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The Clinton Legacy, West Virginia and Racism (quite the shock there!) |
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Well folks, it’s been about two or three months since I’ve really written anything so I’ll try to be as brief as possible…for I know how distracted y’all get some long rants, so a few quick user friendly thoughts:
Does anyone else think that both Bill and Hillary Clinton have destroyed everything we liked about them during the 90s? They really will do anything to win and they never accept defeat. It’s sad to watch them…it’s like watching American Idol auditions: Sometimes you laugh but most of the time you just feel bad for them then you hate yourself for actually watching it…but hot damn that Simon Cowell is quite the witty Brit. I’m developing a drinking game around American Idol, and it mostly involves guessing what sedative Paula Abdul is currently taking.
Speaking of the Clintons, is anyone else as sick of Terry McCauliffe as I am? He never campaigned as hard for John Kerry in 2004 when he was the freaking Democratic Party Chairman…it makes you wonder about all those Clinton “rule the world†conspiracy theories…someone call Mel Gibson, it’s time to make a movie!
Was anyone else NOT shocked with the startling revelation that voters in West Virginia are *gasp* racist? I mean, why is the Clinton camp so happy with the fact that their voters are racist idiots? Also, if any Democrat thinks they’re actually going to win West Virginia in November then give me some of what they’re smoking. Obama was smart to skip it, just a waste of time.
So, I know you’re all wondering what ole Jake has been up to in his absence right? Well, not a whole lot. I pretty much avoided talking about politics as much as possible…especially after Obama lost Ohio and Texas…that was the last straw. Bartenders remember that night, how bad is that? Other than that, my band just finished recording a new album and it’s being mixed as I type, so that’s cool. My mom visited Seattle and, at the age of 55, finally started her first bar tab…and had I not paid it for her she would’ve walked out on her first bar tab and been 86’d from her first bar. After a 6 month boycott I finally got my hair cut…I was starting to look like a West Virginia voter, but hot damn did my mullet blow in the wind!
That’s all I have for now, but I plan on writing more frequently now that things are finally not boring in the world of Politics…I’m sure McCain will say something that pisses me off in no time. So be prepared for a VP candidate breakdown for both parties, tales from the bars of Seattle, and other tidbits I feel like sharing with the interweb (it’s a series of tubes!)
nice to see you back on the tubes. looking forward to the CP breakdown.
Hola:
Soy Paula, una ex alumna tuya de Samm Marsalli Institute.
No creo que me recuerdes pero yo s?. Me alegre inmensamente cuando vi tu foto, I DONT BELIEVE.
Espero estes bien, espero estar en Agosto en New York como Aupair
hola paula,
lance aqui, si yo te recuerdo. por supuesto te recuerdo. vivo y trabajo en new york y estare aca en agosto. cuando vienes? ahora te mando un email. me alegro en leer tu mensaje. que placer.
I YOU REMEMBER, I AM OF CHILE, I WAS YOU STUDENT IN SAM MARSALLI. DO YOU REMEMBER ME. IWILL GO TO USA IN AGOST AS AUPAIR. BY PAULA
I AM PAULA, I WAS STUDEN YOU IN SAM MARSALLI INSTITUTE, WRITE ME PLEASE, I SEE YOU PHOTO IN INTERNET (PAULA_MUZE@YAHOO.ES)
] regular complaint about USAid-funded contractors is that too much of the money that could be spent building a school or training teachers in the target country is instead spent on salaries of well-qualified experts and on overheads such as their offices in the US or Europe.For instance, schools being built in Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata) have to be earthquake-proof as per US standards.
“That is more expensive. It needs an expertise that will probably bring with it some overhead,” said Mr Ward.
The counter argument given by many is that there are standard designs for such schools and those can be implemented locally.
OOOOO! Me!!!
HRC reminds me of a slug in its death throes. Here in Oregon, we have a lot of slugs. They are snail-looking creatures without shells. Sometimes people dump salt on them to kill them because they eat our tender seedlings at the beginning of our growing season and ruin our strawberries by taking bites out of them.
Once the slug has salt poured on it, the slug begins profusive sliming as it begins to shrivel. The voters and superdelegates are pouring salt on Hillary, and as slugs do, she is sliming and shriveling. Do you see any difference between the two?
Somehow I doubt they are happy about that.
jake…your one funny m.fkr..i been to w.virgina..the mullet thing had me rolling..theres good people there but the ignort rule..pentacoastal..need i say more..
There was nothing to like about them in the 90’s.
Bill Clinton got into the White House because Gary Hart was stupid, and self-destructed. Clinton was stupid in precisely the same way, although his bimbo was a lot uglier than Donna Rice.
The supposed prosperity the country enjoyed during the Clinton administration turned out to be a bubble fueled by inflation by the fed, and we’re paying for it now.
Don’t be misled. The media enjoys tracking down a particular stereotype in Appalachia and reinforcing it. The (sad) fact is, other parts of the country often point to other regions like Appalachia to avoid facing their own problems of bigotry.
While WV and KY had 1 in 5 voters indicate race was a major part of their vote, that is basically the same ratio as California (17% of voters there said race was an important factor), Ohio (20%) and Pennsylvania (19%). And even theoretically liberal and progressive states like Connecticut (15%) and Vermont (13%) reported a concerning number of their voters indicating this bias. Let’s be careful not to fall into the same stereotypical traps against Appalachia as the racists themselves fall into.
Why did Clinton blow out Obama in WV? Pulling out the race-tinted voters (as defined by their exit poll reports compared to other states), even those who did not care as much about race gave Clinton a huge victory in WV. Why? Clinton showed up. She campaigned all over the state several times. Obama came once when it mattered, then once at the last minute. That’s it. Most people here feel he could pull off a JFK-like victory (JFK used WV in the 60’s as proof a Catholic could win the presidency) if he invested the time.
My hope is that Obama’s historic campaign will spark a new wave of soul-searching across the country. We’ve become very complacent since the civil rights gains of the 60’s. In West Virginia, several groups are working hard on addressing these issues, including Create WV (www.createwv.com) and Vision Shared’s (www.visionshared.com) Strength in Diversity team.
Let’s use this to jump back into the game and begin addressing these issues all over the country vs. assuming it’s only an Appalachian or rural problem. For everyone who wants to point an accusing finger at Appalachia, I would advise to look in their own backyard and get busy fixing their own problem as we are trying to do in WV.
I agree with JeffJam - I saw no media coverage of the race-based views of voters in other states, and the numbers stack up to a ratio very close to the 1-in-5 in WV. Of course, if Jake called Californians racist idiots, he’d have to deal with the Terminator. It is still highly acceptable to be bigoted against those in Appalachia, and to position oneself as so much more enlightened, educated, and well…advanced, right? In fact, so enlightened that they cannot even see the irony in becoming what they so disdain.
Jake - You make some interesting points and I always love a good Paula Abdul reference. I’d urge you to be a little more selective about picking out states and referring to them as racist. I’m not saying that as pc highway patrol, just because it’s an easy route to take and not that accurate…or any more accurate than calling the states jeffjam lists above racist. West Virginia is the whitest state in the nation and we have our share of racists. Those are two areas many of our residents are working to change.
I’ve lived and visited a lot of places and view the same and similar problems in each of those other states / countries. We all have a lot of work to do as a nation and global community. It’s a lot easier to label and write an area off than to change attitudes. Pointing out one place as more racist or ignorant just works to push peoples further apart.
I thought this person had a pretty good take on the matter: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/5/12/114237/630/544/513035
Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
Wow. The smug, presumptuous Mr. Marcum shows himself to be as much a bigot as any of the poor guileless folks the smug and presumpuous media turned up to interview in West Virginia. His headline tars all West Virginians with one big, cheap, easy brushstroke. Want to see a bigot? Look in the mirror–unless you embrace ALL humanity as your beloved brother or sister, and would do unto him or her the very best you would do for yourself. Sadly, most people are only kind and good to people they hope to impress or use in some way. How many people do you know who truly love unconditionally? They are few and far between.
Here’s one definition for bigot:
noun: a prejudiced person who is intolerant of any opinions differing from his own.
I submit that Mr. Marcum is not only prejudiced against West Virginians, he contributes to increasing prejudice among his readers. I know West Virginia very well, and for the most part, find them to be honest, forthright, and generous people. Black, Jewish and Lebanese West Virginians of my acquaintance are lamenting the drubbing their state is getting, but it’s nothing new. The media usually goes to WV with their minds made up, their stories already written and they’re just looking for somebody to confirm what they think they know. Mr. Marcum’s self-promoting credentials listed on this blogsite make no mention of direct experience or knowledge of West Virginia.
Sorry if y’all didn’t get my sarcasm with the West Virginia “everyone is racist” bit. I was more poking fun at the media coverage of the primary…and I was simply saying something they weren’t saying, which was they thought everyone was being racist. I could really care less. But Yes, I do think West Virginia is racist…who cares…I’m an Ohio farm boy born and raised and I think Ohio is racist. I think the majority of PA is racist too (that area between Philly and Pittsburgh), most of Michigan (not detroit, which is racist too), everywhere but Chicago in Illinois (though there are a few in Chicago who check their back for reasons that are race related). It can go on and on. I find Seattle, where I currently live, to be a rather racist city. It’s a fact of life, and it’s really really sad. My point with West VA, a point that was overlooked I guess or I didn’t spell it out clearly enough, was that the Clinton’s were touting victory in a state that they wouldn’t win anyway come Novemeber, and based on everything I know from working in politics was mostly a vote against the opposition. Therefore, in my opinion, they were happy with racist people voting for them. As for West Virginians…I’ve met some great folks and been there a lot in my life. But, West Virginia is like anywhere else. Sorry if I read to far into a large percentage of voters stating race as their deciding factor in whom they vote for and that person happens to be white.
My commentary is more a response to what a campaign does or what the media decides they’re going to talk about. There’s a heavy amount of sarcasm. Essentially, in every state in America (and I mean every single state), once you get outside large cities you tend to encounter racism and bigotry a lot more. Granted, people in cities which tend to be more liberal (most US cities actually) like to pretend they aren’t racist…but deep down they are. Americans are geared towards fear mostly because of media stereotypes. I’d love to see these stereotypes eradicated and get to a point where we can view each other as equals. That’s how I treat people in my personal life and always have because we’re really all one paycheck (in the long run) from being homeless, but I’m not going to hold my breath for America to drastically change a preconditioned nightmare in my lifetime…peace doesn’t sell, fear does.
It sucks, but it’s true. People log Washington state (where I live) into the Liberal column, but once you get outside Seattle and past the mountains towards Montana you have 3 hours of just desert nothingness. Those towns are just like the small towns anywhere else. Media labeling occurs all over the place. Once again, do I think West Virginia is 100% racist? No…do I think a lot of people who live there are racist? sure…because I think America is racist, and to think that America isn’t a racist nation is, well, just wrong.
and it sucks.
thanks for reading and thanks for your comments!!
I am a current resident of WV. I will say that many of the people of this state are racist. Junior high students openly recruit for the KKK and tell young african american girls that they will be shot if they wear Obama t-shirts. The school system does nothing. I do not live in the toothless southern part of the state, as it is so called outside of the state, rather I live not far from WVU in a town called Fairmont. African American children fear for their lives and some parents have opted to possibly homeschool their children than put them through this torture. You can have your opinion on types of people because we do live in American, but you can not tolerate this behavior, we need outside help to stop it.
I live in the southern part of the state thank you, and i have all my teeth. Plus wanna hear this one a college education. MY childrens school all rooted for Obama. I did not BUT because I did not was called racist. It had nothing to do with the color of his skin. I could care less. It had everything to do with a woman getting the job done that men have messed up for hundreds of years. What gets me is everyone cries racism against white people but black people, asian people are just as racist.