Into the Sewer: the American right wing, 2011

I wonder if they mention Native American genocide in that.

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illinois representative joe walsh, everyone:

"Look," he says, "I don't think this is complicated. He doesn't really have a history. I say all of this respectfully—he is the least well-known guy we have ever put in the presidency, and there's no one even close. He's probably got easily the lightest résumé of anybody we've elected."

Walsh leans forward and taps me on the knee with a bumper sticker.

"Why was he elected? Again, it comes back to who he was. He was black, he was historic. And there's nothing racist about this. It is what it is. If he had been a dynamic, white, state senator elected to Congress he wouldn't have gotten in the game this fast. This is what made him different. That, combined with the fact that your profession"—another friendly tap of the bumper sticker—"not you, but your profession, was just absolutely compliant. They made up their minds early that they were in love with him. They were in love with him because they thought he was a good liberal guy and they were in love with him because he pushed that magical button: a black man who was articulate, liberal, the whole white guilt, all of that."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2011/05/27/rep-joe-walsh-r-cable-news.aspx

the "obama would never have gotten elected if he werent black" is one of the top right wing memes of the obama presidency

another friendly tap of the bumper sticker

LOL @ 'it's because he's black'. Yall sure it had absolutely nothing to do with George W Bush?

more joe walsh:

"President Obama has effectively abandoned the 50-year-old U.S. alliance with Israel. So, where is the outrage from the American Jewish community? Don’t they understand that the president is not pro-Israel? Aren’t they troubled by his history of pro-Palestinian writings, speeches, and actions? The short answer is that most American Jews are liberal, and most American liberals side with the Palestinians and vague notions of “peace” instead of with Israel’s wellbeing and security"

this guy is a treat

"And there's nothing racist about [...] a black man who was articulate"

x-post Pretty much what Geraldine Ferraro said too.

Even if Walsh is right, who cares? Ok, after 8 years of the most craven, feckless presidency we've seen in ages, we decided to show what America is capable of transformatively. What does that say about the current adminstration? It's like saying the only reason we elected Washington was because he was a good general; that's not much of a critique of that administration, it's just typical of the current right-wing's tedious, whiney puerility and irrelevance. At least when he went on to criticize Obama's stand on Israel, he's actually talking about policy (however stupidly) instead of wasting my time with his speculative nonsense. Republicans latched their horse to the cart of fear of social change and have thus become the party of bitterness and inevitable failure; the country will get browner and more diverse, our refusal to address our dependence on largely foreign reserves of hydrocarbons will lead to disaster, even economically, it will be worse than all the 'tree hugging', 'job-killing' regulation they prate on about, favoring private and un-accountable concerns over government will lead to similar tyranny (just from a different source, though I think we basically have both right now) etc... And all because a bunch of self-entitled, lazy bastards in one of the most spoiled places in the world and in its history don't have to be accountable for anything and never have to engage in any kind of auto-critique or change. Lovely.

He doesn't really have a history. I say all of this respectfully—he is the least well-known guy we have ever put in the presidency, and there's no one even close.

Uh except for a 300-page autobiography he wrote more than a decade before he even ran

LOL

Yeah, and I'm sure they put it in the NONFICTION section, but you know what I mean?

He's probably got easily the lightest résumé of anybody we've elected.

I don't know what you measure this by. If it's years of elected office prior to assuming the presidency, Obama has several former presidents beat, including his immediate predecessor.

i dont think joe walsh reads ilx jaymc

Ha. I meant "you" in like a general sense.

x-post We usually go by US House/Senate seats or Governorships, not State Senate or City Council seats, so GWB's 6 years as TX gov beat Obama's 4 years as IL Senator.

Obama's rise probably seemed way-fast to political non-junkies. I remember in Nov. 2004 being on a chat with friends where some of us were tracking Obama's crushing win over my namesake and several people were like "Who is Obama?"

We usually go by US House/Senate seats or Governorships

OK, let's also say that VPs have sufficient experience. Let's also allow that Eisenhower, Grant, and Taylor -- who had never held elected office before rising to the presidency -- have special dispensation because they were military commanders. Hell, let's even say that Hoover and Taft -- neither of whom had held elected office, either -- get by on the basis of having served in the cabinet for four or more years.

Obama's 4 years in the Senate still trumps...

Woodrow Wilson (2 years as governor)
Grover Cleveland (2 years as governor)
Abraham Lincoln (2 years in U.S. House)

Cleveland was elected president in November 1884. Three years earlier, the highest office he'd held was sheriff of Erie County, New York.

(Washington also gets the military dispensation, obv.)

Cool. I wasn't saying Obama was the least experienced, but just taking on the GWB comparison--meaningless anyway me as GWB was a far worse Prez.

Washington did have years of experience in the House of Burgesses, though, too. First elected in '58.

Now, if that idiot said a lot of young ppl voted for Obama bcz he was cool...

Charisma's a bitch...

Cool. I wasn't saying Obama was the least experienced, but just taking on the GWB comparison

Oh yeah, wasn't trying to argue with you or anything. Just wanted an excuse to fact-check something!

Well, something interesting, that is. (Now going back to fact-checking something else for work.)

The whole 'he only got elected cuz he's black' hints at racial insecurities, chides the elector for being naive, and intimates that Obama's really pretty shallow. It also gleefully contradicts the 'he's a secret Mulsin commu-nazi', but hey, who'll notice?

As a country we skipped pretty quickly from "There will never be a black President" to "He was only elected President because he's black."

yeah that was a neat trick

It's like, yeah the whole lying about the Iraq War, creating Quantanamo Bay, creating the PATRIOT ACT, MISSION ACCOMPLISHED, unending war, etc., capped by economic armageddon, none of that had anything to do with why someone would've wanted to vote Dem in 2008.

No lie: I had to start googling to confirm that this Joe Walsh isn't the other Joe Walsh. Which, I'm happy to say, he's not.

I hear Scott Walker is actually the same Scott Walker, though

the weird coded rhetoric employed in this article - abt utahs new law facilitating using gold & silver as currency - is so bizarre and creepy to me.

http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/06/01/drudge_race_panic/index.html

Pareene remarks upon Drudge's weird racial bullshit

andrew breitbart

hah what an afternoon!

where's plaxico can they put him on next

"as a joke"

so why didnt Weiner show up at his own press conf? was he belatedly trying to find the Salute to Israel parade?

yeah I really don't give a damn about this Weiner nonsense.

*cue jokes*

actually quite happy if the jerk's ambition to be NY mayor is dead

of course, we'll get someone even worse

throwing my hat into the race as of today - free ice cream if I am elected

and underrated Aerosmith bootlegs?

compulsory

my opponent does not even have mp3s of the 77 tour - I have soundboards in FLAC

but he does have the same old song and dance, my friends.

my republican relatives are all crowing about the florida law requiring drug tests for people on welfare, something they have been blathering about for a year....oddly, these same people were freaking out about provisions in the patriot act being unconstitutional search and seizure....WTF with their inconsistent bullshit. If I cared to call them on it and have an argument I would.

Don't even bother. I've tried going down that road before, calling out right-wingers on their inconsistencies, and realized it would have been easier and more productive to just repeatedly bang my head directly against the nearest brick wall.

drug testing just a reasonable sample of recipients would cost more than the welfare program. it's like private school for 12 years is cheaper than jail for 4 - guess who's getting the money.. I've pretty much given up on talking to anybody who believes that "all their tax dollars" are going to poor, lazy drug addicts.

they're stating "why is it unconsitutional when every single working person has to take a drug test to support them"? in what world do they live where every single person has to take a drug test for work? I've had to do this exactly once, when I worked for a financial company, and never again.