Let me throw my hat in here with Ginger regarding all this "Fsck the South" stuff. It's insulting, and I refuse to loathe myself because of where I live. I'm doing what I can to help turn my little corner of the world blue (actually, my immediate vicinity is already a deep and robust shade of blue, thankyouverymuch), and I'd appreciate it if y'all would not make it any harder than it has to be. OK? Thanks.
Similar expressions of what I'm talking about also come from one of Josh's readers and from Texas Law Chick. Nota bene:
And there are thousands like me here in the "red America." There are only four states in the US (California, New York, Illinois and Pennsylvania) that had more votes for John Kerry than Texas. 2,825,000 people here voted for Kerry. That is not an insignificant number of votes, and there are millions more in the other red states.
Ginger gets it right. As if the eliminationist rhetoric by the victors... and there's plenty of it out there... weren't scary enough, now we have to take it from our alleged friends as well.
Has anyone else thought of the possibility that the "F**k the South" page was put up by Karl Rove or someone like him, with the intent of sowing dissention in our ranks? After all, it's never too early to start the next campaign.
If not... if it was posted by a purported friend... then we need some new friends.
Posted by: Steve Bates on November 11, 2004 8:36 AMAnybody who's saying that needs to take a closer look at the purple maps. I was really fascinated to see that much of the South is much bluer than I thought it was, and some of the reddest counties are in surprising places.
I think one of the most important things in the next four years will be the blue people in the redder states working to change people's perception of the issues... I hope so anyway, since that's what I plan to be doing once I get back.
Posted by: Alexis on November 11, 2004 11:33 AMI understand that there's a nascent meme going around the wackier of our friends en droit that what's poisoned the political discourse is a national metastasis of the Bush-hatred of Austin liberals.
I'd say you've arrived.
Posted by: julia on November 11, 2004 5:05 PM The red state-blue state idea is, as you all point out above, rather mythical anyway. Only a few states are deeply one or the other. Even here in California there is plenty of redness just a few miles inland from the Pacific, and it seems to be growing as the Central Valley fills in.
And let's recall this: a few years ago, Big Blue CA was regarded as a red state. It flipped due to the heinous racism of Pete Wilson's appeal to white voters, which stimulated the Latino population as never before. And wasn't texas once the natural anvironment of the yellow-dog Democrat?
What we need is a set of a FEW clear easily articulated principles that can command the assent of a large number of Americans who are only Republicans by default.
Anybody out there know what they might be?