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Just How Dumb Are White Males?
Let me now defend white males. We can't possibly be as dumb as the polls showing we are John McCain's most reliable voting base would indicate. Do we white men believe for an instant that a vote for McCain would not represent more of President Bush's failed economic policies at home and costly military adventures abroad? If we don't hold such a belief, why are a majority of us expected to vote against the positive change that Barack Obama so clearly represents?
Most of us know how to read, and can even Google, so why would we think that GOP candidate McCain, who has supported Bush on every one of his economic initiatives, is now the anti-Bush? What exactly did McCain mean when he said, referring to his Democratic opponent during a campaign speech in Ohio on Monday, "We both disagree with President Bush on economic policy"?
Is McCain unaware that he consistently voted for the red ink run up by the Bush administration, or was he having a senior moment when he said that same day, "We cannot spend the next four years as we spent much of the last eight: spending ourselves into a ditch, and hoping that the consequences don't come"?
The only time McCain took issue with Bush's economic policy was in his short-lived criticism of the tax cut for the rich—a strategy he now defends. But if McCain doesn't increase taxes for someone, just how does he plan to pay for the enormous Iraq war debt, now vastly compounded by the banking bailout? On Monday McCain gave his answer: "I will freeze government spending on all but the most important programs, like defense, veterans' care, Social Security and health care, until we scrub every single government program and get rid of the ones that aren't working for the American people."
Is he kidding? If he doesn't curtail those programs, which make up almost the entire federal budget, then he's talking about chump change in possible cuts. There just isn't enough money in those earmarks that McCain goes on about to make a dent in the massive national debt.
President Bush's treasury secretary, Henry Paulson, left our collective credit card on Wall Street, where the bankers are once again to be trusted to regulate themselves. Are there any white males out there still so in the dark that they don't know that the radical banking deregulation legislation that McCain pushed so aggressively is what legally enabled those he condemned on Monday as "the Wall Street bankers and brokers who got us into this mess"? Have they never heard of Phil Gramm, the man McCain picked to co-chair his presidential campaign, who sponsored the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—both of which made legal, for the first time since the Great Depression, the credit swaps and hybrid instruments at the heart of the Wall Street scams?
Call me naive, but I think white males, startled by job cuts and the devastation wreaked upon their retirement savings, are finally getting the point: Someone's got to pay for this mess, and better those who got rich off the stock market theft than the rest of us.
Can you imagine the uproar now if the McCain-Bush plan to privatize Social Security by linking it to stock purchases had become law? And have you noticed that the Wall Street crooks are not using the bailout money to ease credit but rather to line their golden parachutes? They know how to take care of their retirement.
I don't think McCain gets that the rest of us could use a bit more lift from the government safety net. That's the same federal support that GM CEO Rick Wagoner asked about when he went, hat in hand, to Washington on Monday to lobby for a $10-billion gift to keep his company out of bankruptcy. Or is the CEO of GM just another tax-and-spend socialist?
- Posted in
157 Comments so far
Show AllDrat, no white man posted a comment yet.
Hey, what you mean man, I'm a Whitey! One of the more stupid things sent my way by a person who is terrified about the idea of Obama becoming Prez was the idea that he doesn't really have any African blood, but that he might have, GASP, Arab blood, and there fore probably is a secret Moslem. I pointed out to my friend with some extreme views that my heritage included German, French, Spanish, English ancestors, but that didn't mean that I was partial to Spain. Obama was born and raised mostly in the US and is just as patriotic as I am. Too many people still look at the messenger and don't listen to the message.
Yes but just how "patriotic" are you?
I notice you do not say whether or not you are "partial" to FRANCE, frenchie!
Arrest this man!
Are you now, or have you ever been, someone who enjoys drinking wine and smoking cigarettes in outdoor cafes?
At the time you were in the cafe, did you see anyone else there? Anyone whose name you recognize from the list that has been shown to you?
Now that I think about it, French people have nefarious connections to Arabs too, don't they? Some people in Lebannon actually SPEAK French! Why didn't I see this before!
Arrest this man TWICE!
matti:I think I hit a wrong key and my comment re French ended up at the top,sigh. as new.
I was responding to ~Aarky~.
This choice between "oldest first" and "newest first" causes confusion sometimes.
Its one of the "regulars" ~USAn~ or ~Samson~ who is always talking about their post "above" or "below" and it took me a week to figure out they were on "newest first" mode and I was on "oldest first" mode -and that's why I could never figure out what post they were talking about.
LOL,LOL- Yes, I confess, I was in Lebanon. I still have the camel hide shaving kit to prove it. I also remember hearing the crowd outside the airport whispering the French word "Securite" as we walked by. They had spotted us, even though we were wearing business suits. Just Remember without all those evil French words that we think of as English (about 40%), our military would have to shut down: Corporal, Sergeant,Lieutenant,Captain, Commander, Colonel, General, Artillery, Barrage, Platoon, Company, regiment, division, reveille, retreat, march, attack,surveillance surrender,surreptitious, reconnaisance, camouflage,beret, barracks, uniform, sabotage, espionage, cadet, carbine, rifle,ambush,bayonet, ambulance,sentinal, alliance, treason, grenade, and entrenchment. With your funny sense of humor and satire, You must idolize the French police chief in "Casablanca".
I think guys like Scheer tend to overanalyze. Does he really think the things McShame says are serious policy positions, and not just simple catch phrases that he thinks will play well? If suddenly Bush did something to magically boost his approval rating to 90%, McShame would immediately say "i was with Bush all along". No, I think it's as simple as white guys like McShame not wanting to admit that their days as "the supreme demographic" are over. They've built their whole sense of self importance around that fact, and it's hard to give up.
Bing!
Nail hit on head.
I do think it is important to remember, however, that the "white guys" we're talking about are really just a social construction of the post WWII/Cold War/Anti-Civil Rights era.
That was when non-Anglo-Saxon Northern and Western European derived people (especially men) suddenly gained their "white" status along with the Anglo-Saxon derived English and the Scottish in the U.S. -at least for the purposes of pandering.
Of course, that just makes it more pathetic that some of us are clinging to this crap. But I think it also shows that there is a real possibility of the McCain campaign being this kind of "white" guys' last hurrah.
Rush Limbaugh certainly sounds panicked lately, doesn't he?
I like that idea of this being "this kind of 'white guys'last hurrah"!
I like to think of this whole nightmare as being the white elitists and disgusting racist xenophobics last hurrah. They'd better 'enjoy' it now because it will not last as mankind evolves and leaves these kinds of ignoramuses in the dust.
I think the key peice of evidence for this is Obama.
Forget his politics and policy positions for a moment if you please.
Its not just that he's "black", its that he's HALF-"black", HALF-"white".
He's even actually AFRICAN on his "black" half.
And only a minority of "whites" seems to have a problem with this.
And even they have to dance around the issue or connect him to newer "official enemy races" like Arabs or Muslims.
Very few would now dare to go on TV and come out against Obama due to his race.
Of course, it would be nice if people also demanded he have decent policy positions -but you can't have everything, y'know?
"Of course, it would be nice if people also demanded he have decent policy positions -but you can't have everything, y'know?"
Baby steps, matti, baby steps...
matti:I am really fond of Obama's mother. There's a wonderful article in the NYTimes online and easier to get from Int'l Herald Tribune www.iht.com by Janny Scott, March 14,2008.
I'm a "white" male, and I approve of this message.
I just thought of something else.
Mr. Scheer is Jewish right?
Does he not know that many of the "white" males who back McCain would not consider him "white" because of that?
matti:why do you think Scheer is Jewish? I'm a Jew and do not think of myself as white.
I think I heard him talk about it before on a podcast. I don't remember what the subject was exactly. But it may have been on something to do with the Middle East, because I think I remember Mr. Scheer refering to Jews as "we", just like he does here with "white" males.
That's why I brought it up, because he includes himself as a "white" male, and many of the "white" males he is talking about are just as Anti-Semitic as they are racist, y'know?
Sort of. Not sure about the " just as" anti-Jew as they are anti-Black thing, but it's hard to tell,yes? Thanks for thinking. I've been enjoying the comments (not being a male).But I am married to one.
I'm not sure if your tag means your FROM NYC or just moved there, but I grew up in Southeast Texas.
The way it worked there is: you didn't want to "mix" with blacks, you had to keep the "Mexicans" out, but the Jews "killed Jesus" didn't they?
Plus, they were all a bunch of "Big-City, Northern, usurious, Commie Bastards" weren't they?
Blacks and Mexicans don't "control the Banks" do they?
They don't "run the filth of Hollywood" either.
As much as I don't like to generalize, I have to admit, some parts of the old Confederate States and the West are kinda like Germany 1935.
Never fear, though, the difference is that we're headed toward Germany 1928, not Germany 1938.
P.S. I hope its clear that I was presenting the attitudes I heard from OTHERS, not my own. (The Internets can be tricksy like that.)
matti:I got it. I enjoyed your comments all thru the comments after the article.
matti: were you in the majority group in TX? (Have you read Tim Wise?) I am born and raised in NYC:grew up in Bklyn (does that count as NYC?). I grew up with E.European Jews (most of my family) and Italian Catholics, mostly from Sicily. I was surprised when I left NYC for college that there were other kinds of people besides:Jews, Italians and African-Americans. I did know about anti-Jew in re church (did you read "Constantine's Sword" by James Carroll? It explains why the Church hates Jews. There's a new video with same name,too) How I learned: my best friend switched from public school in 3rd grade to parochial school. One day she came home from school, saw me in front of my apartment house, opposite her family's two family house (I lived in a 3room apt.,dad was disabled WWII vet) and said, "the nuns taught us today that you killed Jesus.". I called in the window to my mother, "Ma, did we kill Jesus?" "No", she answered and I told my pal. It ended there. I much later heard about other antiJew stuff. I do like the diversity of NYC. I lived in NOLA for 2 years long long ago, doing a little bit of civil rights work and my husband was a community organizer. In an African-American area of the city with an African-American work partner. I think NYC is "home" as long as I can afford to live here.
As "Grandpa" Al Lewis used to say on his radio show on WBAI ("Al Lewis Live",now "Al Lewis Lives" with his wife, Karen Lewis who is running the show since he died), "Americans are like good Germans.". He meant in the 1930s. It feels like the 30s to me,with Muslims being the new Jews, in the US.
I'm not sure what the "majority group in Texas" is, but maybe its 'cause I never read the guy you mention.
I WAS definitely in the majority group in Houston though, that's the "My daddy works in oil and I hate this awful place" group -I think there were only like five kids not in that one with us.
See, my view is that the real divide in the U.S. -and almost every place else- is the Urban/Rural divide, which dovetails in many places with the Have/Have-not divide.
The trick with the South is that this Urban/Rural divide hung on a lot longer there and the Have/Have-not divide stayed at a 1760-level until the 1980s. So while some people could commiserate to some extent with blacks and Mexicans -because they were all poor- fewer knew much about -or had ever gotten to know- Jews.
I was really being kinda nice when I compared it to '30s Germany, sometimes it felt more like the 15th or 16th century to me, like these people actually envisioned some sort of bastard-child of Shylock and Trotsky when the thought of Jews.
Be reassured though, the movement of Northerners to the South, and the continued Urbanization as change this all a lot just while I've been alive.
Even the Mega-Churches have done they're part in this. Since they are less "Christian" than they are "The New Chosen People" -I'm serious, they hardly even MENTION the New Testament (the Jesus bit)- they've cut down on the "Jews killing Jesus" thing in their own way (by specifying the "bad jews" who really did it). Whatever paranoids say about AIPAC on the Internets, it is the Mega-Churhes who keep the GOP in line with the "Israel Project".
Of course that's because they need the Jews there to bring on the Apocolypse in which all the jews will go to Hell, but its something.
Most jews are white. Many jews are genetically European. Maybe most. Others think of you as white also. the statistics say non-hispanic white. It does not say non-hispanic,non-jewish white. Jews are white. White latinos, apparently, less so, according to whoever it is decides these things.lizard
I think Scheer forgot that Sarah Palin winked at me and wants me! That is why I would vote her & McCain.
I am Committed to Oneness through Justice and Transformation
peace,
st john
LOL, LOL, LMAO. That is really hilarious, but maybe that's why they picked her because too many men like to have fantasies about pretty women.
It is totally, totally, why she was picked.
She's a "country girl".
She's a "beauty queen".
She's "got a nice rack".
She seems "kinda dumb".
And she's "freaky 'Christian'", which means -at least in the marital bed- she's sure to "get nasty".
She hunts, drinks beer, and likes sports, for pete's sake!
She's a (pale)Red-neck's DREAMGIRL.
This is the ONLY plausible reason (other than incriminating photos) that she has risen through the ranks of the "crazier side of the GOP" so quickly.
How dumb are white males?
Robert Scheer is one of the most brilliant progressive journalists in the United States, and his long career includes an interview with George W. Bush during the 2000 Presidential campaign in which that fine candidate maintained that nuclear war is "winnable," so it behooves all of us denizens of the progressive blogosphere to help him out by suggesting a few answers to this extraodinarily difficult question that Mr. Scheer can't answer for himself. For example...
How dumb are white males?
White males are so dumb that they turned a former European colony into the United States, while Latino males turned a former European colony into Colombia, and black males turned a former European colony into the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Jacob Freeze
Im a mixed race Nader supporter (since we are doing 'true confessions' today), but i find your post to be truly offensive. This is probably your attempt at satire (which i doubt), but is more likely your own sick inner self bubbling up like putrid bile ...
"...your own sick inner self bubbling up like putrid bile ..."
Harharharhar!!!
Those Obamabots are the classiest debaters on the internet!
Jacob Freeze
Jake, I believe riddimboy said he was a Nader supporter, possibly even on your side. Maybe we should read before we rant.
wcd .. i dont really need to wear my Nader badge to prove anything. In fact i would much rather not vote for Nader. The only reason im voting for Nader is because my buddy Matt Gonzalez is his running mate. Unfortunately Jacob 'The Turd' Freeze is a complete moron and there is no way in hell im on this asswipes side. I dont believe Nader has any interest in bringing Progressives under a common umbrella. Since i swore id never vote for another Democrat after seeing them capitulate on issue after issue these last 8 years my choices are rather limited. Unfortunately voting for Nader also has the unappetizing benefit of being on the same side as the Turd.
This is a good example of dumb. Very dumb statement. I am shocked by its dumbness. Very appropiate given the subject discussed.Mr.Freeze, that was really dumb.....................lizard
Here in Texas white men are not a dumb as they are racist.
But racism is dumb! There's no such thing as "race".
Could be both and overlap. TX doesn't have bragging rights, altho they do have two dragging truck deaths in recent weeks and one a decade ago, to the day.
If you paid closer attention you'd know that the death in Paris had absolutely nothing to do with race. Nada.
Paris,TX not France. You don't need to insult my "paid closer attention", I can give you sources: WBAI www.wbai.org This is a Pacifica station. It surely does look like a hate crime. Why are you so quick to deny the possibility?
Because these guys were running buddies. They had been to jail together, they testified for each other, they were well known around town as friends. They were not strangers.
They had gone across the river to Oklahoma to get more beer and had an argument coming back and were drunker than Cooter Brown. The black guy got out and the other guy ran him over and he was dragged a few feet under the car..
Quite unlike tying a guy behind their truck and dragging him to death. Thats a hate crime.
"Paris,TX not France. You don't need to insult my "paid closer attention"
You are certainly correct about that phrasing. My bad, my apologies.
I would ask you why you are so quick to believe it was? Simply because one was black and two were white? I'm sure you base your opinion on the information you get, but I'd tell you I've noticed that some of the information put out by progressives is just as faulty as any neocon or MSM.
The guys from Paris tell me this is no hate crime. These guys were well known to work together.
I'm a white male, I'm from Texas and I don't think I'm stupid. And I know I'm not racist, so BS. to your Texas stereotypes.
Thomas, I was only refering to blue collar working class males in Cooke Co Texas of which I am one. I refer to the men born and raised here, I have lived here for 20 years but was born and raised in far West Texas, race was less of an issue there as there were very few Black people. I learned about race in the service(67-73).I learned all Americans have red blood,skin color don't mean shit. Sorry I gave you the wrong impression.
Being Heinz 57, I would point out that "race" demographics are usually derived from deeply flawed choices on biased questionnaires or are affected by cultural pressures to select other than accurately. So your question invites participation in a systemic practice of racism based upon questionable statistics... whether you realize it or not.
So in playing along with the premise of your question "Just How Dumb Are White Males", I can only produce a guess. It might reside in the neighborhood of:
"At least as stupid as *anyone* who votes for "The Party" believing that there is so much difference between the two to actually present a real choice".
That includes you.
toast:you answer the question. Can't wait to scroll thru the rest.
I watched a group of political scientists on CSpan2 yesterday while they discussed the accuracy of pre election polling. One professor from the U of Iowa explained how they had created a clever survey which fairly accurately showed whether a person would vote based on a racist attiutude. His best estimate was that nationwide, people were much more tolerant than in the past but that Obama would lose 7% of the national vote based on racism. He went on to say that because of the economic meltdown that many of those racists would actually vote for Obama. There was a little article in Politico.com a couple days ago with a funny title, Racists for Obama", which made the same argument. In Arkansas where I live, there is a true red neck philosophy created by too many white men who are politically and economically illiterate and their statement was,"But he's a nigger". I think that quite a number will vote for Obama and not tell their neighbors or friends for fear of being shunned.
Aarky:you might be right about their voting for Obama, but there's no way to know, is there?
Aarky October 29th, 2008 3:13 pm, there are many 'soft shoe' racists out there, the 'genteel' types, especially older folks, who harbor bigoted attitudes but would never admit they are racists.
That said, this election the country is in such bad shape economically and the Republican 'brand' so tainted that even these soft shoe types feel we need a major change and I am reminded of two recent anecdotes I heard: One from a man whose conservative white father, a WWII-vet who until recently referred to black people as 'darkies,' is disgusted by McCain exploiting his time as a POW for political purposes and tells his family privately he is voting for the 'mixed race' guy, but wouldn't dare say that to his buddies down at the VFW hall; the other involves a grandmother, born and raised in the rural South and still a resident of the farmland lower Midwest, who tells her grandkids she's voting for the "colored man" this year, but would never mention that to her narrowminded neighbors. This 'reverse Bradley Effect' may very well play a role in bringing about an Obama landslide.
Would this be called a "Reverse Bradley". Wow, I think I just contributed something meaningful to the political science lexicon. All those years studying "poli-sci-why-try" in college has finally paid off.
As an aside, I remember one day whilst pondering from the throne in my Political Science department's bathroom, I turned and looked at the toilet paper dispenser to see that some smart ass had scrawled above it "Political Science degree, take one."
It's the media and the pollsters that are playing with the race card, not the voters. But let me tell you something. Obama's getting more white male support than any Democrat since 1964 except perhaps Jimmy Carter and only because he was from the south and even then he didn't get enough to win a landslide in 1976 despite the major scandals of Nixon and Ford along with the mess. You can't limit dumbness to one race or gender. What about some of the white women out there voting for Palin just because she's a white woman and/or their favorite Hillary did not win in the primary? People vote for various reasons. Right now, I too come across a lot of voters who just hate Democrats no matter what and will vote Republican thinking they'll be rich war heros like them even when their economies and finances are at stake. More than race, the only reason most of these voters voting for Mccain are doing so is delusions of grandeur.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Would you like to compare the numbers of women voting for Palin because Hillary C.didn't get the nomination compared to white men voting for McCain? I don't think so.
Are there many people who are African-American in South Dakota?
I always wonder about how people actually vote, who say "voters who just hate Democrats no matter what..thinking they'll be rich war heroes" when they are pretty darned old,etc. I know one Republican in the South who won't vote Dem.no matter what, but that's because she's a racist and does "talking points" since the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (when she was a teen).
Doesn't South Dakota have a fabulous history of allowing women the vote forever?
My mistake. I guess there are indeed very few Hillary voters planning on voting for Mccain/Palin at this point.
As for Afros in SD, no but there are plenty more natives who are subject to all forms of racism and voter intimidation. Thankfully, the Obama camp is the first to address this in decades.
As for the Republican lady in the South choosing to vote Republican no matter what, she's too deluded and corn-fed to the point that even teaching a pig to sing would look easy in pale comparison.
Terrance Mitchell
Redfield, South Dakota
Is "white male" supposed to be codespeak for gun-lovin, uneducated, faux-God-fearing, redneck bigot or something?
Every POTUS was a "white male," the vast majority of Congresspersons are "white males," virtually all of Wall Street is dominated by "white males," "white males" run/own Big Oil and Energy, Big Airplane, Big Auto, Big Corp Media, Big Agriculture, Big Religion, the Pentagon, all major sports, and even Big Retail. Most Hollywood writers and producers are "white males," most cops are "white males," the armed forces are mostly "white males," and so is the population of most major colleges and universities, which are also run mostly by "white males."
If RS has something to say, he should say it instead of lumping all of us "white males" into one, giant, too-dumb-to-get-it category...