There is a sweet irony here. The famed Republican "Southern Strategy" shoots itself in the head.
Good riddance!
Joe H.
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The Years Of Writing Dangerously
9 years ago
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About Me
- Joe Huster
- I am a 51 year old 7th year attorney and former philosophy professor. I am married and have one son. I am originally from California, but have lived in Honolulu and Salt Lake City, Utah all of my adult life.
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2009
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July
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- Practicalities vs. Principles
- Education vs. Experience
- Health Care Reform and Euthanasia? UPDATE!
- Sarah Palin - Poet Extraordinaire
- Republicans and Justice Sotomayor
- The "C" Street Family
- The Experts
- Militant Ignorance - Militant Certainty
- Interesting Take on Marriage
- Rationing Health Care
- Statement by The President
- Nothing to Say
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- The Lipstick Pitbull Blinks - UPDATE
- Torture Facts
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July
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5 comments:
Maybe you should sign up:
"A Republican and a Democrat walk into a bar — a coffee bar, that is.
That’s the plan, anyway.
But, as Republican Mark DeMoss and Democrat Lanny Davis will tell you, a civil conversation can take place anywhere.
They are behind The Civility Project, which launched in January. Their goal is simple but lofty: To get Americans to agree to disagree without being disagreeable.
DeMoss and Davis are calling on liberals, conservatives, Democrats, Republicans and people of all faiths to take the "pledge," which reads:
I will be civil in my public discourse and behavior.
I will be respectful of others whether or not I agree with them.
I will stand against incivility when I see it.
To take the pledge, enter your first and last name and country at www.civilityproject.org."
I have no problem with civility, but I hope you're not suggesting that it is "uncivil" to for me to enjoy the unraveling of a political party that took and held power by intentionally stoking racial animus? I hope you’re not suggesting that I’m being uncivil by enjoying the fact they are now hurting themselves with this poison and don’t even realize it?
I, after all, am not the one doing the race-baiting. I'm enjoing the demise of those who do it. Is that uncivil? Well, I really don't care.
I understand the need for civility in general. But it is not always appropriate. When the crowds at President Obama's inauguration chanted “shah nah nah nah, shah nah nah nah, hey hey hey, good buy” to President Bush, many people thought it was uncivil. But given what took place during Bush’s presidency, I think it was completely appropriate to shame him. It is likely to be the only sanction he ever faces for all the pain and destruction he caused. So he ought to face shaming as often as possible - civility be damned.
Joe H.
The Skip Gates-Jim Crowley-BHO dust up has been instructive about how Americans can't even agree on first principles and assumptions -- how we view events with just a few facts depends a lot on our life-history/life-experience (I'm sure the Germans have a better expression for the idea). Does, the NYTimes recounts, knowing what the 911 caller Whalen says happened:
Police officials stood by the report in interviews over the weekend, but on Monday, Ms. Whalen’s lawyer said she had never mentioned race to Sergeant Crowley.
“She didn’t speak to Sergeant Crowley at the scene except to say, ‘I’m the one who called,’ ” said the lawyer, Wendy J. Murphy. “And he said, ‘Wait right there,’ and walked into the house. She never used the word black and never said the word ‘backpacks’ to anyone.”
So she never identified the two intruders as "black" adds a fact that may change how I view whether Gates or Crowley was more in the "right" in this embarassing episode -- will a shared beer at the White House make things all better? The article on the different worlds the different worlds lived in by Yalie and Harvard Prof. Skip Gates and Cambridge Police Officer Jim Crowley is interesting in how these two would seem to be unlikely participants in this "teachable moment."
I'm more concerned about the mindset that the police have the right to use force against people (white or black) who are not violating the law, and that a citzen who raises his voice to a police officer legitimately subjects himself to arrest or worse.
It looks like the police didn't appreciate Gate's reaction and intentionally lured him outside so they could arrest him for being disorderly in public. Their anger at Gates may have been justified, but police anger cannot justify abuse of power.
I think Obama was unwise to take the question. He should have said something like, "I don't know all the facts, so I can't comment."
Joe
But I think that's where the life-experience (i.e., the Latina who grew up in hardtimes) comes into play -- from Obama's Chicago coming of age as a community organizer, as a Cambridge law student, and as a Illinois State Senator that looked at profiling, and his personal acquaintance and friendship with Skip Gates lulled Barry into confidently making his comments regardless of the political consequences of taking on law enforcement. . . . Mika Brezinski on Morning Joe couldn't hear where her black guests were coming from when she wanted to give the police the benefit of the doubt for arresting a disabled old man who, as someone on the show quipped, claims to be 5'6" but is probably more 5'4". Real dangerous.
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