Opinion inertia:

[jrittenhouse]

Going back to my response posts,  I want to stress that I never assume that anyone voting against Obama is a racist, or that Republicans are racists, or that either on the Republican ticket is a racist.  I know better.

I’ve lived with serious racists, had racism and sexism used against me and mine (you do know that I’m a Race Traitor for adopting a

Comments

The Real McCain

[shelleybear]

here

You know, the one thing about that Rove push poll was the truth about McCain's wife.Drug addict and thief.
Both true.
Unlike the crap they are throwing around about Obama.

Re: The Real McCain

[jrittenhouse]

I've read the stuff on Cindy McCain, and I'm not going there. If you want to pull out Keating Five stuff and match that up against McCain's financial institutions policy, by all means, be my guest. But I'd rather stick to nailing McCain for the things that he stands for personally. Or Palin, same thing.

Re: The Real McCain

[docstrange]

Bravo.

[barondave]

I'm optimistic in my pessimism. About 25% of the voting population is clinically insane (up from about 15% when we were wee 'uns). This is the "base" that Palin speaks to, roughly the core group remaining who still approve of Bush's handling of the job. I'm very pessimistic about their voting and their capability for violence.

On the other hand, Most racists fall into this category. Not, alas, all, but a goodly chunk of the sphincter conservatives who would never vote for a Democratic candidate would also never vote for a black candidate. In other words, Obama had already lost most of the racists simply by running as a Democrat. He never had their vote and shouldn't try to hard to reclaim the Wallace branch of the party which is now the Buchanan branch of the GOP.

[zurcherart]

That's a good read. I'm going to have to digest it more before making any coherent comments.

[ice_queen82]

Seconded. It must be very difficult to only have the choice between, basically, two individuals, when you might not really support either. At least over here (UK) there's more scope for a good party leadership contest if the PM does something unpopular, and it doesn't seem like that one figurehead is quite so untouchable once they've been elected...

[jrittenhouse]

The LibDems have had their problems with "head boys", as have all of the other majors there.

[ice_queen82]

Yes absolutely (they like their drink, lol) but I think under the UK system you're not really electing the PM in the same way, you're electing the party and the PM just happens to be head of it at the time. Party leadership seems rather transient really, look what's been going on this week with calls for a Labour leadership contest. If that happens we could end up with our third PM this term, two of which weren't even elected as PM (which I don't think is a very good system either to be honest). In my lifetime we've had two PMs who got to top job through a leadership contest partway between general elections so I don't feel we're stuck with the PM in the same way you'd be stuck with a president you didn't like for the full four years...

[stephanieb]

You know, I've been meaning to thank you for your political writing. You're doing very good work here. I've referred to you more than once in political discussions these last few months. This essay is a good example of your work: thought-provoking, well thought out, well backed up, and informed by personal experience.

[jrittenhouse]

You're welcome. You guys are the people I do it for. I can get steamed for myself just fine.

[one_undone]

Why do you not have a column somewhere? You know, you're more informative than the media I see around, you always back up your stuff with source material, and you're a hell of a lot more enjoyable to read. Have you thought of writing a political column somewhere? Or do you already do that and I don't know about it?

[jrittenhouse]

Nope. What you see is what they is. I'd love such a gig.

[tandw]

I was talking with metesten about "uppity," and she'd missed the connection to the n-word completely. She's seen the term most often reclaimed by feminists--"Uppity women unite," etc.

[jrittenhouse]

Now, trace that back in historical usage...sure, there's been a ton of reframing usage on denigrating terms in the last fifty years. You wouldn't believe the looks I got in college hauling around Nietzsche's GAY SCIENCE...