political correctness,” etc. - not to mention the inability of so many people to acknowledge that a) racism does in fact exist; and b) racism in 2009 does not operate like racism in 1789, 1865, 1950, or 1968 - like a virus, it’s had to mutate and become “resistant” - means that people can get away with some pretty fucked up shit without ever being called out on it.
Meanwhile, anyone who dare mentions the possibility of racism (and sexism, heterosexism, jingoism… the list goes on) is dismissed as a nutjob or extremist. It’s all too convenient…
I think the trouble is mostly we don’t know anymore. Part and parcel with progress, the lines become blurred. In the Texas I grew up in, there was no such problem, the lines were stark, clear and hateful. Nowadays, there are people tainted with racism who don’t believe themselves to be racist. Everybody knows racism sucks, so nobody worth hearing from is going to own up to it. And its all mushed together with class issues.
I remember the first time I heard Chris Rock’s line about how he loves black people, but hates niggers. My hair stood up on end, he hit the target right dead center. I love country music, bar-b-q and Willy Nelson, but I hate ignorant racist peckerwoods with every bone in my body. My racist uncles and aunts are mostly all dead now, but I had a terrible time reconciling my love for them as people with my loathing for what they sincerely believed.
We are in uncharted waters, there is no map, there is no guidance, we make it up as we go along, and can only hope that tolerance and generosity is sufficient. From our lips to The Ears.
Bessinger, please. Bessemer is a mostly-black suburb of Birmingham, Alabama.
It’s also a process for making steel. Both are named after Sir Henry Bessemer, who invented the Bessemer process.
There have been a few major social changes in my culture in my life, the acceptance of drink-driving to not, attitudes towards smoking, attitudes towards the role of women and the attitudes of women, real major swings. But nothing quite matches the change in attitudes towards racism in the past 30 years. Totally profound. I don’t really know how it happened but it’s as if the overwhelming majority of the population went to evening classes for a couple of years.
I wouldn’t dream of saying there is no racism - it will always exist - just that the shift has been remarkable.
So there is hope but the US is a few clicks beyond anywhere else though, it’s so deeply institutional and historic. Maybe the fact of Obama is, somewhere in all this turmoil, acting on the collective conscience.
He’ll look a whole lot different to the general population 10 years down the road if he pulls off healthcare.
Thank you, I wondered about that.
Are all racists Republican? For argument’s sake, let’s only focus on white Americans, or: Are all white racists Republican?
He and his party will look a whole lot better to the general population right now and for a long time if they do. That’s the true source of the Pubs’ fear.
I think you and I are saying the same thing? I was saying that I doubted that all Republicans were racist, or that even “most” Republicans are racist.
Are all white racists Republicans? I don’t know. Probably not, but some certainly are. I’m sure the extremist fringe groups like the KKK probably vote Republican (especially in this election)…but groups like that aren’t even relevant to this topic in my view.
We’re outing the secret racists amongst our elected officials!
I would argue that they probably are (or at least much less likely to be a Dem), and that most likely all voted R last November.
Except for the outer limits, where they think Republicans are too liberal.