Why Can’t Bubba Vote Democrat? (WARNING - get a grip and hold on tight...)

Opednews.com ^ | 1/07/04 | Allen Snyder

[BlueNgold]

My Letter: (I can't wait for a response)

I'm certain you have received bandwidth challenging amounts of email about your recent article, but I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents anyway.

First of all I find your tone at odds with your assertion that you are a 'professional critical thinker'. Your analysis is, in my less than humble opinion, neither critical nor professional. It appears on the face to be simply a rant against those with whom you disagree politically.

How do u plan to convert the masses or educate people when you personally insult those whom you seek to reach by opining that 'all stupid people are conservatives' within your first 2 paragraphs? This is a serious question, and I look forward to your response.

As a veteran I take issue with your comments regarding armed conflict. You seem to imply that there are no just wars. If I am wrong, or if I have overgeneralized your position please correct me.

Having lived for 6 years in the Deep South (Pensacola, FL and Birmingham, AL) as a transplant from CA I expected many of the stereotypes about white southerners to be true. I found was wrong. I experienced more harmony while working in Birmingham, Atlanta, Savannah, Pensacola, and Tampa than I was used to in the 'liberal and enlightened' streets of Northern California.

What I found drove working class blue-collar types to the Republican Party was not racism, or social policy, but rather tax policy (lower taxes, of course), decentralization of federal programs, and a commitment to strong defense. Joe Lieberman (whom the utterly fictitious Bubba in your article might decry as a Yankee Jew) is well respected for his defense policy throughout the South, and throughout the country.

Does racism exist? Certainly, to deny that there are racists in our world would be to deny fact. Is racism a central recruiting point for the Republican Party? Absolutely not. Is racism a uniting factor among Southern Republicans? Absolutely not, quite the opposite is in fact true. To make such a generalization is to slander a whole class of hard working people who truly desire their country to continue to be the beacon of freedom that it has been for more than 200 years. To define such folks as 'stupid' because you disagree with them politically reeks of academic elitism and unwarranted self aggrandizement. The Republicans I know in the South, and the Republican Party I claim as my own is the party of Lincoln and Grant and Eisenhower and Reagan. The party I eschewed despite my west coast democrat upbringing is the party of Al Gore Sr., George Wallace, and J. William Fulbright, each one a staunch racist and segregationist.

And, finally, I can't stop myself from taking a cheap shot of my own: (I'll acknowledge it as such well in advance instead of veiling it as a deeply considered critical analysis.)
Perhaps if you'd been good enough to get your Masters from an institution such as, say, Harvard, instead of one from the vaunted and internationally recognized school of Philosophy at UT you might be teaching somewhere besides a Community College...
Someone of your obvious intellect, so clearly superior as a 'critical thinker', someone so far from the 'stupid' masses of the Deep South ought to be recognized as such and be able to work at an elite college of philosophy - UCB? UMass? Harvard? Yale? I honestly have to wonder why you are still stuck at a CC in the heart of Dixie...
(As for me... blue collar middle class kid without money or political connections who was recruited by Yale but turned it down to attend one of those facist Academies ... you know, the ones only 'stupid' people can get in to ... )

Have a great day. It's been fun.

[mlmr]

Here is the email of the college alumini association:
pwilson@pstcc.edu

And the local newspaper editor in Knoxville:
letters@knews.com

[Libloather]

Conservatives are stupid. This is obvious because they are conservative.
That is how the rich get richer under Dems and the poor get poorer.

Emailing the author of this turd is truly impressive. I'm sure he NEVER expected it! My question - if conservatives are so damn stoopid, and RATS can't really GET any smarter than they are, why is it that the BRILLIANT, open-minded folks constantly complain that the IDIOTS have way too much money?

[XRdsRev]

Yeah well buddy, I've got experience in the south too....Big Shanty Ga....thats Kennesaw to you. Spending days as a boy hanging out at Mr. "Rebel" Dent Myers shop in town. My uncle was born and raised in Georgia and grew up on a farm along Peach Tree Creek that is now under concrete.

There have always been problems in the south too. You might pretend that it was a utopia till the Yankees came but that is a myth. 80 years ago there was very little crime in most of the North too, both areas were better then, worse now.

As for gangs....the south spawned the original violent gang...the KKK.

I am not saying that the northeast is better or worse than other parts of the country. Every place has benefits and disadvantages. I was only pointing out the FACT that the northeast is not the crime ridden hellhole that ignorant people think it is. Someone saying that the north is all crime and all liberals, is as foolish as saying the south is all overalls and all incest.