Leonard Simpson is an unapologetic moron:
Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.
“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.
Mr Simpson’s remarks help explain why Mr Obama is trailing Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, by 40 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in the heavily white and rural state, according to recent opinion polls.
The media just got done spending nearly two straight months running clips of Barack Obama’s Christian minister in an endless loop on television. If you can’t make the connection that Barack Obama and his wife are Christians after that kind of saturation coverage, then you are willfully stupid.
Josh Fry, a 24-year-old ambulance driver from Williamson, insisted he was not racist but said he would feel more comfortable with Mr McCain, the 71-year-old Vietnam war hero, in the White House. “I want someone who is a full-blooded American as president,” he said.
Well, what is that supposed to mean?
None of the 22 Democrats interviewed by the Financial Times at the Clinton rally would commit themselves to voting for Mr Obama if he became the nominee, and half said they definitely would not. The depth of opposition is particularly striking considering that Mingo County is one of the most Democratic places in West Virginia, having cast about 85 per cent of its votes for the party in the 2006 midterm elections. If Mr Obama cannot win there in November, he has little chance of carrying the state.
Most people questioned said they mistrusted Mr Obama because of doubts about his patriotism and “values”, stemming from his cosmopolitan background, his exotic name and the controversy surrounding “anti-American” sermons by Jeremiah Wright, his former pastor. Several people said they believed he was a Muslim – an unfounded rumour that has circulated on the internet for months – despite the contradiction with his 20-year membership of Mr Wright’s church in Chicago. Others mentioned his refusal to wear a Stars and Stripes badge and controversial remarks by his wife, Michelle, who described America as “mean” and implied that she had never been proud of the US until her husband ran for president.
Frankly, this is exactly what I’ve been talking about when I’ve discussed how liberals and blacks are the both the most loyal and the most reviled blocs in the Democratic Party. I’m happy to seek new electoral college votes in Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, North Carolina, Virginia, and Montana, and the Dakotas. West Virginia isn’t going to look beyond the color of John McCain and Barack Obama’s skin to make up their minds about who they vote for. I know there are many fine people in West Virginia, just as there are everywhere. But I can’t consider it a problem that Obama doesn’t appeal to these voters. Honestly, I’d be more concerned if he did appeal to them.
Still it was a nice tally of all the talking points against Obama, most complete bs, all conveniently packed into a sentence or two.
I’m sure the Republicans will put the same to music come August or September.
But Leonard Simpson’s never “heard” of Jeremiah Wright? What a stupendous stroke of luck for Obama! That one looks like it’s straight out of the Onion. I mean, damn, I’m from Mississippi, and we have to work up a sweat to push out that quality of dumb. And just think, Hillary is about to be crowned their glorious queen. It’s kind of touching — and appropriate — in a way. FULL SPEED ON TO THE WHITE HOUSE!
When I read stories like this, I wonder what information influences these kinds of people have. If my own father is analogous, these people might be deriving their ignorant opinions from their own active imaginations.
Not long ago, the topic of gay marraiges came up in a conversation with my father. He said he was against gay marraige because if you allow that, then the next thing you know there would be laws allowing people to marry animals.
I tried to rationally explore the basis for his opinion. I knew for a fact that his only outside source of information was a moderate-to-liberal daily newspaper and he didn’t watch TV. Otherwise, he lived with my fair-minded sister and only interacted with her fair-minded friends.
When I asked my father why he thought animal marraiges would be a logical progression from gay marraige, he had no answer. When I asked where had he read or heard such an idea, he said from no where. He “just knew.”
This opinion was from the same person who vehemently didn’t like that my wife kept her surname when we married; his reason was that “People in Hollywood don’t change their names when they marry because they know their marraiges won’t last.” That my wife and I soon will be celebrating our 20th wedding anniversary allowed my father to finally divorce himself from his long-ago ignorant bias. But it took a long time.
My father can change his ill-informed opinions–but only when he becomes personally acquainted with facts that refute his beliefs. I don’t see how that can happen for WV folks like those cited in the article. They probably are closely wedded to their imaginations.
I just plain agree with you.
People CHOOSE to stick with their gut impressions of things, else they’d be feeling dishonest with themselves. Entertaining new information or asking the inner self to change an opinion is, to those with an idealistic personality, asking the inner self to negate the idealism inside, and that idealism is by nature blind and adherent to the initial inspiration.
Thus, if “Obama is a Muslim” is the ideal, it would be dishonest to the self to change that view, despite consequences, despite all known facts, despite surrounding opinions of others.
Sounds like Dick Cheney? Maybe. Cheney is not an idealist, he’s a fatalist, willing to sacrifice everything for his ideals.
I think you’re on to something, but I wouldn’t call it “idealism.” Buddhists talk about “attachment” to various things, including “views.” It’s the feeling that your “self” depends on things being a certain way. So there’s a fear underlying these beliefs that people aren’t even conscious of.
McCain’s gonna have such a good time shepherding all these loonies. Course surrounded by loonies McCain looks sane, next to his mother he looks positively childlike, next to Lieberman one could almost call him trustworthy, next to Hagee he’s nearly compassionate, yep it’s a good thing he has a big tent cause he’s stackin ’em high.
Personally, I’d like to see Obama go to West Virginia, hang around Mingo County for a while and go talk with people like Leonard Simpson and Josh Fry. I know he can’t do that with every single voter out there, and I don’t know if it would ultimately get him votes; but it seems like it would be worth a try.
Unfortunately from here on out (excluding the few primaries left) he doesn’t have the luxury of campaigning solely in a state that’s holding an important contest the next week. This is the big time, all the states are voting on November 4th, he only has 177 days until the election and he has to make every single day count.
Makes me wonder if the body politic is so far removed from us, the people, and could all those “tags” be meaningless and thus the angst we see?:
“The Republican Party has been successfully scaring voters since 1968, when Richard Nixon built a Silent Majority out of lower- and middle-class folks frightened or disturbed by hippies and student radicals and blacks rioting in the inner cities. The 2008 race may turn on which party will win the lower- and middle-class whites in industrial and border states–the Democrats’ base from the New Deal to the 1960s, but “Reagan Democrats” in most presidential elections since then.”
I feel it’s not in those pre-designed groups but a conglomerate of THE PEOPLE, all races, income level, a commonality of decency and integrity, etc. And that’s what’s scaring the entrenched. None of the above pseudo feers. WILL NOT WORK THIS TIME! We’re SICK & TIRED of divide & conquer tactics and we now know how that works and who suffers.
An effective answer to this sort of slime is:
“If Obama were a Muslim, McCain would tell us and win the election with no problem. Why doesn’t he do that? Because he can’t! It’s just a big, stupid lie.”
Or words along these lines. Why is this good? Because it’s a clean slap-down, leaving almost no room for argument. Better yet, it should work for almost any crazy, demonizing allegation.
Compare this to “No he’s not, because blah blah blah…” / “Yes he is, because blah blah blah…”
(BTW, this is paraphrased from a comment by JennOfArk at TPM Election Central)
.
By Steve Benen, The Carpetbagger Report
The Los Angeles Times talked to a farmer, who voted for Bush but regrets it, but who appears more than a little reluctant to vote for the presumptive Democratic nominee. “Obama,” the farmer said, “just doesn’t sound right for an American president.” The president of the West Virginia Coon Hunters Assn. told the Times he rejects Obama “because of, you know, who he is.”
I’m also reminded of this New Yorker piece from George Packer a couple of weeks ago, about Obama struggling to win over voters in Kentucky.
After [a John McCain speech in Inez, Kentucky], I left the county courthouse and crossed the main street to talk to a small group of demonstrators holding signs next to McCain’s campaign bus. J. K. Patrick, a retired state employee from a neighboring county, wore a button on his shirt that said “Hillary: Smart Choice.”
“East of Lexington she’ll carry seventy per cent of the primary vote,” he said. Kentucky votes on May 20. “She could win the general election in Kentucky.” I asked about Obama. “Obama couldn’t win.”
Why not? “Race,” Patrick said matter-of-factly. “I’ve talked to people — a woman who was chair of county elections last year, she said she wouldn’t vote for a black man.” Patrick said he wouldn’t vote for Obama either. Why not? “Race. I really don’t want an African-American as President. Race.”
I thought about all of this after reading an item from MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong, who has made clear his strong distaste for Obama, and who argued yesterday that it’s offensive to accuse voters of bigotry. “Racism is ignorance, but unfounded accusations of racism are just as low on the scum-radar,” Armstrong wrote. He suggested that unless Obama’s supporters have proof of electoral racism, they shouldn’t carelessly throw the charges around.
Armstrong’s point is well taken. Unfounded accusations of racism are obviously wrong, and it’s especially awkward in the context of two Democratic primaries. There’s considerable anecdotal evidence that racial animus is driving voters in Kentucky and West Virginia away from Obama, but anecdotes are not data.
My only follow up would be this: what else can explain Obama’s 40-point deficits in West Virginia and Kentucky? The states are lacking in some of Obama’s most reliable constituencies, but so are states like Nebraska, South Dakota, Idaho, Wyoming, and Alaska, but Obama won each of those contests easily. What’s more, looking at county data, some of Obama’s worst performing counties just happen to be throughout Appalachia.
Appalachian Heritage Through Literature: At Home in This World
It’s an amazing feat for JFK to have carried the state of West Virginia, did the Civil Rights movement in the sixties under Johnson change the political landscape? However, Carter (twice) and Dukakis also carried the state.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."In a way such statements by the man interviewed are refreshing in their honesty.
I continue to have a concern about the more covert racism of the northeast and mid-Atlantic. Massachusetts and New Jersey went for Clinton. BooMan discovered the suburbs around Phil. didn’t produce the votes for Obama that he anticipated. Is race a factor?
I think the more educated are also more able to disguise their racism (and sexism) – maybe even from themselves. Really exploring one’s own beliefs can be extremely uncomfortable. Why do it?
I wonder if it’s truly racism in the case of Dems who might be reliable “Kennedy Liberals” more than a choice to believe that Obama is not the norm — a white WASP. People have images of who the President should be, it’s a “common sense” meme that it’s got to be a connected white WASP guy with blue eyes. The change in times allows an exception to their ideal, allowing a blonde blue eyed white WASP woman — an easy leap of faith.
Remember, this is an idealistic nation built on idealism and greed.
“People have images of who the President should be, it’s a “common sense” meme that it’s got to be a connected white WASP guy with blue eyes.”
Isn’t the above indicative of the core of racism – systemic, structural racism? Not screaming with anger or hatred, just, perhaps, an unexplored uncomfortableness with seeing a non-white working for the political prize – is what I mean by covert racism.
Yes, it is racism, but it’s more of a belief system, a drift towards an ideal, not a hatred, which I think is a component of racism. Point being that you ask a Kennedy liberal if they are racist, they will say no, and pretty much mean it. But their image in their head is what steers them, blindly. I don’t think it’s a racist impulse based on hate, just an educational and media-propagated meme.
Kennedy himself wasn’t a WASP.
There is covert racism in the NE, but I don’t think it’s affected Obama’s results as much as you suggest, and the examples you use are not very convinving. Of the four Phila suburban counties, all until recently considered Republican strongholds, Obama in fact won two, Chester and Delaware.
As for MA and NJ, I believe the key factors in Obama’s defeat were (a) the existence of powerful Democratic machines, typically full of Hillary backers and (b) that the primaries came relatively early.
What supports or at least suggests this is a late April poll in NJ showing that “In a state where Clinton, senator from neighboring New York, won the Feb. 5 primary by 10 points, 45% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents now said they wanted to see Obama as the party’s nominee, compared with 38% who picked Clinton.”
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2008/05/a-barack-obama.html
As a born and bred Jersey boy of the ethnic catholic variety I can tell you in no uncertain terms that racism is alive and well in the mid Atlantic.
I remember when racial profiling by cops first became a public issue and there were all these adamant denials about how our finest would never engage in such a thing.
Well I’ve been at many barbeques and picnics with off duty cops and their families. Lets just say I’d never be shocked by anything in Alabama after hearing what’s come out of these cops and their families mouths on the subject of race.
My grandfather was the only member of my family who I never heard speak ill of another race or religion. He’s long dead now, but his influence guides me to this day on many things.
thought about all of this after reading an item from MyDD’s Jerome Armstrong, who has made clear his strong distaste for Obama, and who argued yesterday that it’s offensive to accuse voters of bigotry
Hillary made the claim that many of her supporters are bigots. Alert me when he blames her.
Poor West Virginia, where the quality of their thinking matches the purity of their atmosphere what with Monsanto and Union Carbide and other chemical companies doing their best to make it one of the most polluted states in the union. And, isn’t strip mining one of the most favored techniques of various coal companies? That is also popular in WV.
I went to a national teachers conference once, back in the 1970’s, and the West Virginia delegation (NEA) sat next to the New York group (AFT). I interacted with the WV teachers who seemed like a very caring and compassionate group of individuals. School principals, however, were with these teachers who were not free to vote their consciences lest they get in trouble when they returned to school in the fall. It was the old “man on the hill” philosophy with the educators being watched lest they make trouble for the their bosses (school boards) back home.
What an eye opener for me on the status of education in the state of West Virginia. No wonder the forces of progressive change were so damned up there. I am not surprised that Obama is doing so poorly in that state. My God, he is not only liberal but half black as well. And, for Hillary to boast of her triumph there, as she no doubt will, totally shameless. I think she understands these reactionary forces quite well. Indeed, judging from her recent efforts, she is sympatico with them. No wonder her campaign continues to self destruct.
Want a lawyer? Call any extension in hell.
No, the coal industry’s favorite mining technique is now mountaintop removal. Forget the stripping. . . .
God, how could I forget this? Mt top removal is a far more destructive technique. Well, it was pretty early in the morning. Thanks for the correction.
When healers love what they do, angels sing and dance.
Hillary Clinton was asked about mountaintop-removal mining in an interview on West Virginia public radio… Here it is:
I am concerned about it for all the reasons people state, but I think its a difficult question because of the conflict between the economic and environmental trade-off that you have here.
I’m not an expert. I don’t know enough to have an independent opinion, but I sure would like people who could be objective, understanding both the economic necessities and environmental damage to come up with some approach that would enable us to retrieve the coal but would enable us to do it in a way that wouldn’t damage the living standards and the other important qualities associated with people living both under the mountaintop and people who are along the streams.
You know, maybe there is a way to recover those mountaintops once they have been stripped of the coal. You know, I think we’ve got to look at this from a practical perspective.
Yeah, that’s the ticket. Put the tops back on the mountains after we’re done with ’em!
that’s not elitism, it’s just common sense, Booman.
Got some good news for you, though. Saturday, the Democrats in the Nevada State Senate unanimously elected a 35 year old African American, liberal, Obama supporter from Las Vegas, Steven Horsford, as their new leader after Dina Titus had to give up that post to run for Congress against Jon Porter in CD-3.
Non Sequitur is on-point today…
This nation is but the sum of its parts. The South is needed for a vast number of economic reasons. Their agriculture, access to the Gulf of Mexico and much of the Atlantic Ocean and their control of much of the Mississippi River are of vital importance to the nation as a whole. However, for numerous other reasons they should be a separate nation. The uneducated, bigots, anti-intellectuals and backward thinking Evangelicals are everywhere but The South likely contains the lion’s share. It’s truly unfortunate they’re part of the United States. In June of 1964 Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner and James Chaney were brutally murdered and buried in 15 feet of dirt and mud for believing The South needed to change. Much of The South earnestly longs for a return to June, 1964. Cut them loose. Let them drown in their collective sins and shortcomings. It’s truly a repulsive corner of the world.
. . . the South are different from the West Virginia man’s in terms of a feeling of disdain and revulsion that seem to overwhelm any higher faculties.
But then, I guess you were just ranting.
The South is a part of America. We’re all in this boat. It is sinking. Either we learn to create a post-partisan world or we will drown together. Throwing a few overboard doesn’t fix the leak.
….on this to you Steve and, like peakdavid, attribute the tone of your post to a minor rant.
As one born in Virginia, and with a wide swath of family having lived throughout Appalachia over the last 200 years, I don’t think an adoption of your view of the South by Democrats would be very constructive. While there is a lot of sordid racist history in the South, and much of that attitude which fostered and sustained it is still present, there has been a significant positive change of many racial attitudes there over the last couple of generations. I have seen it within my own family who still live in the Appalachian region. To just flippantly dismiss all of the South as repulsive and unworthy of Democratic and progressives efforts to support and help enable a continuation of positive change is, frankly, a little offensive to me.
Point well taken, but I don’t think Booman is implying otherwise. But you’ve got to admit that this kind of thinking still exists in sufficient abundance in places like WV to make it ideal Hillary country. And it’s not easy for people like Booman and most of the readers of this blog to comprehend why people who do think (or rather, imagine) like that, should have more say as to who is the right person to lead this ountry, than people who actually think. After all, that IS Hillary’s pitch to the superdelegates. Fortunately, I don’t think they are paying any attention.
Sometime recently when I wasn’t paying attention, West Virginia passed Pennsylvania as the state with the second-highest percentage of seniors—even though Pennsylvania dedicates lottery proceeds to benefits for seniors, which is attractive to seniors, especially senior seniors—so I’ll attribute a lot of what we’re hearing from West Virginia now as relics of a bygone era.
Google had an interesting map (http://tinyurl.com/6x3bc8) of population growth and decrease in Pennsylvania. The counties with increasing population (the Maryland and New Jersey border areas, plus the Penn State area) generally went for Obama, and those with decreasing population (the western half, the north, the parts toward New York, Ohio, and West Virginia) went for Clinton. Her votes were votes from the past here, too, I think.
And I, for one, am myself a product of the positive change that has occurred. And some of us (though not all, to be sure) are trying. Things move at a slower pace in many parts of the South, still. But change is happening. I’m proof of it. Thanks for your words — and peakdavid’s — they’re appreciated.
I don’t think these white bigots are ignorant of the facts. I think the irrational, reptilian part of their brain overwhelms facts and their ability to alter their long-term memory based on the input of facts.
One of the goals of degrading social services, especially education, is to prevent folks like these from ever having a working intellect that would allow such connections and thought that is independent of the easily fooled reptile that lives in all of us, especially in exploited states like WV.
peakdavid, it is possible to overcome various mental and physical disadvantages and eventually succeed despite forces arrayed against you. However, despite having access to basically the same pool of resources as everyone else in the nation The South refuses to advance. As a geographic area they lead in several negative indicators for both health and intellectual life. Obesity, continued heavy consumption of cigarettes and alcohol, high birth rates among teens, high school dopout rates, domestic violence and countless other negative quality of life factors are all dominated by southern states. This despite the populace having access to the same messaging, the same cues from society at large to avoid such behaviors. Everyone across the nation is told repeatedly of the dangers of eating, drinking and smoking too much. Yet The South seemingly makes a special point of disregarding the advice. The same goes for staying in school and avoiding out-of-wedlock or early pregnancy. It is not reactionary or prejudicial to assert these are people to be avoided. Would you deliberately choose to live in a neighborhood that was a microcosm of The South? You’d buy a house in an area known for its population of overweight, drunkard, chain smoking high school dropouts? I think not. And don’t roll your eyes. Go to the studies. It’s all there in black and white. The demographic tendencies are all exactly as I describe them. Again, it’s a very squalid cesspool of humanity.
Funny, you can go to any bigoted right wing nut job website and those are the same arguments lot of people use to debase and minimize African Americans. Your attitude is cut from the same cloth. If you are going to base the crux of your argument solely on selected facts from statistical studies and the criteria you have outlined, then we should also chuck all of them into the crapper as viable and useful human beings, too. Cause hey, “it’s all there in black and white”.
In The Globe, one of the rags sold in the grocery store by the cashiers, I saw where Obama was connected with a gay murder for hire or something. I note this because after Super Tuesday another rag, The News Of The World or something (the one that has headlines of Biblical prophecies and aliens visiting the White House back during the Clinton years) said that Obama was snorting cocaine in the back of a limousine with his gay boy lover.
Did his gay boy lover get killed or did Obama dispatch his gay boy lover to kill someone?
By the way, The National Enquirer was created by Generoso Pope, a former CIA intelligence officer. Did you folks know that?
Propaganda works on many levels, from smart to stoopid.
They are never “former CIA agents.” Once in the game, always in the game.
Sorry, that story is passe and has now been replaced by the “Michelle wants a divorce” story. I think it’s the same as the “Laura wants a divorce story” with a few minor changes, like substituting Barack for George.
Life tends more and more to resemble the National Enquirer, not because the Enquirer is getting more sensible, but because life is getting more bizarre.
Let it go, those folks and those places are unreachable at this point. The one thing that could enlighten them is to have Obama as President for 8 years.
Here’s another thought. While these people might be voting for Hillary in the primary… If she won, I’m betting they’d suddenly discover themselves unable to vote for a woman for President. Neither Obama nor Hillary has an advantage there in the general. The Democrats’ only option is to build a winning coalition without these people.
Will Bunch: There are some votes not worth getting
For young people in some parts of rural Georgia, racially segregated proms have been a way of life for decades, ever since many school districts were integrated in the 1960s. Many Southern schools stopped sponsoring proms altogether when schools were desegregated. Some speculated it was because officials were alarmed at the prospect of white and black students mingling romantically. In response to protests by black leaders and enlightened parents, there have been attempts in some Southern communities to hold integrated proms, with varying degrees of success. But the “all-white” prom has been a hard concept to kill.
Just over the weekend, two high schools in rural Georgia held segregated proms. At Johnson County High School in Wrightsville, whites attended one prom while blacks attended another. At Taylor County High School in Butler, students attended an “all-white” prom paid for by parents; an integrated prom for blacks and whites was also held. The all-white prom at Taylor County High was considered an unfortunate relapse to previous bad behavior. Just last year, Taylor County High made news by announcing it was doing away with its whites-only prom in favor of an integrated prom for everyone. When white students decided to return to Jim Crow days, many inquiring minds wanted to know: What happened to all that good feeling? Apparently, it was just a bunch of hot air. And at Johnson County High School, one student who helped organize the whites-only prom said most students didn’t see the need to change a long-standing tradition, according to The Associated Press.
“It’s always been like that,” said Carla Rachels, 17. “We don’t see it as a big deal.”
From the May 15, 2003 editions of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Admittedly 5 years ago. The operative phrase to take away from all this is “We don’t see it as a big deal.” Like the pernicious gene for breast cancer, these behaviors and attitudes are passed from generation to generation. Substance abuse, family violence, anti-intellectualism, bigotry and hate are bred into The South. The forces of nature struck down the little girl in “The Bad Seed” once it became clear her irredeemable character was beyond hope and reformation. Hoping for lightning to strike several millions in like fashion is a bit much to expect. They say God does work miracles though……..
uh, I’m confused by your use of West Virginia as an excuse to bash the south. We northerners don’t really think of West Virginia as the South.
“South” is a malleable concept. Indiana is jokingly referred to as “Northern Kentucky” by many Hoosiers. Similarly West Virginia after all has “Virginia” within its name. Your comment presumes “We northerners” is a consensus descriptive. Count many of us out on that.
Also, an excuse to bash the South is no more needed than a reason to smile whilst watching penguins. The behavior of each serves as self evident cause for an observer’s reaction.
Outside of the strictly Appalachian districts of Virginia, Tennessee, and North Carolina, and parts of the Scots-Irish diaspora in northern Alabama, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, the South has proven itself quite willing to embrace Obama. Racial resistance to his campaign has proven to be quite limited geographically.
I do expect some level of statistical preference among whites for a white candidate, just as I expect even more statistical preference among blacks for a black candidate. What I don’t like to see is a statistical refusal for people to cross those racial lines.
The Clintons purposively alienated the black community, and there has never been a truly viable black candidate before…so that explains the 90-10% preference for Obama. But for West Virginians to vote 75-25 against the presumptive nominee at this late stage in the game smacks of strong racial resistance.
Say what you want, but it is of a different nature than what we’ve seen in rural Missouri and Indiana. There, Clinton was strongly but not overwhelmingly preferred, and she still was a viable candidate (or perceived as such, in the case of Indiana).
If you checked the electoral map of Indiana counties on primary night you’d have observed Hillary carried the preponderance of lightly populated, white, rural districts. Northwest Indiana, Marion county (Indianapolis), the Ft. Wayne area and a few other isolated, high population/semi-urban districts swung to Obama. He did manage to nearly tie in total votes. Nevertheless I posit it’s safe to conjecture counties in Indiana demographically similar to those found in many southern states voted for Hillary for the same racial animus, ignorance and fear that spawned the KKK. This is likely a voting pattern that will be followed in many places. Hillary is unfortunately correct in her analysis of Obama’s support. This election is going to pit blacks, the educated, the urban dwellers and various other at least marginally enlightened and progressive people against the uneducated, the bigots and the entire remaining cast of backward yokels that darken the landscape.
Indiana and Ohio (even southern Illinois) have diaspora as well (Adlai Stevenson). All the more to my point that it isn’t a strictly southern phenomenon, as you make it out to be.
But with a few exceptions, the rural counties outside of greater Appalachia have merely preferred Clinton, not overwhelming rejected Obama. And once you cross the Mississippi (at least in the North) the situation is reversed.
Umm, check the history of the KKK in Indiana. And check the history of the auto industry, which was originally sited in Indiana, which didn’t want the blacks, the foreigners, and other scary people a booming industry would attract.
I can’t wait for those people to go the way of the mastadon. Why should we be beholden to these narrow-minded and willfully ignorant twits? They aren’t even a reliable bloc of Democratic voters. If that’s the party the Clinton’s want, then let them have these people. They can all sit around and talk about how uppity I am. Meanwhile, the rest of us have work to do, so let’s push forward.
these are the same morons when in the OR or on the list for blood transfusion, a kidney or liver transplant, don’t mind the origin of the DNA.
they won’t refuse the gift of life.
Newsflash: We’re all out of Africa.
“I know there are many fine people in West Virginia, just as there are everywhere.”
And there are many idiots in West Virginia, just as there are everywhere. But for some reason, there seems to be just a little greater percentage of idiots in West Virginia, Kentucky, and a number of the other states where Hillary has done or expects to do better.
Of course, as you say, maybe we elitists (I know, I should have said, “us elitists”) just don’t understand the simple folk wisdom of these real Americans. For example, on the question of how Mr. Obama could be a Muslim when he has been a member of a Christian Church for the last 20 years. Well, first of all, his middle name is Hussein. Second of all, his minister supports Farrakhan, who’s a Muslim. So what is this? The whole “Christian” thing is obviously a front.
I’m susprised they haven’t figured out yet that Obama is also a Jew. After all, his first name is “Barack,” which is the same as the last name of Ehud Barack, the minister of defense of Israel.
This blog has a perfectly ripe title. But the comments reinforce the underlying truth in the pun. Many posters make a generalized comment that if only these people would pick up on the social cues of the society at large and if they would just progress they would be voting for obama… To me these posts reinforce an internal prejudice of the poster that 1. progress is obama 2. he is the choice of an enlightened individual and 3. if you are not on board you are not enlightened. In the broad spectrum of opinion this illogical and determinist assumption is a reason I do not generally buy the “progressive” movement, and why this blog’s title made me laugh a second time.