Perry Leads Republican Field in National Poll

[Catawba]

Yeah, you only have to see who gets elected from there to understand just how 'diverse' redneck country is.

Now I did hear the other day that Perry was seeking to differentiate himself from George W., when he told an audience that he wasn't as smart as Bush was!

That ought to take him far!!! :sun

 

[LuckyDan]

Yeah, as long as you're a bible thumpin', gun-totin', right wing white guy (oh wait, that's redundant, isn't it?). I'm guessing those folks get treated really well. After all, they're 'Real Americans, right'?

I love the stereotyping, from a guy interested in diversity.

Where are you from?

Edit: on re-reading, I see you are not the one who brought up diversity. Still, I have to say your image of Texans is a little dated. BO won Dallas in 2008, and while it is a little blue island in a sea of red on the electoral map, the area is culturally diverse, much more so than you seem to be aware of, judging by your post.

 

[LuckyDan]

Now I did hear the other day that Perry was seeking to differentiate himself from George W., when he told an audience that he wasn't as smart as Bush was!

That ought to take him far!!! :sun

He probably isn't as smart as W, but that's not what he said. What he said was "I went to Texas A&M. He went to Yale."

Only those who take Aggie jokes literally would think that means he is not as smart as a Yale man.

 

[Phys251]

I'm not sure where you live, but it must not be the same country as me--perhaps not even the same universe. Maybe you should visit redneck country some time. You'd find some of the best and kindest Americans anywhere.

They certainly are...IF they sense that you're "one of them." If you're not, or you have "less than" white skin, or you're a woman who wears her hair short, or if you even have a Darwin fish/Greenpeace/etc. bumper sticker (or especially ten of 'em), don't expect to be treated as a human.

 

[ric27]

Its because people don't know him yet. Perry doesn't stand a chance once he is exposed. He is way too evangelical and right-wing for the vast majority of America outside the radical south.

Rather ignorant statement

Perry's religious beliefs and his own preferences should not disqualify him from consideration unless he chooses to violate the law. Having a religious background?...so what? We are a nation of laws and, the president has a duty to follow the law

 

[Catawba]

Rather ignorant statement

Perry's religious beliefs and his own preferences should not disqualify him from consideration unless he chooses to violate the law. Having a religious background?...so what? We are a nation of laws and, the president has a duty to follow the law

LOL! America isn't going to arrest Perry, they are just not going to vote him in as president. :sun

 

[ric27]

LOL! America isn't going to arrest Perry, they are just not going to vote him in as president. :sun

A candidate can be religious and let his religion guide his personal moral choices. Nothing wrong with that

Dismiss Perry at your peril, the man has never lost an election and loves campaigning.

 

[Catawba]

A candidate can be religious and let his religion guide his personal moral choices. Nothing wrong with that

Dismiss Perry at your peril, the man has never lost an election and loves campaigning.

There's a first time for everything! Even the people in his own state have said they would vote for Obama over Perry. Perry will win predominantly in some of the Southern states where there they don't know him as well and they are of low education level (his people)! :sun

 

[Camlon]

There's a first time for everything! Even the people in his own state have said they would vote for Obama over Perry. Perry will win predominantly in some of the Southern states where there they don't know him as well and they are of low education level (his people)! :sun

He has governed Texas for 10 years. I guess they are somewhat bored of him.

However, national polls tie him with Obama. If he campaign well, there is no reason he wouldn't win.

PrairiePundit: Perry tied with Obama in Gallup poll
Romney is the only candidate leading Obama among registered voters, 48 percent to 46 percent, with 6 percent undecided, according to the new Gallup poll. Perry and Obama are tied at 47 percent among registered voters, also with 6 percent undecided.

Obama would beat Paul, 47 percent to 45 percent, and best Bachmann by a 4-point margin, 48 percent to 44 percent.

 

[tessaesque]

Ah, a newcomer, that explains it! :sun

Not sure what you mean by that. I was born in Texas and have lived here almost all of my 26 years. A few stints in states on the west coast, and in Florida, Indiana, and Michigan...but most of my life has been here. I would think with my time here and in other states I'd be more adept to determine what the people of the south are like than somebody who "lives close by" or spent a week in Dallas.

 

[tessaesque]

He probably isn't as smart as W, but that's not what he said. What he said was "I went to Texas A&M. He went to Yale."

Only those who take Aggie jokes literally would think that means he is not as smart as a Yale man.

People will interpret him (and any other politician) in the least flattering light possible in order to find a foothold for disliking them. At the same time, they will ignore the policy, politics, and true meanings of the things politicians say. I know exactly what Perry meant when he made the A&M/Yale comment, and also what he meant about the "black cloud" comment.

It's actually kind of comforting...it means they have no real argument to use against the politician when they resort to intentionally misunderstanding them.

 

[tessaesque]

They certainly are...IF they sense that you're "one of them." If you're not, or you have "less than" white skin, or you're a woman who wears her hair short, or if you even have a Darwin fish/Greenpeace/etc. bumper sticker (or especially ten of 'em), don't expect to be treated as a human.

You gotta stop running your life off stereotypes. There are pockets of hatred and intolerance everywhere I've ever lived, but by and large Texas is just as (if not more) accepting as any of the others I've lived in. Instead of making assumptions based on a few news articles or "I heard from a friend", why don't you spend time talking to people who actually live there?

Stereotypes are dangerous things, Phys. They close you off to learning a lot about the world around you. People seek out to confirm what they've been told they should believe, and often time they'll ignore any contradictory evidence to get there. Don't do that. Consider the possibility that things aren't exactly as you've been taught to believe they are.

 

[LuckyDan]

"We rural and small-town mutt people seem by an early age to have a special capacity for cruelty. For instance, as a child did you ever put a firecrack up a toad’s ass and light it? George W. Bush and I have that in common. As nonwhites the world round understand, white people can be mean, especially if they feel threatened–and they feel threatened about everything these days. But when you provide a certain species of white mutt people with the right incentives, such as approval from God and government, you get things like lynchings, Fallujah, the Birmingham bombers. You get Abu Ghraib." - From Deer Hunting with Jesus by Joe Bageant

Bageant spoke for himself, and it appears, "nonwhites around the world" (a not at all presumptuous statement) but he seemed more than anything pissed that his hometown of Winchester VA cared nothing for the left wing ideology he embraced. Franklin County went for McCain over BO 60 to 39 per cent.

So I left. Quit school in the 11th grade and went into the Navy at age 16. Later I got a high school equivalency diploma and went on with school. Much later.because when the Sixties started happening I jumped in head first, stark nekkid and screaming for glory. Headed west to join the counter cultural revolution. Lived in a school bus, worked all sorts of labour jobs, ate lots of acid and began to write. That went well from the very beginning, in as much as everything I wrote got published somewhere, usually in hippie or student newspapers, and sometimes in national mags. People seemed to like it. So I figured what the hell? I must have found a vocation in life! It also eased my soul a lot. I wrote approximately in the same way then that I do now. It was shallower though because I didn't have as much experience in life. Fewer convictions.

Then this heart-rending elegy to the land he loved:

And now a bunch of cheap murderous ********ers have hijacked the place that made me what I am and are busily turning it into one vast capitalist gulag. Stealing my children's' dreams… everything I ever experienced and cared about has become irrelevant. I don't care about my own experiences disappearing into the void so much as I care about the blackness now descending. I am here right now to tell you that America is a rogue nation and the greatest threat afoot to civilization. That doesn't mean that every American is Hitler and it doesn't mean that there is no hope. But we gotta cop to what is going on. When a nation refuses to acknowledge the need for world tribunals for ethnic cleansing and refutes the Kyoto agreements, and murders tens of thousands to keep its stock market afloat, then that nation must be called malignant upon this earth.

An Interview with Joe Bageant

I'd never heard of him before. Pretty sure I never will again. Thanks for, um, turning me on to him.

 

[Phys251]

You gotta stop running your life off stereotypes. There are pockets of hatred and intolerance everywhere I've ever lived, but by and large Texas is just as (if not more) accepting as any of the others I've lived in. Instead of making assumptions based on a few news articles or "I heard from a friend", why don't you spend time talking to people who actually live there?

Stereotypes are dangerous things, Phys. They close you off to learning a lot about the world around you. People seek out to confirm what they've been told they should believe, and often time they'll ignore any contradictory evidence to get there. Don't do that. Consider the possibility that things aren't exactly as you've been taught to believe they are.

No, tess, I'm talking from experience. I've been around these people. I know how they act, and I stand by my comments.

And no offense, but as a conservative, you're getting into some dangerous territory lecturing about stereotypes.

 

[tessaesque]

No, tess, I'm talking from experience. I've been around these people. I know how they act, and I stand by my comments.

And no offense, but as a conservative, you're getting into some dangerous territory lecturing about stereotypes.

There you go again with stereotyping. Most of the people on the forums who have gotten to know me will tell you I'm not a generalization of "conservative". As fiscal matters are most important to the safety of our country, my conservative views on fiscal policy take the forefront in my ideological identity. Socially, I am hardly a died-in-the-wool conservative. You, again, assumed I fit a stereotype you've allowed yourself to accept unquestioningly, based solely on a label.

You cannot possibly have met the several million people who make up the south of this nation. Because your experiences have trended in one direction you've made an assumption about those you haven't met. That is unfortunate.

 

[ric27]

And no offense, but as a conservative, you're getting into some dangerous territory lecturing about stereotypes.

Keep assuming....

Basically I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I don't want the government telling me how to live my life or extorting money from me for horse**** social program pork or wealth redistribution. I'm also an American first guy, meaning that I think America should do what is best for Americans first and worry about the worlds problems only after our problems at home are solved.

 

[Catawba]

He has governed Texas for 10 years. I guess they are somewhat bored of him.

However, national polls tie him with Obama. If he campaign well, there is no reason he wouldn't win.

PrairiePundit: Perry tied with Obama in Gallup poll
Romney is the only candidate leading Obama among registered voters, 48 percent to 46 percent, with 6 percent undecided, according to the new Gallup poll. Perry and Obama are tied at 47 percent among registered voters, also with 6 percent undecided.

Obama would beat Paul, 47 percent to 45 percent, and best Bachmann by a 4-point margin, 48 percent to 44 percent.

By all means, run Perry against Obama! :sun

 

[Catawba]

Not sure what you mean by that. I was born in Texas and have lived here almost all of my 26 years. A few stints in states on the west coast, and in Florida, Indiana, and Michigan...but most of my life has been here. I would think with my time here and in other states I'd be more adept to determine what the people of the south are like than somebody who "lives close by" or spent a week in Dallas.

I mean it from the perspective of someone that has lived in redneck country for 38 years and still considered a newcomer.

 

[Catawba]

I'd never heard of him before. Pretty sure I never will again. Thanks for, um, turning me on to him.

No, its not likely you will, as he recently died after a 4 month fight with cancer.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Joe Bageant - “Patriotism is a love of the place and the people who have shaped your heart and mind, not your willingness to die for oil or, as Napoleon said “for those baubles pinned on the chests of dead soldiers.”

 

[LuckyDan]

No, its not likely you will, as he recently died after a 4 month fight with cancer.

I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes by Joe Bageant - “Patriotism is a love of the place and the people who have shaped your heart and mind, not your willingness to die for oil or, as Napoleon said “for those baubles pinned on the chests of dead soldiers.”

Which is why I wrote of him in past tense. Shakespeare and Twain are dead, too, but people still hear of them.

Here's a quote that will stand the test of time, if the world ends in 2014.

As for Bush getting elected, it's the same as Hitler. Bush represents most Americans, or at least a slim majority. But it's a mean majority and we can expect a Reichstadt fire sometime during the next 10 years. Bush may be gone, Kerry may get elected, but we've got an oil habit kiddo, and a lust for empire and you will be roadkill if you get in the road. Sure, there will be some slobbering gutless Democrats elected along the way, but all it will be is a feel-good exercise of an expiring empire. People put too much faith in political parties. They should have taken to the streets 15 years ago.

Now there's a thinker. I don't doubt you love him.

 

[DarkWizard12]

Perry 'created' jobs by stealing them from other states. Not sure how that translates nationally, unless he plans to steal jobs from Mexico and Guatemala.

There is no such thing as "stealing" in this case. This just means every other state had a piss poor economic policy, yes?

 

[Sensibility]

They certainly are...IF they sense that you're "one of them." If you're not, or you have "less than" white skin, or you're a woman who wears her hair short, or if you even have a Darwin fish/Greenpeace/etc. bumper sticker (or especially ten of 'em), don't expect to be treated as a human.

It's becoming quite evident that most of the anti-redneckers have never spent any time in true redneck country. You have some stereotyped fantasy of what redneck country must be like, but having never set foot here, you have no idea that your paranoid delusions do not comport in any way with reality.

 

[Catawba]

Which is why I wrote of him in past tense. Shakespeare and Twain are dead, too, but people still hear of them. Here's a quote that will stand the test of time, if the world ends in 2014. Now there's a thinker. I don't doubt you love him.

Glad you see the truth in what he is saying. Here is another quote from Joe Bageant you may enjoy:

"During the past 300 years of the industrial age, as Europeans, and later as Americans, we have managed to consume infinitely more than we ever produced, thanks to colonialism, crooked deals with despotic potentates and good old gunboats and grapeshot. Yes, we have lived, and still live, extravagant lifestyles far above the rest of you. And so, my sincere thanks to all of you folks around the world working in sweatshops, or living on two bucks a day, even though you sit on vast oil deposits. And to those outside my window here in Mexico this morning, the two guys pruning the retired gringo's hedges with what look like pocket knives, I say, keep up the good work. It's the world's cheap labor guys like you -- the black, brown and yellow folks who take it up the shorts -- who make capitalism look like it actually works. So keep on humping.

Remember: We've got predator drones."

 

[LuckyDan]

Glad you see the truth in what he is saying. Here is another quote from Joe Bageant you may enjoy:

"During the past 300 years of the industrial age, as Europeans, and later as Americans, we have managed to consume infinitely more than we ever produced, thanks to colonialism, crooked deals with despotic potentates and good old gunboats and grapeshot. Yes, we have lived, and still live, extravagant lifestyles far above the rest of you. And so, my sincere thanks to all of you folks around the world working in sweatshops, or living on two bucks a day, even though you sit on vast oil deposits. And to those outside my window here in Mexico this morning, the two guys pruning the retired gringo's hedges with what look like pocket knives, I say, keep up the good work. It's the world's cheap labor guys like you -- the black, brown and yellow folks who take it up the shorts -- who make capitalism look like it actually works. So keep on humping.

Remember: We've got predator drones."

Honestly, from his Zinn and Chomsky-like quotes and smartass tone, I can't tell which he was more full of: himself, or sh*t, though in his case there may have been little difference.

He was just another hippy.

 

[Phys251]

There you go again with stereotyping. Most of the people on the forums who have gotten to know me will tell you I'm not a generalization of "conservative". As fiscal matters are most important to the safety of our country, my conservative views on fiscal policy take the forefront in my ideological identity. Socially, I am hardly a died-in-the-wool conservative. You, again, assumed I fit a stereotype you've allowed yourself to accept unquestioningly, based solely on a label.

You cannot possibly have met the several million people who make up the south of this nation. Because your experiences have trended in one direction you've made an assumption about those you haven't met. That is unfortunate.

Keep assuming....

Basically I'm fiscally conservative and socially liberal. I don't want the government telling me how to live my life or extorting money from me for horse**** social program pork or wealth redistribution. I'm also an American first guy, meaning that I think America should do what is best for Americans first and worry about the worlds problems only after our problems at home are solved.

It's becoming quite evident that most of the anti-redneckers have never spent any time in true redneck country. You have some stereotyped fantasy of what redneck country must be like, but having never set foot here, you have no idea that your paranoid delusions do not comport in any way with reality.

You guys can deny the truth all you want to, but everything I said was based on life experience.