The Democratic Party is insane.

[y_llor]

The Democratic Party is insane. Obama has in the last month alienated the last thirty-seven swing voters in the country by standing up for his (justifiably) angry pastor in the name of racial solidarity, insulted three quarters of America by insinuating that their love of guns stems from paranoid neuroses, and touted with a straight face his

Comments

Re: a brief, rambling argument for the sanity of the Dems

[y_llor]

I will support him to be sure, but fairly Lefty voters like me are not who I'm worried about. My point is that people who really like him overestimnmate his appeal. Your response does absolutely nothing to counter those anxieties timidly expressed in my bit. You basically counter my *we can't possibly know whether we've overcome centuries of explicit and latent racism enough to elect a less qualified yet more charismatic candidate, when the other candidate holds a potentially more potent identity card* with *we won't know until they click the button and drop the chad, it sure is a good thing that everyone thinks he's as sexy as I do*. Very scary stuff indeed.

Furthermore I truly believe that pragmatic Obama supporters underestimate the potential power of gender solidarity. Since you've brought the identity politics to the fore, you're arguing that it's basically a bet that white guilt will trump the opportunity to see a female president. If the decision is as simple as channel-surfing then it is more reasonable to think that one's personal experiences, interests, and aspirations will trump externalities (like guilt) in the voting booth. Unfortunately we won't really know either way; and the ‘88 analogy breaks down because McCain is definitely not a Policy Guy.

How did grad school applications go?