Friday, September 18, 2009

Meanwhile, at the Value Voter's Summit*

It seems like they're not too happy about Jimmy Carter opining that racism might be the real cause of the Teabaggers. Mike, methinks thou dost protest too much! Of course, if they wanted to dispel this allusion, they could disown these signs when they see them, as well as whatever nasty sentiment burbles out of Rush's brain that particular day. Or just ignore it.

See, this is what I don't get. If someone makes a complaint about me, I'll think about it, and decide if it has any validity or not. If not, I generally just ignore it. If so, I try to make adjustments. I suppose there is a third option, which is to loudly deny the complaint and assault the character of the person making it, but I've rarely used it because I've found it tends to reinforce the very complaint being made. Correct or not, people who see you react so violently to accusations tend to think that they must have hit a nerve, and are fundamentally true. Plus, using the words "Republican" (or conservatives, or what have you) and "racist" in the same sentence over and over again only helps cement the association in peoples' minds. I suppose this is the Fox/Rove playbook of public relations, but considering its success in recent years, I suspect the actual playbook of public relations would be better suited for a party with no power that is evidently loathed by pretty much everyone in the country outside the South.

[*What a terribly alliterative name! And rather a tongue twister. They need to come up with something better. I think "Voter's Summit for Values" is much easier to say myself.]

The Man, The Myth, The Bio

East Bay, California, United States
Problem: I have lots of opinions on politics and culture that I need to vent. If I do not do this I will wind up muttering to myself, and that's only like one or two steps away from being a hobo. Solution: I write two blogs. A political blog that has some evident sympathies (pro-Obama, mostly liberal though I dissent on some issues, like guns and trade) and a culture blog that does, well, cultural essays in a more long-form manner. My particular thing is taking overrated things (movies, mostly, but other things too) down a peg and putting underrated things up a peg. I'm sort of the court of last resort, and I tend to focus on more obscure cultural phenomena.