"Goodness Me, Some Of My Fellow Republicans Are CRAZY! When Did That Happen?"

[filkertom]

I'm a big fan of the blog First Draft. Passionate, excellent writing, particularly by the lovely Athenae.

Yesterday, the Washington Post published a column by Kathleen Parker about how the Repubs have become the party of the South, and how crazy they've become all of a sudden.

To which Athenae replies that it's hardly been all of a sudden.

Comments

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

Apparently she has already forgotten the scads of hate mail she received when she wrote som negative things about John McCain's choice of running mates during last year's election.

[shsilver.livejournal.com]

she referring to Parker, not Athenae.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

I less than three Athenae. And First Draft.

[selenesue.livejournal.com]

Wow, Athenae's commenters are a nasty bunch. I think that's why I don't venture into blogging; can't take the heat, staying out of kitchen.

[brewsternorth.livejournal.com]

Eh, they just get a bit impassioned at times, and can be a bit hair-triggery around trolls.

You want scary commenters? Try Atrios's Eschaton blog.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

I'm a regular on the morning crew at Eschaton, and sometimes hang out in the evening when they're liveblogging a speech or press conference or somethin', and I've met a number of them over the years (especially last year at EschaCon in Philly). And I can tell you that they are a great buncha folks.

But there have been a lot of very persistent trolls over the years, and some of them have made personal threats (including a couple against me), and when they show up the regulars go ballistic. There are also a few more personal feuds, where someone has it in for just one or two of the regulars and is otherwise pretty much a regular themselves. There is some serious, palpable hatred there.

[alverant.livejournal.com]

I quit reading Parker and canceled my subscription to the Chicago Tribune (which prints her column) when she said all the Atheists in the WTC found God on 9/11. Maybe now she will realize just how nasty the right-wingers are.

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

It's things like this that cause some people to predict that the US political system will one day devolve into violence and war between the repubs and the dems.

For every sane person on either side, a couple thousand crazy ones exist on both.

[dornbeast.livejournal.com]

I think the mistake is equating volume with amount.

In my opinion, there aren't more crazy people than sane people. The crazies are just louder, and they get more attention when they get printed. This applies to any political or social position I can think of.

[peachtales.livejournal.com]

And there is nothing wrong with Ohio. I live here :D

Anyways... Right on. It didn't happen yesterday, or last year. They've been letting it happen, and they haven't cared, because *they* were *ok*.

[amazingadrian.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that's true.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

It's beyond that. They didn't just "let it happen," they encouraged it -- because that made it harder for people like us to speak up AT ALL, which in turn made it easier for them to pretend that the whole country was on their side. It was like the rapist who ignores every negative signal and then says, "But she never SAID anything, so she must have wanted it."

Obama's biggest victory was to show people that we can defeat the bullies. He's put heart back into a lot of people who felt beaten down, and look what's happening now.

[gardnerhill.livejournal.com]

This began with Nixon's "Southern Strategy" and found its legs under St. Ronald Fucking Reagan. (To the next 20something privileged white boy who gushes about how Wonderful the Reagan Years were: Ask a woman, a black person, a poor person, or a gay dying of AIDS about the glorious 80s, you pampered little putz.)

[dan-ad-nauseam.livejournal.com]

There was a similar column in the Oregonian today, noting that the Southern strategy appears to have worked too well for the current Rs. As the columnist noted, Nixon knew how to count.

[louisadkins.livejournal.com]

Regrettably, it seems that a notable portion of the non-crazy still think the vocal minority is the majority opinion. :/

[jcw-da-dmg.livejournal.com]

I actually saw what seems to be a fairly sane Republican last night on Charlie Rose: Joe Scarborough (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Scarborough).

[humidcityloki.livejournal.com]

The crazy ones are impassioned on their topic whereas the normal people generally are much less likely to comment at all. IMHO this accounts for the perceived disparity.

I love the First Draft crew, Scout Prime is a kick to hang out with. They've been great proponents of my home town, New Orleans, ever since the leveee failure following Hurricane Katrina. Fantasitic bunch!

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

You'd think so... but watch him on his MSNBC morning show, Morning Joe, and you'll find yourself in the fact-free zone all too quickly.

[stevemb.livejournal.com]

I recall Zbigniew Brzezinski calling Joe out on his "stunningly superficial knowledge" of some subject (I forget which, but the statement is so widely applicable that it hardly matters).

Pity that backbone seems to have skipped a generation in the Brzezinski line....