The rise and fall of the angry white men

[applegrove]

The rise and fall of the angry white men

By Clete Wetli at Al.com

http://www.al.com/opinion/index.ssf/2015/06/the_rise_and_fall_of_the_angry.html#incart_river

"SNIP...............


In the aftermath of Charleston, McKinney, and the Baltimore riots, America is finally realizing the true damage caused by far right religious conservatives and the Republican Party who have spent decades fueling and manipulating the hatred of angry white men.

They are angry they lost the "War of Northern Aggression". They are angry that some people get help from the government. They are angry that 'Mericuh has a black President. They are angry that people have sex for recreation instead of procreation. They are angry that gays are ruining their third marriage. Heck, they are angry that lawn darts were recalled and that women think they should be paid the same as men... in the army!

...............

Thus, the myth of "the welfare queen". Thus, the myth of rampant government waste, fraud, and abuse. Thus, the myth that the government is coming for your guns.

Perhaps, the biggest myth of all is that American Exceptionalism is somehow guaranteed by prayer in schools or giving tax breaks to "job creators" on Wall Street, rather than creating a level economic playing field that facilitates upward financial mobility.



...............SNIP"

[BeyondGeography]

1. Maybe this turns out to be a watershed event

I didn't think so at the time, but first you had the killer saying his victims were so nice to him he almost called the whole thing off, then you had actual political courage from Haley and other R's re. the Confederate flag with major retailers following suit. Per the column, I think it does come down to numbers, which have nowhere to go but down. And, also, the fundamentally incoherent nature of their anger, which was so tragically illustrated by these killings.

That said, the backlash cometh. It won't change the math, but we've seen this crowd overcompensated politically because of their intensity many times before and it won't surprise me when or if it happens again.

[calimary]

7. I wouldn't start burning incense to nikki haley. Took her five days to get in front of things.

Wednesday night she was crying and bemoaning how horrible the massacre was but wasn't willing to deal with "well, can we take that flag down, NOW?" Took her til Monday to come out with the correct positioning on this. Her FIRST instinct was to tap-dance around it and make excuses about how it's still so meaningful to some people and blah-blah-blah. Same thing with jebbie. Took him all week to fart and fumble around with what should be a pretty simple answer to a pretty straightforward question - would you do Iraq differently than your brother did if you knew now what you knew then? And his FIRST instinct was - "yes I would." Took him til Friday of that week to dance his way toward "no I wouldn't."

[virgogal]

2. A lot of the things mentioned could also apply to many white women or

conservative men of any color.

Why the screed against white men?

[applegrove]

3. Cause they are a political entity in the South. Like 'soccer moms' are across the country and

are said to vote like a political entity, even though they don't 100% vote one way (not every single mom who has a kid playing soccer will break one way or another with the rest of the soccer moms in an election as soccer moms are said to do). They are seemed to be an entity with a narrative.

[beltanefauve]

4. The comments section

to this well-written editorial is a cesspool.

[Duppers]

5. K & R

[JTFrog]

6. K&R n/t