Republicans are being pushed to the periphery

[marmar]

via the Toronto Star:



Republicans are being pushed to the periphery

Oct 25, 2008 04:30 AM
David Olive

The only potential straw for McCain to clutch onto is that this race is unprecedented in many ways and that the man in the lead is black.

Tom Schaller, University of Maryland political scientist, in Thursday's Financial Times

By some measures, the portion of poll respondents who lie in saying they will vote for an African-American as U.S. president is 6 per cent.

Many Americans wear their racism openly.

The Washington Post three months ago dispatched a reporter to West Virginia, for much of its history a Democratic state.

It is still a poor place, more than four decades after Erskine Caldwell reported on a land of "hard-core unemployment, widespread and chronic; here is a region of shacks and hovels for housing." A place ostensibly most in need of the Obama agenda of economic, education and industrial renewal.

The state owes its existence to abolition, having broken from Virginia during the Confederacy in loyalty to the Union. But many of the West Virginians with whom the Post spoke in beauty parlours, Denny's eateries and tap rooms have a problem with "uppity coloureds," a term the Post reporter heard often.

"I'll never vote for a nigra," a middle-aged white diner told the Post as he poked at his bacon and eggs. "Simple as that." A beauty-parlour operator didn't understand why the Democrats had nominated Barack Obama. "He's an Arab," she said. "Why did they choose one of our enemies?"

....(snip)....

The GOP is dying by its own hand, having long ago chosen not to embrace science, ethnic diversity, religious tolerance, equality of the sexes, and fairness in the distribution of income. And, most recently, competence and honesty.

In time, a rehabilitated party will assert itself. The current GOP, dating from Richard Nixon's first presidential victory 40 years ago, and its politics of telling voters who to blame, mock, fear and hate, will join the Know-Nothings among artifacts of the American political experience.

It will not be missed. .............

The complete piece is at: http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/524451

[babylonsister]

1. The title is great but I'd like proof for this. I don't think there is any.

"By some measures, the portion of poll respondents who lie in saying they will vote for an African-American as U.S. president is 6 per cent."

This election is a first time deal; no one knows.

[skooooo]

2. wow..

Sounds like they're about 40 years behind the times.

[HillbillyBob]

3. I will post a bit more of the article at the link

I'll never vote for a nigra," a middle-aged white diner told the Post as he poked at his bacon and eggs. "Simple as that." A beauty-parlour operator didn't understand why the Democrats had nominated Barack Obama. "He's an Arab," she said. "Why did they choose one of our enemies?"
There are, of course, pockets of racism throughout the nation. The head of a Republican woman's group in New Mexico, a 56-year-old interior decorator, calls Obama a "Muslim socialist," and explains that "Muslims are our enemies." A snowbird friend emails me from Port Charlotte, Fla. "I think Obama will win this election," says my friend, "but there is so much hatred here toward black people."
Against reason, against civility, against progress, the folks H.L. Mencken labelled the booboisie are making their last, desperate stand. You can see them on a notorious YouTube video, John McCain supporters lined up outside a town hall, some brandishing toy monkeys dressed as Obama, spewing racial epithets into the camera.

In 10 days, Barack Hussein Obama Jr. will become the U.S. president-elect, the first person of colour to head a major industrialized nation.

Obama will make inroads on the GOP in the Midwest, Southwest, Mountain and Plains states – many, like Colorado and Iowa, where the vast majority of voters are white.

Obama will not, however, crack the GOP redoubt of the Deep South and Appalachia, a vertical corridor taking in Arkansas, Tennessee, Kentucky, West Virginia and rural and small-town Pennsylvania and Ohio (though Obama likely will take the Keystone State and is competitive in Ohio).

McCain warns against a "perilous" trifecta come Nov. 4 of Democratic control of the White House, the Senate and the House of Representatives. The real sea change is that Republicans, so long dominant in presidential politics, are being pushed to the periphery of American life.


Here in NC we are seeing a shift. I spoke with some cousins after 2000 and just before 2004 elections. One said who will protect us, I said "shit Sue you have guns and know how to use them no one is gonna drop an airplane on you, who the hell is going to protect us from the
boosh?" I am glad I left WVa the day after I graduated from highschool, being
gay, I knew it was'nt a good idea if-when I got found out or I could not pretend to myself that I was straight anymore. Sigh, the ignernce pervails(sic)

[TexasLady]

4. It's like the party of the Dark Ages vs. The Renaissance Party

[HillbillyBob]

5. You got right to that heart of the matter Txlady

The Gop wants to bring back the bad ole days. When folks ''knew their place''
and everything was hunkydorry for the glorious pale folks.
For a few maybe, but it was not the Golden Days for most people.
So to make up for the lie they have to spread a good deal more disinformation, false information, and out right fucking lies.
Propaganda was one of the things our teachers covered in school. I wonder was I the ONLY one paying attention, and I went to school in WVa!

[TahitiNut]

6. Push harder

... until the fascists are a mere shit-stain on the steps of the capitol.

[ACTION BASTARD]

7. GOP is dying by it's own hand...

"The GOP is dying by its own hand, having long ago chosen not to embrace science, ethnic diversity, religious tolerance, equality of the sexes, and fairness in the distribution of income. And, most recently, competence and honesty."

There you have it. One awesome statement of the diseased and impotent right wing.