The Left's War on Rednecks

This is just the current fatuity of American politics. Politics are not about silly emotions but about cool-headed discussion of the future.

 

Watch his show often. He is a liberal through and through. His audience is liberal because they recognize one of their own, and boos conservatives.

 

So say you - he says otherwise. The facts prove him correct.

 

He has also called himself practical and progressive and protests against the demonization of the word liberal.

He supported Obama, known as the most liberal Senator before he ran for President and has donated 1 million dollars to the Obama Superpac.

Facts? Go figure.

 

If it's not apparent, many modern American conservatives now consider their self-identification as a victim to be the most important aspect of their lives. Thus, they spends their days seeking out justifications for their claims of victimhood.

See, in the wacky conservative world o' victimhood, if you personally stop listening to a moron ... you're being intolerant! Racist and sexist morons have a right to force you to listen to them! If you just ignore such morons, you're a big censoring liberal meanie!

Sorry, but conservatives don't get to handwave away their side's pervasive racism and sexism by making up deranged stories about liberals, though they will try. Boy howdy, will they try.

 

I posted this in one of the private groups, and it is a response to a slightly different context, but I think it is relevant enough to the OP to be of value.


I don't know, I feel like demonizing "rednecks" is often fun, but not particularly productive. Ultimately the interests of those people are more in line with the left, than they are with the right. However, to them the right-wing represents an image of themselves they want represented and they represent the country they want to exist. So to them cultural representation matters more than political or economic representation. There are of course problems with this, because some of that cultural representation involves large amounts of racism and xenophobia, but otherwise the idea of placing cultural representation at the forefront is not absurd or unique. My point is basically that, it might be a good idea for the left to start reaching out to those people on economic and political issues, while being more sensitive to those issues of cultural representation. We can still reject the racism and xenophobia, while being sensitive to other issues. However, when we mock the white rural poor, we send them running into the arms of the Republican party, who don't do so. Who tell them they are "real Americans," who pander to them, etc. The fact that they politically and economically represent multinational business interests, and couldn't care less about the rural poor, becomes irrelevant. It is not a coincidence Sarah Palin is popular. She knows very little about politics or economics, but she is "one of them." She appeals to them on a cultural level. They connect with her, and I understand it. If one party is constantly mocking your culture, and another is telling you it is the most fundamental element of America, it makes sense that you would vote for the latter party, even if that party represents political and economic interests antithetical to your own. We should be fighting the same fight, and instead capitalist interests promote this form of superstructure which distracts those people from their other(arguably more important) interests. We shouldn't so easily play along!

 

Everybody calls ACORN some kind of communist organization but Republican McCain says it is what makes America special.

 

To me the word/s 'redneck' imply vacuous, racist false consciousness rather than economic position as such. The people we are talking about are of course desperately in need of socialism, like all working people, but like their 'poor white' ancestors they would prefer to feel superior to almost anyone than to stand up to anyone with real power, because of the long history of cowarice and grovelling that leads them to shoot unarmed people as their fathers lynched them. Difficult cases, but stupider ones have learned better.

 

... still waiting for '' proof '' that the left has some kind of war going on against rednecks ...

 

This made me laugh because it so easily points out the arrogance of the left and how they apply their bigotry without even knowing it. For instance, without any real knowledge, the comment about Palin shows how libs label and separate people. Libs thought Palin was a "redneck" so automatically assign "stupidity" to her, when it is becoming apparent that she is actually very bright and very politically astute.

 

Same as the Republican "war on women".

 

Cry me a river.

 

Liberals are bigots... even against their own countrymen. Nothing new there.

 

Absolute nonsense!! The inside stories that have come out about Palin's 2008 vice-presidential run, make it clear she didn't understand basic geography and history!! That isn't the "liberal media" telling these stories, it was Republican members of the presidential campaign staff. I know that Republicans sometimes like to pretend, but there is no world in which Sarah Palin is very bright. She is of average intelligence at best, and quite dull compared to her political contemporaries. Almost all of whom are ambitious and without moral or ideological foundations, but who are almost all still reasonably intelligent.

PS. I don't buy the Bush was stupid meme that got promoted so often on the left. It is nonsense. However, there is no comparison between Palin and Bush!!

 

The inside stories "reported in the liberal blogs". Nuff said.

 

Um what? The source of publication is irrelevant(and it wasn't liberal blogs, it was the entire media that reported this stuff, including 60 minutes and numerous other hard news programs). What is relevant is the source of the information, which is key REPUBLICAN staffers!! They say Palin knew NOTHING when she first joined the campaign, and then there was a frantic scramble to get her up to speed. That is quite (*)(*)(*)(*)ing, considering she was a woman in her 40s.

 

I already responded to this, but I want to go back. This response doesn't consider the vast majority of the text I presented. You ignored all the important parts, where I said demonizing "rednecks" is bad, and focused on a throw away sentence about Palin which was in the context of a larger point. Whether Palin is "super bright" as you put it, isn't really relevant. The point is that whether she is or is not bright, it is understandable why people like her either way.

 

Just like Obama huh? The reports are that she is a quick learner and very bright. No one is going to know all there is to know about foreign policy and as it is, one person needs a teleprompter to tell him.

 

I strongly dislike Obama, and think he has been a terrible president. Competence and intelligence are not synonymous, but a certain standard of intelligence DOES have to be met, and Palin doesn't cut it!!

PS. As I said, intelligence is not by itself enough to make a good president. Both Obama and Bush are very intelligent, and have multiple degrees from Ivy League schools. The problem is, they were/are both men driven more by ambition than anything else, so they were too easily bought by the vested interests in Washington. The problem for Palin though, is she is just as ambitious. She also has charisma to match Obama, she just doesn't have the intellectual chops to pull it off. If she did, she would be the Republican nominee for president right now!! When you are as attractive, charismatic, and appeal to as many people emotionally as she does winning elections should be easy. Unfortunately for her, she does NOT have the intellectual ability to pull it off!!

 

So you know her school scores other than what you have read in blog posts? Do you know Obama's? You know her?

It is typical for people to form opinions without knowing someone but that means it is still just an opinion. Like the current craze to hang Zimmerman people follow in herds.

 

Do you know her any better? I'm skeptical.

 

I know something much better, I know the things she has said. I know what campaign staffers have reported. That is more than enough information to make an informed judgment with!! I don't need to see her grades from college.

 

... still waiting for '' proof '' ...

 

You make good points that are true to a large degree. I do not consider myself a republican or even right wing yet do usual root for them to win. It is not just the "rednecks" that get insulted. To me, it appears any of the individuals that the left feels should be one of them. Yet chooses to oppose them is insulted an yes it does drive us further away. Firearms and religion have helped the republicans in the rural areas. The republicans need the support and democrats did not want it. Your analysis was a good one yet the I would argue that other than the two issues listed above that neither party represents our needs. So the loss of those votes by the left is deserved. The name calling and the insults make the choice very easy.

 

Nothing wrong with bigotry as long as your motives are pure. hehe