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THE ARMCHAIR SOCIAL DARWINIST CONTINGENT: Flailing to Delegitimize a President.


I believe deep down inside there are those on the right who are attempting to deliberately delegitimize our President. These folks can hardly see straight since there is a black man who was legitimately elected President. Our President's mother of course was Caucasian, but even so our President has been accused of being a racist and hating white people. America is seems has progressed little from antebellum America.  Just what does that mean you ask? Well that means one drop of blood in your ancestry that happens to be from a black person, in antebellum America meant as an individual you would be classified as black therefore not to be treated equally.  Of course during antebellum times this was a given.    It was ingrained in the nation, people with darker skin, considered inferior and that was somehow supported by twisting bible passages and in one very famous supreme court case (Dred Scott) twisting our constitution.  I didn't realize we have progressed very little from those days.  Our President is being treated more than shabbily by some very loud people in this country.  I am not sure we can afford to allow them to continue in their crazy attempt to somehow overturn the last election.  It is a pretty out of control this time.  Tons of vitriol and hatred towards each other but my god so much hatred toward our President, and all the blame he must carry for mistakes of the previous administration. Let's discuss what is really going on here, because what is going on is racism in its lowest form.  I find teabaggers, birthers, tenthers, Joe "I am an immigration attorney if by immigration you mean a real estate attorney" Wilson, even Howie "the Presidents home country is Kenya" Kurtz, and all the rest despicable miserable excuses for human beings who have somehow convinced their pea brains this isn't about our Presidents race it is about policy differences, you know his socialist, Marxist, communist, fascist, batman/joker policies that are wrecking the nation!  I am sick to death of the crazy lunatics bullying the nation into untenable positions, whether it is one on health reform, bailouts, economic policies, how un-Presidential it is to call Kanye West a Jackass, how un-Presidential it was to weigh in on what happened to Esteemed Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr, and all the rest. What is the real problem with Rush, Hannity, Beck, O'Reilly and their ilk? Well they know what plays in the cornfields and what plays in the cornfields happens to be fear.

For the cornfielders, (and by cornfielders I mean some of the denizens who inhabit that great fly-over area where the corn grows as high as an elephant's eye. The Great Plains. The Bread Basket, which, incidentally is also a part of the blighted region known as the Bible Belt). You remember, where there are real Americans! They believe it certainly is just fine for a black man to be on a basketball team and finally it is accepted that black men can be quarterbacks and professional football and major league baseball coaches. Not so long ago there was a contingent of folks who believed these were positions black men could not hold, for some reason they didn't measure up in the eyes of the fat-fuck lounge chair social Darwinist. It is an old never changing story. Never ending, on an on.

But now these same people seem to be attempting to start some sort of revolt, they don't believe Barack Obama should be our President and that is because he is black.  They are attempting to overturn an election, a legal election; the President got 52% of the vote or so. He is legitimate!  And yet the signs their minions carry say it all, "Kenyan, illegal immigrant, wrecking America, I want my America back, socialist, fascist, Marxist, secret Muslim; or if you head some crazy assed teabagging 9-12 group our President is a  Muslim Welfare thug from Indonesia, HUH?  How can we continue to allow them to get away with this? The President is legitimate and this nutty crap needs to end.

I am also happy to know Former President Carter agrees with me. Racism is at the core of the vitriol and hatred about our President. Where does this amount of hatred end?  People carry guns to public meetings now, I've never seen so many folks come to a meeting by a congressman and now they come but are incoherent with anger about having a black President, but scream they don't want socialist health run by the government and yet they are on medicare.  OMG, One Pastor prays for the death of our President, and yet he still has parishioners! Some schools won't show the President talking to school children about staying in school! WTF does this all mean? But the larger question is, where does this end, because it does not appear to be going toward a pleasant ending.

I shall leave you with a song. Because aren't we just burning down our own cornfield.

Randy Newman: Let's Burn Down the Cornfield

Let's burn down the cornfield

Let's burn down the cornfield

And we can listen to it burn

You hide behind the oak tree

You hide behind the oak tree

Stay out of danger 'till I return

Oh, it's so good

On a cold night

To have a fire

Burnin' warm and bright

You hide behind the oak tree

You hide behind the oak tree

Stay out of danger 'till I return

Let's burn down the cornfield

Let's burn down the cornfield

And I'll make love to you while it's burning


37 Comments

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This is what I have been trying to say for a week. This is delightful.

This is not thought provoking...this is thoughtful.
We should all KNOW these things. Right off. No room here for disagreement. Hell I can find more agreement with someone who thinks the earth is six thousand years old.

Burn down the corn field. damn that is a good link up in the old sense of the term. It reminds me of:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TY-699M7j3g&feature=related

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Thanks Dick! Ahh the Randy Newman link! I should've done it myself!!!

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I guess you missed the election results from the 2008 primaries where the "corn fielders" picked the black man with a funny name over the white woman from a political dynasty.

The revision of electoral history sure didn't take long this year when the fact of the matter is that Barack Obama was elected with a healthy percentage of the moderate conservative vote as well as the fiscally conservative independent vote.

He then promptly turned the reins over to a Congress trying to be both pragmatic and keep the "base" happy. The president's numbers aren't slipping with his democratic base and left-leaning independents, though liberal purists level derogatory charges at the president here every day without being accused of being racist.

Mostly this comes across as more tone-deaf analysis from an ideologically-oriented blogger who has very little personal experience with the objects of her critique.

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I guess you've missed everything that is going on lately. Whatever Jason. If it isn't about you then what is the problem? What don't you get about what I said? Do you think those protestors are somehow supporting the President? When you hold a sign that says undocumented worker and it has a picture of the President, what does that mean? It seems you don't believe in that there is racism, okay that is your belief, but I think you are wrong, gravely wrong. Something bad is going to happen and yes the "cornfielders" will be responsible.

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I am saying that the craziest ones are always those holding the signs and chanting. It is the nature of crazy.

I think those idiots are finishing the job that Bush started, which is forcing moderate conservatives to totally re-examine everything they believe in and what their party should become in the future.

Assuming they represent any opinions other than their own is a huge tactical error. The only thing will get the GOP to circle the wagons quicker than a Clinton in the White House is being tarred with the same racist brush that should be reserved for that rabid minority.

The best thing the democratic party can do right now is get out of the way, but I doubt that will ever happen.

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Really, how many signs were held up during Clinton's time that claimed he was an undocumented worker, that claimed he was not a citizen, name a Republican who yelled liar while he was giving an address to congress, and boy did those folks hate Clinton. They hated him so much, but no one showed up to a town hall where the President was supposed to be with a gun. I think these folks are racist.
And the GOP is splitting apart, there are the normal folks who do have honest policy difference with the President and myself, and then there are those others, and they are so crazy I am worried about what they are going to do, I fear someone is going to try to kill our President. That doesn't give me any comfort.

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Do you know anything about the Secret Service?

A bunch of rednecks with AR-16's slung over their shoulders or Glocks tucked in their back pocket are not a danger to the president. They would both have ten sniper bullets in them before they got their arms halfway raised.

This is trying to make a mountain out of a mole.

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Oh I have no doubt the secret service has these guys in their sights, but what about the one who gets through, the not so out there dude, the guy on a mission from god. I have the utmost faith in the Secret Service, but you can't control crazy, and this whole episode for them must be a nightmare as far as security goes.

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I agree, which is why I prefer to have them show up rather than hide out.

If their only beef is the second amendment and state law allows for concealed-carry permits, the only rational response we can make is to let the Secret Service do their job and dismiss it as irrelevant. It would show a magnanimity that has rarely been on display in American politics.

I suspect the Secret Service are much more concerned with the people they don't see than with the idiots who show up armed to a rally, however odd such behavior may.

PS: Glad to see we can agree on TR at least!

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He was my idol, I was born with Asthma so was a reader as a young child and so was TR, so my parents started me swimming when I was 3. No shit, by 1968 I was training for the 1980 Olympics. His story pushed me on. He was, well you know, pretty damn awesome!
Yes we are all worried about the folks we don't see with their guns and their anger. And I don't necessarily think they can attempt to assassinate the President, but I also don't necessarily think they can't.
OMG Jason, we are having a civil discussion!
The world might actually end now! :)

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LOL Jason LOL.

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good one.

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PS, I've always love TR, he was one of the greatest environmental Presidents ever.... so I would say to you, great picture, of one of my idols.

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And one more question. Are the moderates you are speaking of anything like Steve King of Iowa, you know the one who know claims it is the Presidents fault Wilson yelled out, you know, he claimed the President threw the first punch? How is that?
I do remember a time in the no-so-distant past, well it is pretty distant as college was quite some time ago, but I do remember a time that even though we had policy differences things weren't so fucking crazy. When I was in grad school, I did get into daily arguments with some of the more radical left folks in our classes, because I thought it was insane to "spike a tree to save a tree, but possibly kill a human being", I fought with those member of ELF because they are stupid incendiary and wrong. It isn't how attitudes are changed, no shit. Working for the state senate in the 1980's seriously there weren't all these crazies running around yelling they were going to take back their nation, they weren't insane. Certainly there were crazies, but OMG, it is crazier than I've ever seen things. You can't deny Rush and his buddies are fanning the flames of hatred can you? Where does that end? I am serious Jason, where on earth does this craziness end?

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Jason likes to thread-jack, doesn't he?

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He does, he does at that! At least we aren't virtually yelling at each other. :)
Morning Mr. Grouch!

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How is discussing the main premise of the blog hijacking?

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Sure, Jason. "Tone-deaf analysis" and other such pejoratives in the service of your favorite "moderation" trope are not thread-jacking how exactly?

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Didn't know we had such wilting violets around here. TM didn't seem to take offense and was willing to discuss the issues. In the future, I will try to moderate my criticism with only those words approved by the Central Committee.

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I'll agree that most of what I hear from the GOP frustrates me to no end and some is downright nauseating.

I still think the best response is a bemused dismissal or they get what they want, which is distraction from our pressing national conversation.

Discretion does seem to be the better part of valor as history and generational transition marginalizes these sorts of ideas even further.

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I guess I think they've taken over the conversation and continue to redirect us away from the necessary business. So in some ways we certainly agree, but when it pisses me off, I write about it!
But certainly you recognize none of what is going on has anything to do with health reform or even withdrawing from Iraq, Afghanistan, or even getting the economy back on track, because we'd be having a real discussion about the issues. There would be none of this, the Pres is an undocumented worker crap. It just seems like they are attempting to have some sort of recall of the election, you know attempting to delegitimize him, because they so hate that there is a Black Man sitting in the White House. I mean, undocumented worker? What is that about anyway?

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I think what we are seeing the stray mashed-potato missiles after the food fight have been stopped by the principal.

That launching back with a tater-tot rocket only gets the fight going again, rather than leaving us free to clean up the mess.

An imperfect metaphor to be sure, but hopefully one close enough to convey my meaning.

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Okay, but I've never heard of a pastor, having his congregation pray for the death of one of our Presidents. How do we deal with the likes of that?

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Given the minuscule size of his congregation, I think bemused and/or horrified dismissal is still the most appropriate response.

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Agreed. But it still makes me question what is going on. However on a lighter note Jason, at least you and I can have a more reasonable discussion at present.
I have to explain my anger to you maybe, in a previous thread, at one point one conservative who hates me, wished cancer on me, which of course made a few people in my house angry. When you are writing to King Radical, you are writing to my 23 year old son. He is still angry some loon wished cancer on me, and him being a young male he tends to carry his anger on his sleeve when it comes to his mom. So when he weighs in he weighs in to defend his mom. He is a professional, a programmer/network engineer, and he is quite reasonable, most of the time, he just doesn't like to see me attacked even though I can take it. But I would feel that way about my own mother too.
I think you and I have more in common than we know. And I am glad we have found some common ground.
I would stay and chat, but am about to head out for the ride and then the gym. I'll be back later......

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I am glad we are able to bury the hatchet that most likely should have never been raised.

As to your son's defense of his Mom, that is as it should be despite my not really being the cause of his anger. Context can certainly be lost to emotion among the most relaxed and laid-back person.

I wish nothing but the best life has to offer for everyone, even those who have no right to expect such karmic largess based on the smallness of their ideas.

For those who are actually malevolent, I am happy to let fate take care of them without dirtying my own hands.

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Oh and PS Joe "the immigration attorney if by immigration you mean real estate attorney" is a old style racist, through and through.

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"It is hard to resist the conclusion that this enemy is on many counts the projection of the self; both the ideal and the unacceptable aspects of the self are attributed to him.

The enemy may be the cosmopolitan intellectual, but the paranoid will outdo him in the apparatus of scholarship, even of pedantry.

Secret organizations set up to combat secret organizations give the same flattery.

The Ku Klux Klan imitated Catholicism to the point of donning priestly vestments, developing an elaborate ritual and an equally elaborate hierarchy.

The John Birch Society emulates Communist cells and quasi-secret operation through 'front' groups, and preaches a ruthless prosecution of the ideological war along lines very similar to those it finds in the Communist enemy."

The best thing anyone said on the paranoia:


http://reason.com/news/show/135735.html

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"A similar dynamic is at work in 2009. When pundits weave a small number of unrelated incidents into a "pattern" of crime, then link it to the rhetoric of Obama's opponents, it becomes easier to marginalize nonviolent, noncriminal critics on the right, just as a red scare makes it easier to marginalize nonviolent, noncriminal figures on the left. "

Complexity theory et al

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Oh, you read my piece on Complexity! Well I do thank you for that.
I subscribe to Reason, I don't like all of it, but there certainly are some excellent articles. It is very libertarian of course and all American's have a certain libertarian leaning, but patterns do emerge, even when people don't recognize them.

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When you keep calling a guy a baby-killer and your watchers go to his church and kill him, that hardly seems "unrelated", to me.

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Agreed, not unrelated at all.

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Lola is not on a first-name basis with cause and effect. Or reason itself, for that matter.

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:), Ohhh, that is what is going on here, thanks for the info Mr. Grouch!
You always make me laugh.

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Maybe if you took the trouble of reading the article to see which incidents are unrelated, you wouldn't expose yourself as a tool cut out from a pattern.

Same appies to The Old Fart, but his cause is having such an effect on him he thinks what he emits is the odor of reason.

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There is some truth to this. I know up in the Northwest when I was working on some environmental issues, we had to adjust our approach because the more extremist groups (tree spiking, destruction of logging machinery) were marginalizing us as result. At times it seemed were spending as much time denoucing those on the same side as we were going after the ones we were trying to stop. Did we like doing that? no. Did in some ways take us off message? yes. Did we purposively shift tactics and alter the way we coordinated rallies and demonstrations? yes. We weren't a hundred percent successful by any means, but we able to get through to some of the locals and the some of the conservative media that we were looking for solutions that supported a sustainable logging industry and sustainable watersheds.

My point would be the nonviolent, noncriminal elements on the right need to do their part to further marginalize the whack jobs, and not just leave the job up to those on the left. It may seem like being a traitor to one's cause since the whack jobs are technically on the same side, but the means is just as important as the ends.

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