Insults.

[kiva]

There are many people of Indian heritage that are good Democrats. Ditto people of various European heritage, blacks, Native Americans, Asians, Hispanics and many other backgrounds. There are fat people who are good Democrats. There are people with 'funny' accents that are good Democrats. There are people who give their children unusual names who are good Democrats. There are GLBT people who are good Democrats.

When you use any of the above as a slur for a Republican, you are insulting thousands of Democrats who also share that trait/ethnicity/orientation. If you are too lazy or too uninformed or too unimaginative to insult someone based on their words or actions, maybe you need to put a little work into it, and quit going for the cheap slam.

[truebrit71]

1. Piyush Jindal the Exorcist thanks you for your concern...

...:eyes:

[Waiting For Everyman]

7. You mean, Piyush Jindal the pre-existing condition, exorcist.

:rofl:

[DainBramaged]

41. You mean, Piyush Jindal the pre-existing condition, exorcist anchor baby.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

8. LOL! nt

[scarletwoman]

9. Whoosh! That's the sound of the point going over your head.

Or, maybe you're all for ethnic-based bigotry?

[truebrit71]

12. Whoosh! That's the sound of using someone's birth name is not ethnic-based bigotry going over your..

...head...

[scarletwoman]

20. Right. Funny how the right wing loved to use "Hussein" when tearing down Obama.

I guess it was totally innocent of them.

[truebrit71]

25. No, that highlighted their small mindedness..."his name sounds like that eye-racky we dun killed"...

..whereas using the real name of the race-ashamed governor of LA simply highlights the cynical nature of this person...

But don't let that stop you in your judgements of others motives...

[cherokeeprogressive]

28. "race-ashamed". Is that what you say about Zhū Dìwén?

He prefers Steven Chu BTW.

[Luminous Animal]

33. No, using Jindal's given name is playing on the same bigotry...

the Republicans were counting on to defeat Obama.

[truebrit71]

40. The difference is Barack Obama didn't CHANGE his name...

...because his name sounded "foreign"...which is what Piyush did..

[roguevalley]

60. if his name didn't sound 'funny', people wouldn't be using it to run him down.

if he was Aasif Jindal I wonder if that would be 'fair game' too.

[EFerrari]

36. If his first name was Edward, you wouldn't be doing it. n/t

[Malikshah]

2. Thanks. And it is time for it to stop. Folks need to get a grip.

Jindal is an asshat. That is simple enough for folks to say and understand based upon his mastery of asshatery this evening in his response.

[Duer 157099]

3. I think, as with Palin, when they use (whatever) as a credential

then it becomes fair play.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

19. that's true - how can we forget how holy Palin tried to convince us she was? lol nt

[Why Syzygy]

4. It's his repukism that makes a mockery of anything else he may be. nt

[Sarah Ibarruri]

10. Amen to that. He looks like Howdy Doody nt

[Midlodemocrat]

5. Oh, FFS. Jindal is a douchebag asshole of the highest order

I don't give a flaming fuck what his ethnicity is. I don't see people flaming his 'homeland' because he's such a magnificant specimen of an utter douchbag.

Get a grip.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

11. lol magnificent specimen of a douchebag nt

[Midlodemocrat]

14. You like that, huh?

:rofl:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

16. I almost spilled my chai tea on my keyboard lol nt

[SmileyRose]

30. That was pure poetry.

magnificant specimen of an utter douchbag.



Perfection..........

[EFerrari]

35. Being decent isn't about who he is, it's about who you are. n/t

[lukasahero]

50. Bravo. eom

[Sarah Ibarruri]

6. My sister adopted two kids from Mumbai...

.... and I think attacking Jindal and calling him Kenneth from 30 Rock is hardly insulting him for his racial background.

Also, it's nobody's fault but his own that his background is Indian and he chose voluntarily to belong to the political party of crooks.

[falcon97]

15. It also cannot be avoided

that the Republican party is pushing Jindal precisely because of his ethnicity. Pointing that out undercuts the Rethugs, not Jindal.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

24. Oh of course, which is why he rubbed it in too that he was from another country ahem

He should've just talked about the economy, which is the pressing issue, and stopped trying to milk his Indian background for credit.

Instead, he said stupid sh*t like that he doesn't believe in monitoring volcanoes. How dumb.

[kiva]

21. It's his fault that

"his background is Indian"? :crazy:

[Sarah Ibarruri]

26. It's his fault that he was milking it for all it was worth = and he does remind me of Kenneth on 30R

And he acts like him. A real dunce and kiss-ass!

[kiva]

27. Don't much care about that one.

The Gunga Dim references are pretty direct though.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

44. I hear it's growing exponentially... Everyone has caught on to Jindal's stupidity nt

[EFerrari]

37. But invoking his given name as an insult is racist.

There's plenty to slam this guy with. He can't even figure out how buying cars means jobs!

We don't need to go directly into the sewer.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

47. Why? Does his given name mean something ugly? Was he trying to hide it?

Is it against the law to mention it? What rule is being broken by mentioning it? You run for PUBLIC office, everything is exposed. You don't want anything exposed, don't run for PUBLIC office. They don't call it PUBLIC for nothing. He needs to quit his governorship if he has things he'd rather keep secret and unsaid. Obama didn't change his middle name. Time to be real instead of stupid.

[EFerrari]

48. Using anyone's name as an insult is wrong, Sarah.

It surprises me that it has to be pointed out to you.

[Sarah Ibarruri]

49. You need to point it out because if he's threatened by his 1st name, he'd better change his last

name too.

[EFerrari]

52. It's not a matter of what he is "threatened" by, is it?

How do you intend to support this big tent if your awareness is somewhere down around your ankles?

How many of your friends would enjoy having their own names being used as an epithet, Sarah Ibarruri?

[Sarah Ibarruri]

53. It's open season on Republicans, the way it is always open season on Dems for Repukes

Get over yourself and quick.

[EFerrari]

58. If you're asking me to sign off on ethnic slurs, I can't do that.

And you might want to rethink that yourself.

[Telly Savalas]

59. So you're arguing that the Democratic Party should model itself after the GOP.

Good luck with that.

[PVnRT]

51. Did you use "Piyush" before, or just recently?

Something tells me that nearly all of you who think this is just the most hilarious thing ever only started doing this recently, because you want Republicans to associate a foreign name with one of their rising stars.

But, I'm sure it's all innocent.

[Historic NY]

13. NOTE: I've got nothing against them...but

people like Jindal try to hide or conceal they're real heritage behind phony nicknames. The Repukes use people like him, Steele & others to advance an agenda. They don't care period, I'm sorry if I offend but that is the way I see it.

[paulsby]

39. i gotta disagree with this

using an americanized/english nickname is not "hiding your heritage behind phony nicknames".

cmon. get real.

and especially when a guy chooses his nickname as a KID (iow he's been using it most/all of his life), it is absurd to think that he should change back to his given name in order to have some sort of ethnic validity with their roots.

he's of indian heritage and also obviously very culturally american. so, what is the big deal with going by "bobby"?

and how is he hiding his heritage? it's not like he changed his last name too or bleached his skin?

he many not sound like the stereotypical indian character in the simpsons, but that's because he spent his life here.

he's a putz and his speech SUCKED, but that's tangential to the issue.

fwiw, i go by one of my middle names. i wasn't trying to hide my "real heritage" behind it. i prefer my (second) middle name to my first name. So, i guess I have experience with this.

my first name is a biblical name. my second middle ISN'T. does it therefore follow that i was trying TO HIDE MY BIBLICALLY INFLUENCED NAME?

there are PLENTY of democrats also who have unusual (for america) first names who ALSO go by americanized names/nicknames. are they are phonies too?

choosing bobby because he was a brady bunch character is kind of funny, but he did it as a KID? how many of us had funny heroes or favorite tv characters when we were kid.

i am NOT on board with the OP in thinking that people are being racist or going way overboard, i just don't think it's a big deal that a guy named "Piyush" chose the nickname bobby as a kid. really. who CARES?

[TahitiNut]

17. Instead of giving a "stern nanny" speech, just hit 'Alert' and make your case.

If nothing happens, then there may be a clue somewhere. :shrug:

[Lex]

22. second that

[Luminous Animal]

34. Not all issues can be solved by DU nannies.

[ecstatic]

18. Is there a difference between the way Steele is referenced

around here and the way Jindal is referenced? If so, what is it? :shrug:

[Stinky The Clown]

23. And there are clown-Americans that are good Democrats, too ....

We're sick of being used as the butt of jokes and the center of insults.

I mean ..... I'm a serious guy. Do you I strike you as funny? Huh? Do I look funny to you?

[foxfeet]

57. No, but you smell bad.

:P

Edit: Punctuation.

[Juche]

29. My impression is people are slurring the cluelessness of the GOP

"Lets get someone/anyone with dark skin to be our spokesperson", that is their whole strategy at this point (worked well for Palin and women voters, the GOP only lost women voters by 13 points in that election). That and tax cuts on the wealthy.

[kiva]

31. I agree that the GOP has a weird idea

that women and minorities are interchangeable--you like Hillary, you'll love Sarah! Here's Bobby Jindel, the new improved Obama! Stupid, you'd think they'd have figured it out after the last election.

[sammythecat]

32. Good post.

There's nothing you said that isn't the truth.

I've seen some comments here tonight that I wish I didn't see and this "fair game" bullshit doesn't fly with me. My words and actions, my hypocrisy and lies, they all belong to me and me alone. They're fair game, but if I'm publicly ridiculed or insulted about my physical characteristics, ethnicity, or sexual orientation, then, besides being intrinsically wrong, others who are not fair game are ridiculed and insulted as well.

[Stinky The Clown]

43. Nice straw man

I saw exactly zero comments here on DU about Jindal's skin tone or ethnicity. I saw lots using his proper name, Piyush.

How about you go bark at the repubicans for a while.

They're the one's who think that a person will be acceptable just BECAUSE of skin color.

Perspective. Its a good thing.

[PVnRT]

54. Try not hotlinking next time and stealing bandwidth

Oh, you could also actually try responding to a post instead of trying to be clever and failing.

By the way, I have seen DUers speaking of the need to "remind" Repubicans that Jindal isn't white and American-looking.

[B o d i]

38. Let's dance

Bollywood ftw?

[CreekDog]

42. absolutely right

we refrain from epithets that *might* cause offense on the basis of racial, ethnic or religious stereotypes and/or if they would seem to feed into xenophobia.

if that seems unfair to white people, well, think of how unfair the treatment of nonwhites is in this country before you complain about what's fair.

(i am white fyi)

[JuniperLea]

45. We have plenty to mock him with...

I agree about leaving the national origin of his family out of this... but by all means I support the use of his proper birth name. Likewise I like to use Barack "Handsome Man" Obama... I'm only telling the truth... his name is very fitting.

[Fleshdancer]

46. I agree.

Thank you for saying it.

[KamaAina]

55. There are indeed GLBT people who are good Democrats.

And then there are closeted GLBT repukes who support the homophobic party line. Pointing out their hypocrisy is hardly "using any of the above as a slur for a Republican".

[Uzybone]

56. Pigboy Limbaugh

we all know why lots of DUers call him pigboy. Is that also out of bounds?