The New Democrat Outreach Program
There’s a snarky sentiment that all us losers have been feeling for most of a week now, regarding the need to somehow “reach out” to the red-state folk who defeated us at the ballot box, while simultaneously feeling extremely frustrated at their willingness to swallow a dishonest sales pitch from the likes of George Bush. Sometimes we give in to the snark; sometimes we rein it in. I’ve seen snatches of it on The Daily Show, and on assorted weblogs, and in that Michael Kinsley piece the other day. I even indulged in a bit of it myself. But so far, I’ve haven’t seen it in this pure a form: An open letter to the Red-State victors.
Enjoy.
November 8th, 2004 at 9:26 pm
We aren’t your enemy, we are our countrymen, you stupid, vile, red-necked Bible-thumping mouth-breathers!!!!
Awww, how sweet.
The sooner you accept the utter cluelessness of all your empty-headed beliefs and so-called values, the happier you’ll be joining the truth-filled, enlightened, shining beacon of worldly wisdom that we possess. Accept our tolerant ways, you vapid Jesus freaks!!!!!
Well, why didn’t anyone explain it to me like that before? It’s so obvious now!
Seriously, I really hope the author of that rant feels better now. As I said before, the longer we insist on defining each other in such cartoonish stereotypes, the less chance any real understanding will occur, the more likely acceptance and compromise will be rejected, and the worse off our Country will be because of it.
November 8th, 2004 at 10:04 pm
Well, your own tendency to go immediately for the sarcasm kind of lessens the impact of your criticisms, at least from my perspective.
It’s relatively easy to find fault with the other side; much harder to remove the beam in our own eye. And that’s very much a sword that cuts both ways.
November 9th, 2004 at 6:51 am
Unfortunately, my comments were closer to paraphaszing than sarcasm, when you read the shrill, over-the-top ravings that this author is indulging in. You admitted the atypical level of the “snarky” article yourself.
The important point that needs to be made is that if this is the starting point that very many people from the liberal side want to take in any dialogue with any conservatives, there will be no chance for meaningful exchanges of ideas and opinions.
Extreme characterizations from either side are exercises in useless self-gratification.
November 9th, 2004 at 7:29 am
Fair enough.
Personally, I’m all for the meaningful exchange of ideas thing. But I can also sympathize with the sense of disappointment and frustration that led to that linked-to piece, above. And yes, granted, it isn’t going to convert any Bush voters.
January 25th, 2005 at 7:25 am
Two months down the road; Two months in which we’ve seen the nomination of an attorney general who’s like some cartoon character out of Argentina’s Dirty War; Two months which included an inaugural speech in which words like “freedom” and “liberty” were unabashedly employed as euphamisms for war and repression; two months in which we’ve seen the total collapse of the environmental movement and the final consolidation of absolute power in the hands of this mass-murderer, who espouses his “culture of life” even as he signs off on executions without glancing at the cases, even as he sends other people to die for his corporate stock; after two months of unchecked insanity flooding from the spit-licking right wing media on every major news outlet; WHY THE HELL SHOULDN’T WE BE PISSED OFF?
The author of that piece is 100% right. Only a complete moron would have voted republican in the last election unless he was insanely rich and stood to profit from the republicans’ elitist policies. Yet we saw the wretched fat walmart-beasts of middle america streaming out to vote en masse for these butchers, deceived into believing they were voting for people who were somehow “moral.” Why shouldn’t someone tell these red-state idiots that they were tricked? After all, they never seem to be able to figure it out for themselves.