Comment by rayiner
4 years ago
Politics isn’t about what people “have in them.” It’s about everyone pursing their perceived self interest.
If you attack a group of people, they will consolidate ranks and fight back. And they will throw their weight behind leaders that they perceive as fighters. This is especially true of honor cultures like in the American south.
I’m reminded about the speech George W. Bush gave after 9/11: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/20.... I think liberals don’t fully understand the genius of this speech. He wasn’t just moralizing to Americans to tell them not to take out their anger on Muslims. He was giving Muslim Americans an opportunity to reaffirm their Muslim identity while giving them a vocabulary to talk about the ones who did evil in the name of Islam.
Contrast this against the rhetoric the media in New York uses against people in the rural south anytime something bad happens there. They portray it as a confirmation of the bad things that New Yorkers already believed about southern culture.
My initial objection was about the culture you experienced further south vs the culture in MTG's district, which always struck me as a pretty culturally unique place (in addition to being the carpet capital of the world). You riffed on the part of my comment that was a joke (re: Marietta and ATL).
I disagree with you less than might have been obvious, particularly because I've had relatives make the move north and experience some discrimination.
I can assure you there are many people who reside in MTG's district and find her deplorable, reprehensible, and an embarrassment--both locally and nationally.
Source: I live in her district. And work for an outstanding software company that's headquartered there.
Indeed, and I try to remember not to needlessly give people too much crap about their representatives because I realize that as much as I dislike them, it's quite possible they dislike them in a much more personal way.
There's plenty of consolation to be found in that state right now, I would think. In the same election you guys voted in a black pastor and a Jewish journalist to the US Senate. I wish my father could have seen that.