Monday, December 8, 2014

Tomasky Encourages Democrats to Abandon the South

I guess he's a little bitter about the fact that Southern states have rejected the Democratic party so resoundingly in the recent elections, so he's going with the old: You can't fire me; I quit! routine.
And that is what Louisiana, and almost the entire South, has become. The victims of the particular form of euthanasia it enforces with such glee are tolerance, compassion, civic decency, trans-racial community, the crucial secular values on which this country was founded… I could keep this list going. But I think you get the idea. Practically the whole region has rejected nearly everything that’s good about this country and has become just one big nuclear waste site of choleric, and extremely racialized, resentment.
Well that's just genuis, Tomasky. Just take about one-quarter of the entire country and insult it. That's really the best way to win friends and influence people. Remember. liberals love tolerance and diversity, unless your diversity happens to be diversity of thought - they won't tolerate that.
At the congressional level, and from there on down, the Democrats should just forget about the place. They should make no effort, except under extraordinary circumstances, to field competitive candidates. The national committees shouldn’t spend a red cent down there. This means every Senate seat will be Republican, and 80 percent of the House seats will be, too. The Democrats will retain their hold on the majority-black districts, and they’ll occasionally be competitive in a small number of other districts in cities and college towns. But they’re not going win Southern seats (I include here with some sadness my native West Virginia, which was not a Southern state when I was growing up but culturally is one now). And they shouldn’t try.
Oh, we can't fire you because you quit? Well that's really mature of y'all.

Instead of encouraging the Democratic party to look in the mirror and re-evaluate some of its positions, Tomasky has decided that the only lesson to learn from the recent electoral defeat is that us Southerners just aren't worth the time and effort. I guess we're just too darn backwards for the Democrats to spend any more time down here. Talk about sour grapes.

Whatever makes you feel better, I guess.

3 comments:

  1. Oh, I forgot to add: Bless his heart.

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  2. "They should make no effort, except under extraordinary circumstances, to field competitive candidates."

    They fielded Wendy Davis in Texas. I think that qualifies as not fielding a competitive candidate.

    "The national committees shouldn’t spend a red cent down there."

    They didn't waste their money on Mary Landrieu, which was a wise choice.

    Seems Tomasky is a genius as suggesting the Democrats do what they've already done! Let's hope they continue to follow his advice.

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  3. About Landrieu -- in the late 90s I worked for a non-profit agency with the specific purpose of providing case management and housing for mentally ill people not quite sick enough to be institutionlized. (Whole 'nuther story on how that was determined...)

    Most of the funding for that was through HUD. The majority of the grants required the support of the congressional representative and/or senator representing the area. From the congressional reps, there was never a problem. Occasionally a request for more information, but nothing that was unreasonable. From Landrieu's office, the first reply was ALWAYS either "you can't do that" or "we can't help you".

    That's when I stopped supporting her, personally.

    Then, there was her performance during Hurricane Katrina, which consisted mostly of tears. While tears were certainly called for, they shouldn't have been the most she did... yet, I felt they were.

    Katrina was a turning point for me. That's when I began to realize that for Democrat politicians, it was all about the perception not the action. While I'd always leaned conservative, it was at that point that realized that liberal politicians didn't deserve the lenience I had always given them -- that of believing that they too wanted the best for the citizens they served.

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