comment #1

mutinyco says ...

I always thought the close-up of the crinkled wrapper on the gas station counter in No Country was the anti-American Beauty...

comment #2

christian says ...

I agree mutinyco. And if a politician said that today, he'd have to drop out.

And candice208? I'm going to destroy you.

comment #3

BurmaShave says ...

Instead of the cretinous warmonger LBJ, the sanctimonious fuckup Jimmy Carter, or the centrist lech Bill Clinton, I really wish Adlai Stevenson were the hero of more modern Democrats and the paragon of the modern party. I was hoping another dry and genius man from Illionois might take us back, but it looks like we're going to destroy that. We could use some of his wisdom back now.

"You don't need to burn down the barn to kill the rats" Gee, I wish there were some parallels today.

comment #4

George Prager says ...

Stevenson was the Bill Bradley of 52 and 56. Read your history.

comment #5

buckzollo says ...

Obama will be the nominee. The guy really is kitchen-sink proof. HRC is done, but fighting dirty with hopes she can still be around for glory if he is mortally wounded. He took the Wright thing and made a gold purse out of a shit sandwich. I for one apply that skill, that judgement, those words as a harbinger of what a good leader he will be.

comment #6

christian says ...

Wright ain't over yet, bz. The polls don't reflect your optimism.

comment #7

62Lincoln says ...

All he needs are a few more "typical white people" to vote for him, and he'll be good to go.

comment #8

Bocephus says ...

The polls don't reflect anyone's opinion.

comment #9

gansibele says ...

Bill Bradley, absolutely rigth.

comment #10

gruver1 says ...

The polls reflect that the blue-collar dumbasses have seized upon a reason -- finally! -- to vote against Barack Obama for a racial rationale that they don't have to be ashamed of. They can finally come out of the closet and say "hell, no" to Obama by pretending in their heads that Obama is Wright, that Obama is a closet whitey-hater, etc.

Despite there being absolutely nothing but strong evidence to the contrary in his bio, testaments by friends and colleagues, and in his books and speeches. Despite his having responded to the controversy with one of the all-time great speeches on race in the history of this country. To the dumbasses, it's all smoke and they don't want to know from nuthin'. A sub-culture of dolts (with a particular concentration in the northeast yahoo areas of Pensylvania) saying "just give us the easy soundbites and the simplistic fast-food notions so we don't have to think like reasoned adults"....wow.

Tracy Morgan again: "We live in a racist country -- the end."

There is nothing quite as spiritually ugly as America the Beautiful when you peel away the baseball games and the picket fences and the occasional periods of prosperity and the muscle cars and mom's apple pie and the cole slaw and bacon and eggs at little roadside diners and great movies and rock music on juke boxes and all the other sublime things about this country...when you get right in there with the stethoscope and look at who a lot of Americans really are deep down...good God. It's not only "not pretty" but bordering on disgusting.

That's not what a lot of mules who regularly post on this site want to hear, but the only country that rivals our own in terms of ignorance and racist attitudes is...well, I was going to say Australia but there's a lot of racial thinking and staggering levels of ignorance out there, particularly among the Middle Eastern America haters. I was feeling good and proud about this country for a while. But now it's back to reality and the boils and the hives and the songs of the poets who died of broken hearts.

comment #11

Rich S. says ...

I'll ask the question again Jeffrey. And, again, I don't mean this in a John Birch "love it or leave it" sort of way. I'm honestly curious. If you consider this country such an ignorant cesspool, why do you stay?

You're a freelance writer. You can presumably live anywhere you want to, and even continue to maintain your blog aimed as U.S. readers. Is it your kids?

Really. Millions and millions of these Americans you are disparaging voted for your chosen candidate and continue to support him. He hits one bump in the road, something that any serious candidate for high office faces sooner or later, and we're all once again a bunch of racist troglodytes.

A couple of days ago, you claimed to have been genuinely moved by the outpouring of sympathy from the "mules" you're now once again dumping on. I wish you'd take your candidates advice and try to concentrate on the good things that bind us, rather than flying off the handle and dismissing fifty percent of the population every chance you get. When Obama was talking about the attitudes that divide us, he wasn't just talking about red staters (who incidentally have voted for him in droves).

comment #12

mizerock says ...

People know what they know and all "evidence" can be twisted to support what they already know.

Once again It'll be up to those unpredictable swing voters to decide who they distrust the least.

comment #13

gruver1 says ...

Wells to Rich S.: You are saying "love it leave it." That's precisely what you're saying. Wear those Bubba medals proudly. I can't afford to live in Italy, and the column wouldn't work if I wrote it from there. Otherwise, I would live there at least six months out of the year. One's appreciation for this country (even with my attitude) increases if you spend time away. I know; I've felt it.

comment #14

Rich S. says ...

"One's appreciation for this country (even with my attitude) increases if you spend time away. I know; I've felt it."

See? Was that so hard?

I am specifically NOT saying "love it or leave it." I'm saying, if something makes you so all-fired miserable, why do you continue to engage in it? You leave a movie you don't like five minutes into it. Yet you remain decade after decade in a country where you are surrounded by people who make your flesh crawl and your blood boil.

If it helps, do some research. No country on this Earth is perfect. But I believe that the United States tries hardest to achieve perfection and has the best system for allowing its citizens to accomplish this. After all, we produced Obama, didn't we?

Are we without fault? No, far from it. But I would rather spend my energies trying to improve our lot, rather than looking wistfully at some idealized version of another country that doesn't really exist. And I love travel and going abroad. I lived in London and Paris for a summer and enjoyed every minute of it. And I liked most of the people I met while I was there. But when I was finished with my classes, like you I couldn't wait to come home, warts and all.

I like you Jeffrey, I really do. Sometimes I just don't understand why you get so negative when we're all still basically on your side.

comment #15

gansibele says ...

"...but the only country that rivals our own in terms of ignorance and racist attitudes is..."

Mexico, where a majority of TV and movie stars have white skin and "spanish" features while the rest of the population are called "indios", where they regard Guatemalans with even less humanity than the minutemen regard Mexicans? Spain, where entire ethnias -Basques, Galicians- are regarded as inferior and dumb to Castilians and Catalans? The enlightened French, among whom anti-semitism is rampant and whose politicians see no problem in deriding and marginalizing the masses of dark skinned North African immigrants and their descendants? Italy, where black people are routinely assaulted on the streets and soccer clubs have refused to play over security concerns for their black players? Take your pick.