White House
Progressive Resistance: Next steps or new steps?
Macdaffy - 02:45 am Pacific Time - Nov 20, 2004 - #368 of 435
"Economic traitor" conveys just about the right amount of venom against people who outsource American jobs. See, I think that liberals/progressives are disadvantaged by our "We shall overcome/Cumbaya/Glorious Civil Rights Struggle" mentality. We should remain nonviolent as long as we can -- Dr. King was right about that -- but these guys aren't playing tiddlywinks anymore. The post-World War II period was an amazing time for our country. If you think about it, we came further in a shorter amount of time than almost any other epoch. The right began fighting this battle in 1932 and are only just now seeing the fruits of their labors.
But, as my late father-in-law said: They're like junkies; they can't help themselves. They will steal everything that isn't nailed down. They will press every advantage, and exploit every loophole. They almost brought the country to ruin early in the last century and still characterize Franklin Roosevelt as a "class traitor" for doing what needed to be done to save it.
The Republicans finally have the power they've worked for for so many years. Now, they're working to roll back every advance demanded by the people of its government since Theodore Roosevelt. Maybe they'll do it. I have no doubt that some of what they do will benefit the country. But they are hurting and will continue to hurt people they don't care about. This is no longer "polite." The news media won't play pictures of protesters being attacked by dogs or assaulted in the churches (which they maintain we don't go to anyway). They will underestimate the numbers at marches. They will ignore the efforts of activists and volunteers. And still, we will persist. We always have.
Movies
Bizarre Adoration of Random Celebrities
cyasukot - 10:14 am Pacific Time - Nov 20, 2004 - #2727 of 2763
Sister, there ain't nothing wrong with Eminem. He's smart, edgy, and does that wounded but strong thing very, very well.
The fact that you're a minivan-driving mom makes a lot of sense to me. I've posted this before in the Dreams thread, but I'll restate -- I have recurrent dreams that I'm married to Eminem.
Uh, not the sort of dreams you'd think -- just scenes of domestic bliss. Watching a DVD and eating popcorn, or doing the dishes together. I'm frequently aware in these dreams that it is quite strange that we are, in fact, married, but I'm sort of laughing to myself because I'm really happy about it. (Eminem is frequently opening the door for me, which I love.) Now, I don't really think these dreams are about being married to Eminem (though I do find him attractive/appealing). They are about this: in college, I was a self-righteous, self-denying snob who would have boycotted Eminem if he ever came to campus. As I got a little older, though, I began to know myself better and once in a while I'd hear something about Eminem and it wouldn't invoke ire or disgust. Once I even went into a record shop with the intent of buying an Eminem CD (I got distracted and left with a box set of Noam Chomsky lectures instead). And then I finally became an adult and came into my own and I don't give a shit what people think about who I listen to or what I think is good anymore. I'm letting my freak flag fly, and if I want to buy a convertible (which I did, to the horror of my saftey-first friends) and drive at unnecessarily high speeds with the top down (which I do) blasting Eminem (which I definitely, definitely live to do) then I will fucking do it! (And I do, thank you very much.)
So these dreams, I think, are about me being happy to be with me -- which I am, finally. (And also just a bit about the fact that Eminem is smokin' hot.)
White House
KimR - 10:03 pm Pacific Time - Nov 20, 2004 - #135 of 399
I live in the Arkansas town that is publicly referred to as "Haven for the State's Eccentrics" by the Little Rock newspaper that is inexplicably named the Arkansas Democrat Gazette.
Democrat? Democrat!?!?! Where ARE all the Democrats in Arkansas?
I'll tell you where they are: They are gasping under the suffocating weight of the L.A., Chicago and New York Republican expatriates who came to this part of the country because they heard we have four actual seasons, a vigorous economy, decent golf courses, and cheap real estate ... at least by California and New York standards.
You city dwellers are sending us the wretched refuse of your teeming shores. They come here to retire or get a job and raise their children in a safe, pseudo-'50s sitcom environment. They form their corporate empires in Arkansas because, here's a little known tip: Arkansas has corporate regulations that are even more lax than Delaware's. Then they pay us back for our trouble by violating the traditional democratic principles of Arkansas and voting like a bunch of wing-nut idiots.
Wal-Mart made a rule a few years ago that goes like this: If you want to do business with Wal-Mart, you have to open an office in Bentonville, Ark. ... which is the site of Sam Walton's original Five and Dime and the current home of the Borg retail empire. Every day, 365 days a year, there are 100 new housing starts in the N.W. Arkansas Corridor. "Starter castles," we call them. Row upon row upon row of 8,000-square-foot matching homes with matching styles, matching rooflines, matching soccer-mom vans in every driveway. All populated by whom? The expatriate Republicans who are forced to leave the blue cities of their national home office so they can qualify their employers to do business with red-land Wal-Mart.
I happen to live in an Arkansas town that voted 75 percent for Kerry, and 75 percent against the Arkansas constitutional amendment designed to "protect America from the Godless Homosexual Menace." We're a small town. By Arkansas standards, and most red-State standards, a funky town. And ... yes, slightly less than half of my home state is, admittedly, desperately weird.
So I can't actually dispute that we are pretty useless in the big scheme of things, we liberals of rural Arkansas. We're united in our liberal views, here in my small town, but, by comparison to the number of people who advocate those liberal views in America's cities? Well... we're basically a speck on the great dustmop of life. Or, in currently popular terms: We're like an entire Bible, written on the head of a pin. But ... you know? All wars have different divisions that serve various purposes. And, yes, the cities are the army. But the rural enclaves are the resistance. We're the Underground Railroad. We're the sneaky little insurgents who plant the land mines that weaken the forces so the main army can easily wipe out the sorry bastards when they come limping over the bridge.
I'm not going to ask you to feel my pain. Truly, I understand what you mean when you say you are OVER me and what you perceive to be My Kind.
But I will ask you to consider the possibility that there are, indeed, places on the blood-red map that are useful to your urban purposes.
Don't love the red state liberals because you are a liberal. Love us, because you may be the tank that has the power to blast the deadly conservative paradigm off the map. But we are the ants at the picnic. We are the people who can get your opponents flailing and swatting at our annoying selves ... long enough for you to take that deadly aim.
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