notacon
January 8th, 2008, 10:30:12 AM
This is truly astounding.
I get the WSJ's daily e-mail...just so I can keep track of the crazies in this country.
I almost fell out of my chair when I read this...
Great (American) Expectations (http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110011097)
Barack Obama, still fresh from his victory in Iowa last week and confident of another in New Hampshire tonight, has as his signature campaign theme the promise to "end the division" in America. Notice the irony: The scale of his Iowa victory, in a state that's 94% white, is perhaps the clearest indication so far that the division Mr. Obama promises to end has largely been put to rest.
Meanwhile, in Kenya last week a mob surrounded a church in which, according to an Associated Press report, "hundreds of terrified people had taken refuge." The church was put to flame, while the mob used machetes, Hutu-style, to hack to death whoever tried to escape. The killers in this case were of the Luo tribe, their victims were of the Kikuyu, and the issue over which they are bleeding is their own presidential election.
When foreigners assail Americans for being naive, it is often on account of contrasts like these. A nation in which the poor are defined by an income level that in most countries would make them prosperous is a nation that has all but forgotten the true meaning of poverty. A nation in which obesity is largely a problem of the poor (and anorexia of the upper-middle class) does not understand the word "hunger." A nation in which the most celebrated recent cases of racism, at Duke University or in Jena, La., are wholly or mostly contrived is not a racist nation. A nation in which our "division" is defined by the vitriol of Ann Coulter or James Carville is not a truly divided one--at least while Mr. Carville is married to Republican operative Mary Matalin and Ms. Coulter is romantically linked with New York City Democrat Andrew Stein.
Before Obama the ultra wacko conservatives would always declare that 'all the liberal Democrat policies to end hunger...and eliminate poverty...and mitigate racial strife' were abject failures.
Now...with the very real prospect that conservatives are on the cusp of being completely marginalized and irrelevant for generations...they proudly declare that Amercia has become SO prosperous that we have "all but forgotten the true meaning of poverty"
We are a country that does not understand the word "hunger"...we are no longer a "racist" nation.
Every single one of this issues were dealt with 40 years ago in the 60's, with policies that the conservatives decried as "socialist"..."too expensive"..."creating the nanny state"...and that they would "never work"...and better yet more recently is that they were a "complete failure".
Wow!
The truth is that if you read the whole opinion piece...the cons are scared SHITLESS!!!! They are becoming so shrill that it is almost unbearable to watch.
They have no way to fight Obama and to prevent his triumphant message of hope and the idea that "I don't believe that change comes from the top down. It comes from the bottom up."
We are witnessing a once in a few generation's total shift in the political paradigm...and they are powerless to stop it.
George W. Bush was the person that pushed it over the edge...they have no one but themselves to blame.
I get the WSJ's daily e-mail...just so I can keep track of the crazies in this country.
I almost fell out of my chair when I read this...
Great (American) Expectations (http://www.opinionjournal.com/columnists/bstephens/?id=110011097)
Barack Obama, still fresh from his victory in Iowa last week and confident of another in New Hampshire tonight, has as his signature campaign theme the promise to "end the division" in America. Notice the irony: The scale of his Iowa victory, in a state that's 94% white, is perhaps the clearest indication so far that the division Mr. Obama promises to end has largely been put to rest.
Meanwhile, in Kenya last week a mob surrounded a church in which, according to an Associated Press report, "hundreds of terrified people had taken refuge." The church was put to flame, while the mob used machetes, Hutu-style, to hack to death whoever tried to escape. The killers in this case were of the Luo tribe, their victims were of the Kikuyu, and the issue over which they are bleeding is their own presidential election.
When foreigners assail Americans for being naive, it is often on account of contrasts like these. A nation in which the poor are defined by an income level that in most countries would make them prosperous is a nation that has all but forgotten the true meaning of poverty. A nation in which obesity is largely a problem of the poor (and anorexia of the upper-middle class) does not understand the word "hunger." A nation in which the most celebrated recent cases of racism, at Duke University or in Jena, La., are wholly or mostly contrived is not a racist nation. A nation in which our "division" is defined by the vitriol of Ann Coulter or James Carville is not a truly divided one--at least while Mr. Carville is married to Republican operative Mary Matalin and Ms. Coulter is romantically linked with New York City Democrat Andrew Stein.
Before Obama the ultra wacko conservatives would always declare that 'all the liberal Democrat policies to end hunger...and eliminate poverty...and mitigate racial strife' were abject failures.
Now...with the very real prospect that conservatives are on the cusp of being completely marginalized and irrelevant for generations...they proudly declare that Amercia has become SO prosperous that we have "all but forgotten the true meaning of poverty"
We are a country that does not understand the word "hunger"...we are no longer a "racist" nation.
Every single one of this issues were dealt with 40 years ago in the 60's, with policies that the conservatives decried as "socialist"..."too expensive"..."creating the nanny state"...and that they would "never work"...and better yet more recently is that they were a "complete failure".
Wow!
The truth is that if you read the whole opinion piece...the cons are scared SHITLESS!!!! They are becoming so shrill that it is almost unbearable to watch.
They have no way to fight Obama and to prevent his triumphant message of hope and the idea that "I don't believe that change comes from the top down. It comes from the bottom up."
We are witnessing a once in a few generation's total shift in the political paradigm...and they are powerless to stop it.
George W. Bush was the person that pushed it over the edge...they have no one but themselves to blame.