This article NAILS it!

[Pastor Gary]

Democrats must learn some respect
By Clive Crook

This piece, IMHO, nails it. Wish I had expressed these thoughts as well.

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A few quotes...

"Democrats regard their policies as self-evidently in the interests of the US working and middle classes. Yet those wide segments of US society keep helping to elect Republican presidents. How is one to account for this? Are those people idiots? Frankly, yes – or so many liberals are driven to conclude. Either that or bigots, clinging to guns, God and white supremacy; or else pathetic dupes, ever at the disposal of Republican strategists. If they only had the brains to vote in their interests, Democrats think, the party would never be out of power. But again and again, the Republicans tell their lies, and those stupid d***ed voters buy it.

It is an attitude that a good part of the US media share. The country has conservative media (Fox News, talk radio) as well as liberal media (most of the rest). Curiously, whereas the conservative media know they are conservative, much of the liberal media believe themselves to be neutral."

"Their constant support for Democratic views has nothing to do with bias, in their minds, but reflects the fact that Democrats just happen to be right about everything."

"The Palin nomination could still misfire for Mr McCain, but the liberal reaction has made it a huge success so far. To avoid endlessly repeating this mistake, Democrats need to learn some respect.

It will be hard. They will have to develop some regard for the values that the middle of the country expresses when it votes Republican. Religion. Unembarrassed flag-waving patriotism. Freedom to succeed or fail through one’s own efforts. Refusal to be pitied, bossed around or talked down to. And all those other laughable redneck notions that made the United States what it is."

[dolfan]

I got a first-hand education in that this weekend. I met about a half-dozen people who spend their lives in the SF Bay area or the surrounding cities/towns. They acted so rudely. Every word that we spoke to them, efforts to be friendly, personable and genuinely interested in them was laughed, mocked, dismissed or ignored. After about 4-5 hours of it, we turned on 'em. Each one of us had had enough of it.

Examples:

[Me to the photographer who took a picture of my niece and her finace running in the sands along the shore with the Golden Gate in the background] "Oh, man, that picture is beautiful."

[Him to me] "Uhhh, yeah. That's the Golden Gate Bridge."

I smiled and said, "Yes, I know."

[Lady who has taken the name 'Shadow', not her real name, friend of my niece, talking about having been to Alabama and was broke and how awful it was to be broke in Alabama, I said --]
"Well, it's pretty tough to be broke just about anywhere isn't it?"

[Her] "But, in California, at least we could rent a singing gorilla."

[Me] "Well, you got me there. We don't have any of those runnin' around in Alabama."


My niece's father -- to whom I am not related (my sister's ex) -- was there with his girlfriend. We were at the rehearsal dinner on Friday night in this little German restaurant. She got so sick of it she said loudly across the table to my wife, "Did you see Sarah Palin on O'Reilly?" The end of the table nearest us went apoplectic. It was great. They got up and left for a bit. When they got back, we started telling stories about my former neighbor and town legend, Carl, of whom it is my theory (joking here) that the movie Sling Blade was written about (Lucas Black lives in Lawrence Co., Alabama and everybody knows Carl). They were horrified, especially about Carl being attacked by a dog and having to shoot it (yes, he owns .... gasp ..... guns); the one where he threw a flame on a trash pile and exploded a spray can that hit him so hard he says he saw Jesus (you just have to hear him tell it); the one where he exploded a burn pile in his own yard so hard our house shook, I ran across the pasture thinking he had blown up his house only to discover that it was a bonfire as big as his house about 5 feet away from his back porch and next to an above-ground propane tank; etc.

These people really, honestly think they are smarter than the rest of us and that we are all just a bunch of idiots who have no brains. They act as if they are enlightened, and they actually truly believe they are. It is horrible.

[DaJudge]

Yeah, dolfan, never mind that you have a college degree and a Juris Doctor. You are from the South. You are stupid. They might have barely graduated from Oakland High School, but they are from, (GASP), CALIFORNIA, so they are, of course, smarter than you!

I run into that garbage all the time. Never mind having a graduate degree, I have a twang to my accent, so I must be stupid.

Well, to quote "Alabama": "I'll speak my Southern English, as natural as I please, I'm in the heart of Dixie, Dixie's in the heart of me".

So eat it Yankees.

[soulsearcher]

Well, to quote "Alabama": "I'll speak my Southern English, as natural as I please, I'm in the heart of Dixie, Dixie's in the heart of me".

So eat it Yankees.

Whoop! Whoop!

Bless their little cosmopolitian hearts.

[mavislb]

Hey, don't classify all of us "yankees" in that catagory. Some of us are VERY conservative.

[DaJudge]

Hey, don't classify all of us "yankees" in that catagory. Some of us are VERY conservative.

I kind of veered off of PG's original post more to dolfan's post about general rudeness in my rant, mavis. I didn't mean to call into question your conservatism.

[mavislb]

I know you weren't. And most of us midwestern Yankees are also very polite. I think the rudeness comes from the coasts.

[dolfan]

I know you weren't. And most of us midwestern Yankees are also very polite. I think the rudeness comes from the coasts.

I've never ran into someone I thought was culturally rude who is from Ohio or Illinois or even Pennsylvania for that matter. I don't know many Indiana folks, but the ones I've met are likable. Ohio is a state that impresses me beyond any outside of the south as far as the personalities of people are concerned. I could probably find all kinds of friends in Ohio just because they're mostly nice people from what I can tell. I don't think that'd be true about the Cali coast.

[DaJudge]

I know you weren't. And most of us midwestern Yankees are also very polite. I think the rudeness comes from the coasts.

I think that's mostly right.

[Paully_44]

I think the rudeness comes from the coasts.

As in both coasts, East and West??

[dolfan]

Speaking for myself, I think big cities on the coasts probably have disproportionate numbers of rude people, yes. You don't travel into another person's part of the country and tell them how wrong they are for living the way they do. I would no more go to Los Angeles or New York or SF or Boston and meet with people who are friends of friends or relatives and sit at the dinner table with them and mock their lifestyles and culture than I would purposely run over a kitten. It is just wrong. Now, I'll go back to my room or car and hoop it up with my wife about how crazy, weird, strange, whatever they are, but I'm going to be polite enough about it to smile and nod and say nice things or nothing to their faces. It just isn't polite to do otherwise. When a Californian finds herself in the middle of a SEC state and wants to poor-mouth it, I don't care if it isn't my state either, I'm not going to be as patient with such foolishness as I would be if the locations were reversed.

I'll quote Lewis Grizzard: If you don't like it here, Delta's ready when you are.

[DeWayneTN]

I miss Lewis Grizzard!