wall street journal: palin quotes nazi/farmers want obama

[robfilms]

now the wall street journal is no bastion of the liberal press. how could it be, owned and operated by rupert murdoch. but the folks on the wsj editorial board see a big disconnect between mccain/palin and the american heartland.

http://www.wsj.com/article/SB12210022685...side_today

be well

rob

[guitarist]

It's mixed, actually. The news side is a "bastion of the liberal press", and the editorial side is a bastion of the conservative point of view. From a UCLA study:

"While the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is conservative, the newspaper's news pages are liberal, even more liberal than The New York Times."

I imagine a lot of traditional conservatives are plenty cheesed off by the duplicitous relationship between elected officials and Wall Street, and are revolted by the fake Americana of the McCain/Palin ticket. Both parties do a pretty good job of playing, robbing, and patronizing heartland voters. Glad to see Obama's got traction among farmer's unions and disenchanted middle-American voters, there's a sea of red states between New York and LA that are as unmoved by Democratic orthodox rhetoric as there are dense urban blue states that are unmoved by the stale Republican message. Historically low approval ratings in the Democratically-led congress should be evidence that rejecting one side's message isn't the same thing as embracing the other's.

The Democrats haven't been able to succeed with a candidate that isn't a southern Governor in almost half a century, it'll be interesting to see if Senator Obama's candidacy can change that dynamic. After 8 years of unpopular opposition rule, no incumbent to run against, and a bad economy, he's got a built-in advantage I hope he can widen.

[PeterB]

guitarist, add to that the fact that some of us in the Southern states-- even in traditional Republican strongholds-- are NOT happy about how the current administration has handled domestic matters, especially coastal emergencies over the last three years. And there is also the race factor. My own state, Louisiana, which was solidly "red" as far as the polls were concerned over the last few months, has recently been less solid for McCain, and Florida is definitely still a toss-up:

http://www.electoral-vote.com
http://www.electoral-vote.com/evp2008/Pr...siana.html

... he may still win my state in the end, but his lead is definitely NOT going to be as impressive as it has been for previous Republican candidates.

[MacMagus]

> My own state, Louisiana, which was solidly "red" as far as
> the polls were concerned over the last few months, has
> recently been less solid for McCain, and Florida is
> definitely still a toss-up

It bugs me that the people who suffer the most under the policies of the current administration are almost inevitably its strongest supporters.

'Brings me back to something one of my teachers said in grade school: Among the practices of the Puritan settlers were sucking on hot coals and self-flagellation. That spirit lives on!

[guitarist]

Peter, I agree. There's going to be some interesting shifts this year. My state, which has been reliably blue (particularly the region of my state, ultra-progressive western Washington) both locally and nationally, Democrats have been able to safely consider us in their pocket for generations, isn't safe this year, it went from being a strong Democratic state to a weak Democratic state, the two parties running alarmingly close earlier this month, which reportedly had Howard Dean pulling his hair out.

The Washington State Governor's race is up for grabs, too. It nearly went to popular moderate Republican Senator Dino Rossi last election, he lost by only a few hundred votes after a third recount. Unpopular incumbent Democrat Governor Christine Gregoir is facing him this election, and even with her 2/3 Democratic majority, could likely get turned over by Rossi this time.

If this is any indication of what's going on in traditional Republican states, too, it's a much different kind of election than we've seen in a long time. As you suggest, key states that have been solid red aren't so certain anymore. States on both sides are at risk of coming out of the pocket. Which isn't a bad thing, nobody likes to feel like their vote is taken for granted. Maybe it'll contribute to boosting voter turnout.

[guitarist]

MacMagus wrote:
It bugs me that the people who suffer the most under the policies of the current administration are almost inevitably its strongest supporters.

Yeah, it bugs me, too, that those people actually have an individual right to vote, instead voting how I think they should. We really should fix that.

Brings me back to something one of my teachers said in grade school: Among the practices of the Puritan settlers were sucking on hot coals and self-flagellation. That spirit lives on!

Yeah, those people are so ignorant, what a bunch of coal-sucking losers!

[MacMagus]

Let's see if I can do to something to one of your statements like what you just did to mine, guitarist...

> Yeah, those people are so ignorant

That's what you think of middle-America!!!

You're a horrible person.

[guitarist]

MacMagus, even if I might agree with your voting choice, I don't agree with your characterization of Americans who don't vote like we do. Gimme a break. You just said believe they're supporting policies that only cause them more suffering, how self-defeating and misguided they are, to not be as enlightened as we are. Then you compared them to self-flagellating coal-sucking Puritan pilgrims. A tad judgmental and superior, perhaps? Even if I disagree with middle Americans, I'd still defend their ability to be the judge of their own self interest, just as I'd defend yours, or anyone else who makes the effort to participate in an election.

[MacMagus]

> I don't agree with your characterization of
> Americans who don't vote like we do.

I did not characterize "Americans who don't vote like we do" in any way shape or form.

The category of Americans that I referred to was "people who suffer the most under the policies of the current administration."

That includes those people who, for example (and not exclusively), suffered in the aftermath of Katrina and those people who have lost their children in Iraq because of the Bush doctrine of imperialism-but-call-it-preemptive-anti-terrorism.

When those Americans support the people who made them suffer, that bugs me.

[Black Landlord]

Here is an example of the hateful, extremist nazi views of the columnist Palin quoted, from another source:

He was also known for what Philip Roth described as his "casual distaste for Jews," which had become so evident by the end that he was bounced from the journal of the John Birch Society in 1964 for alleged anti-semitism. According to his obituary, he'd advanced the theory that American Jews of Eastern European descent were "instinctively sympathetic to Communism, however outwardly respectable they appeared.

The guy's a NAZI!!!!!!

But the sort of mom/baseball/apple pie rhetoric in the quote Palin used always reminds me of an early SNL monologue, where Steve Martin waxes nostalgic, with moving music playing in the background:

What I believe:

I believe in rainbows, and puppy dogs and fairy tales. And I believe in the family: Mom, and Dad, and Grandma, and Uncle Todd, who waves his penis.

And I believe in 8 of the Ten Commandments, and I believe in going to church every Sunday, unless there's a game on.

And I believe that sex is one of the most beautiful, wholesome, and natural things that money can buy.

And I believe it's derogatory to refer to a woman's breasts as "boobs", "jugs", "winnebagos", or "golden bozos". And you should only refer to them as "hooters".

And I believe you should place a woman on a pedestal, high enough so you can look up her dress.

And I believe in equality, equality for everyone, no matter how stupid they are, or how much better I am than they are.

And people say I'm crazy for believing this, but I believe that robots are stealing my luggage.

And I believe I made a mistake when I bought a 30-story, one-bedroom apartment.

And I believe that the "Battle of the Network Stars" should be fought with guns.

And I believe that Ronald Reagan can make this country what it once was: an arctic region, covered with ice.

And I believe the United States should all foreigners in this country, provided they can speak our native language: Apache.

And lastly, I believe that of all the evils on this earth, there is nothing worse than the music you are listening to right now.