A taste of red state (Indiana) ignorance

[GrantDem]

For my fellow Dems that live in Blue states this is the type of repuke ignorance that we in red states hear almost daily.

From the republican rag Indy Star Newspaper.

Bayh refuses to support troops in time of war
I was dismayed to learn of Sen. Evan Bayh's vote on Dec. 21 against cloture for the defense spending bill. Bayh voted against funding for our servicemen and women in a time of war. He also voted against relief funding for Katrina victims and funding for flu preparedness. Finally he voted against making America less energy dependent on other countries (Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling).

Can anyone really take Bayh seriously as a potential commander in chief when he refuses to support our troops in a time of war? This is just another lesson that actions speak louder than words.
Doug Marcotte
Greenfield

http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051228/OPINION01/512280372/1031

[Don Claybrook]

1. Does young fuckwit here even know what cloture is?

I think I already know the answer to that question.

[GrantDem]

4. I seriously doubt it. n/t

[LiberalFighter]

7. You guessed right about him being a young fuckwit

He was born in 1985. He had attended the 2004-05 year at Indiana University.

[Maggie_May]

2. After checking out the web sight

I kind of know what you talking about. They just live in this so call cloud that everything is great the war is going great the economy is great. The only time they feel anything is when it hits home and believe me in 2006 it going to hit home. I really think the Iraq war is to drive a wedge between the Rebs and the Dems I think if the wedge was removed we could really start talking about the issues that matter to Americans health care good jobs education.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

3. Ah, politics

gotta love it.

or throw up

[ieoeja]

5. We get here in the big Blue as well.

I have never noticed getting any news where I grew up in southern Indiana that I do not also get here in Chicago where I've lived the past 20 years. Conversely, I have noticed that a lot of the news I get in Chicago, I do not see when visiting down on the farm. That would be, of course, much of the positive-for-Progressives or negative-for-Regressives news & opinion.

[LeftNYC]

6. We get this in the New York Post

Often, the Daily News, and just bad or non-reporting in the Times.

[Peace Patriot]

8. Please don't label any state "red" unless you can verify how it voted.

Really. Unless you can show me that Indiana voted with paper ballots hand-counted at the precinct level, or with electronics run on open source code with paper ballot backup and strong security and auditing controls, you have no basis for determining how the state voted. One LTE, or even a host of anecdotal items on how ignorant Indianans are--which may well be influenced by your fear of, and consequence focus on, incidents of ignorance, stupidity and other pro-Bush behavior--does not make a "red" state. Only COUNTED votes, in a TRANSPARENT election, can do that.

Keep in mind, also, that wingers may be emboldened by the impression that the war profiteering corporate news monopolies have created that they are, somehow, a majority. Thus, you may see more winger bumper stickers, or you may hear what seem like a lot of wingers on the radio. Question these impressions and illusions. Know that the corporate news monopolies are giving the rightwing a BIG TRUMPET, way out proportion to their numbers. I am speaking generally, of the nation. I know this to be true in general terms. (Issue polls, over the last two years, for instance, show a great progressive majority, opposed to every Bush policy, foreign and domestic, way up in the 60% to 70% range.) You may have a particular winger problem in Indiana. I don't know. But I wouldn't assume it to be true. And I would be wary of fear in making this determination--and of the demoralization and disempowerment that many progressives feel because they don't realize that they are the majority.

Dealing with wingers and other stupid or ill-informed people, if they are truly in the majority, is one thing. But dealing with the ILLUSION that they are in the majority is quite a different political and educational problem. The first problem is a matter of educating THEM. But the second problem requires educating US--on election reform, on connecting with and organizing other progressives, and on resisting the illusions of the corporate news monopolies.

I think it's critically important that we diagnose the problem correctly, and strategize on the basis of reality and truth--not on what the news monopoliies want us to believe about what other Americans think.