DRS112

The Rude Pundit
Proudly lowering the level of political discourse

5/21/2008

The Rude Pundit was speaking with a fellow lefty blogger about two months ago - really speaking, face to face, not IMing or any such shit. A Hillary Clinton supporter, she was concerned with Left Blogsylvania's sexist attacks on her candidate (although, as so many people sigh and say, she prefaced her comments with, "I wanted Edwards"). She offered the Rude Pundit insight into her contact with people in the campaigns of Clinton and Barack Obama, and she said, flatly, that Obama will lose a general election because of how racist America is. At the end of the day, it was one of the major factors making her support Clinton, the whole "electability" thing. One can't afford idealism in the face of reality, she was saying.

Having great respect for this blogger, the Rude Pundit agreed but also, not rudely, disagreed. No, he did not have the inside information and knowledge that the consultants had, but the Rude Pundit has a kind of hard fought-for optimism that things have reached such a nadir in this nation that at least some voters would be forced to put aside old prejudices in order to grab America like a drowning man and drag him to shore.

This morning, the Rude Pundit was watching the "best political team" on CNN contort themselves like Miss Julian in the sawdust in Barnum's tent in order to avoid saying that the reason Clinton blew Obama out of the blue grass in the Kentucky primary is because racist crackers hate black people. They said every fuckin' thing they could, comparing how Obama more or less split the "white people without college education" vote in Oregon with Clinton, yet Clinton overwhelmingly won that demographic in Kentucky. How can that be? they puzzled. It was kind of sadly hilarious, how they tried so desperately to not offend their white racist viewers. But sometimes, yes, sometimes you have to state plainly that motherfuckers fuck their mothers.

You ever been to the mythical "rural communities" of Appalachia? The Rude Pundit has, hanging out with mule farm owners and miners and others. And they are xenophobic, suspicious, and poor - hell, these redneck fuckers hate white outsiders. Just about every Deliverance-style, Hatfield and McCoy, Ma and Pa Kettle inbred backwards ass country fuck stereotype you ever imagined exists there, complete with their trashed front yards and about a mouth of teeth for every three or four households. And they have every right to hate people who have ripped away the jobs and kept them in deep poverty and ignorance. There's been so many promises broken to the people of Appalachia that they may as well be Indians. Hell, the last time anyone in the federal government gave a happy rat fuck about the region was in the LBJ administration.

When you talk about how Democratic they are, you are talking about the post-Civil War Democrats, when the party fostered and relied on racism and division in order to maintain power. You're talking Dixiecrats and Reagan Democrats. "Rural whites" in places like Kentucky and West Virginia wear their racism as a badge of honor. Because it's the perpetual ignorance of racism that keeps them from rising up against the whites who are actually keeping them racist, ignorant and poor.

By the way, out in Eastern Oregon, where you have your fine militias and white supremacist organizations, Obama stayed within two or three points of Clinton, winning some counties there. So, really, there is something about Appalachian white people.

Clinton's final appeal for the Democratic nomination is this: "America is a racist nation. While there's a lot of black people who will vote for me, there's way more white people who won't vote for Obama because they think he's a Muslim ******." (This, of course, leaves aside the fact that the Rude Pundit's mentioned before: when those racists no longer have a black guy to be prejudiced against, who's next to receive their rage? The woman who's friends with black people.)

It's a compelling argument, one that has at times made the Rude Pundit think twice about his hard-on for Obama, but in the end, he has dismissed it because it is a line of thinking that is based on one thing: perpetuating racism. And here's that optimism poking its head through the nearly crippling cynicism one needs in order to survive these savage political times: maybe, just maybe, the majority of the country is sick and tired of letting the yahoos have their way. This ain't just about Clinton. For the better part of the last thirty years, the country has been led by bubbas and wanna-be bubbas. Perhaps we are sick of that, and we're sick of seeing politicians say they are appealing to a monolithic white working class when they're really appealing to the ****** haters (and spic haters and kike haters and a happy person basher or two).

Now, you can say, and, indeed, you should, that that's why Democrats lost to Reagan and to the Bushes, because they were not appealing to the ****** hater demographic. But it's different this time, because Obama ain't Dukakis and he ain't Kerry. And if Obama campaigns hard, going on the poverty tour that he's promised to take with Edwards, maybe he can change a few minds, and that in itself would be a small victory.

Yes, this country has proven itself intolerant and small-minded time after time, and there's always a chance it may do so again in this election. But maybe not. Maybe, just maybe, the reign of the ****** haters is over. Racism is a form of idiocy. The country may be deciding that it's time not to let the stupid people run the joint, that, being stupid, they actually need to be led, maybe even out of their stupidity.

Chantytown

God, I hope so...

ibex

Couldn't agree more with Rude. There's just one thing about HRC that he and everybody else left out. Ten years ago, I happened to be in Gloucester, MA. Certainly not hillbilly country but white as hell, mainly Portugese and Italian, very blue collar and a center of the local fishing industry. As I entered a dingy convenience store for a train ticket back to Boston, I saw plain as day on a shelf full of novelty items a whole pile of rubber three dollar bills with Hillary's face on them. I just don't get how she's transformed herself from Wellesley Grad/Closet Dyke Commie (the words of the hicks, not me) into Ellie May Clampett/Grandma Moses. Maybe Rush's moles weren't the only racists who voted for Hillary even though they couldn't stand her. She started this race with a 40% disapproval rating in any given general election scenario. An entire cottage industry of Clinton haters, many whose names can certainly be cross checked against CMT cable subscriptions and the Christy Lane fan club, flourished throughout the 1990s and held HRC up as an example of everything that was wrong with modern, Jesus Hatin' America. I'm simply not buying all of her victories as a success in any popularity contest. If anything, they are more of a confirmation that the Hillbillies simply hate Hill less than they do Barak.

HarperLee

One of Rude's best ever!

He noticed the Toothless Demographic: ...about a mouth of teeth for every three or four households.

Unless having few teeth is a badge of honor with this demographic,
I say again that Edwards and Obama should campaign in Appalachia
with a team of volunteer dentists. Obama should forget
his healthcare plan and substitute it with a Dental Care for Everyone
plan.

I find it so disgusting that Hillary Clinton actually said, ""America is a racist nation. While there's a lot of black people who will vote for me, there's way more white people who won't vote for Obama because they think he's a Muslim ******." Miss He's-not-a-Muslim-as-far-as-I-know. We will never know if the Muslim email originated with her
campaign, but it is fact that at least one person in her campaign was
emailing it -- and I do not buy for a nanosecond her feigned outrage:

Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Hillary Campaign Acknowledges That County Chair Backing Hillary Passed Along Obama Muslim Smear Email

The MSM asks several times an hour if she should be Obama's
running mate. The better question would be, "Shouldn't her
citizenship be revoked?"

__________________
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." H. L. Mencken

RK77

Hey-----You forgot PAULETTE REVERE!!

HarperLee

She can call herself Paulette Revere, but if Obama calls her Annie Oakley, Geraldine Ferarro has to go on national television to point out what a victim of sexism poor Hillary is.

There is no one more unpopular in the workplace than an unattractive, older woman who blames every slight, real or imagined, on sexism. The battle for equality in the workplace is still being fought, but
bright, strong women choose their battles.

A true feminist would not have her husband, James Carville, and some idiot state governor all boasting about her testicles. A true feminist would not have
a demented whiner like Ferraro shreiking about what a victim she is.

__________________
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." H. L. Mencken

Kana

I don't think Hillary did actually say that. The writer was just paraphrasing what he considered to be Hillary's appeal. If she had actually uttered the word ******, assuming that ****** means what I think ****** means, then it would be all over the news.

__________________
Groovyville

Malkavian

Yeah, she ain't Chris Rock.

__________________
Woof!

HarperLee

I guess the quotation marks threw me. I know that is what she
and Bill are telling the superdelegates, but I hope to God she didn't
say it officially.

__________________
"Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want and deserve to get it good and hard." H. L. Mencken

Kana

And more's the pity, too. I'd take Chris Rock over Hillary any day.

__________________
Groovyville