No Southerners in Obama's Cabinet

[Matt Damon™]

What makes dixie so morally superior that they need to always be on presidential tickets? If we're assigning high political seats based on moral superiority why not New England? After all it's the home of most reform movements, the puritan fathers, etc.

[angus]

Worst...thread...ever.

And getting worse by the hour.

It's rapidly turning into a sort of Carnival of Trolls...

except that it's not.  trolling would be humorous, really.  what we're seeing here is genuine hatred.  bigotry based largely on one's birthright (in this case geographical).  it's quite frightening, whereas trolling--which is, as I understand it, irrelevant posting intended to disrupt--isn't quite so frightening.  wouldn't you agree that the opinions about the South (which are only tangentially related to the OP and therefore somewhat off-topic, I'd agree), were made less with disruptive intent and more with eruptive hatefulness.

Honestly, I'd expected this election to be more healing, but to see all this hate and bigotry come to the fore is as astonishing as it is disheartening.  as a foreigner, do you see us Americans as backward (in the true sense, as in regressive socially) as the anti-Southern comments would imply?  Or am I perhaps overreacting?  I really am very interested what you, a long-time outside observer of US culture, would have to say about this.

[LanceMcSteel]

Obama didnt kick ass because the South decided to drop its history of racism and bigotry, he won in spite of it my friends. Just because Obama won doesnt mean the South can be let off the hook for its 40 year reign of terror over the American people.

[specific_name]

Obama didnt kick ass because the South decided to drop its history of racism and bigotry, he won in spite of it my friends. Just because Obama won doesnt mean the South can be let off the hook for its 40 year reign of terror over the American people.

40 years? should be about...220 by your standards

[Aizen]

the north vs the south. who wins


in a rematch of the civil war?
in a pie-eating contest?
in a spelling bee competition?
in a break-dance competition?
in a fishing contest?
in a "who gets laid more" competition?


vote. now.

[Meeker]

When I started this thread I actually suspected that this was about how it would turn out.

[Matt Damon™]

the north vs the south. who wins


in a rematch of the civil war?
in a pie-eating contest?
in a spelling bee competition?
in a break-dance competition?
in a fishing contest?
in a "who gets laid more" competition?


vote. now.

1 We have all the nukes so we win
2 They win handily
3 We win
4 North is whitebread so south
5 south
6 If just who gets laid more the south, if sex has to be conesnsual the north

[WalterMitty]

i woke up and it was 1856.

[Хahar 🤔]

When I started this thread I actually suspected that this was about how it would turn out.

The Populist and all?

[ag]

Worst...thread...ever.

And getting worse by the hour.

It's rapidly turning into a sort of Carnival of Trolls...

except that it's not.  trolling would be humorous, really.  what we're seeing here is genuine hatred.  bigotry based largely on one's birthright (in this case geographical). 

It's not birthright - it's culture. I am sure the Northern posters here have nothing against their fellow-Americans born in Fairfax County, VA or in the NC's Research triangle, or, perhaps, even the San Antonio tejanos and Atlanta blacks. It's the true white Southerners they despise.  One could even argue, it's ethnic (if we consider white Southerners to be an ethnic group - which, in a way, they are).

Quite edifying, if a bit monotnous, read, actually.

[Neinrein]

Worst...thread...ever.

And getting worse by the hour.

It's rapidly turning into a sort of Carnival of Trolls...

except that it's not.  trolling would be humorous, really.  what we're seeing here is genuine hatred.  bigotry based largely on one's birthright (in this case geographical). 

It's not birthright - it's culture. I am sure the Northern posters here have nothing against their fellow-Americans born in Fairfax County, VA or in the NC's Research triangle, or, perhaps, even the San Antonio tejanos and Atlanta blacks. It's the true white Southerners they despise.  One could even argue, it's ethnic (if we consider white Southerners to be an ethnic group - which, in a way, they are).

Quite edifying, if a bit monotnous, read, actually.

And what praytell, is a true white Southerner,  as a Cajun-Slovonian from Biloxi, whose granddaddy worked on the boats all his life, I'm dyin' to hear this one. So what stereotypical not based in reality definition of white southerner will this example use

[angus]

That's always been the problem with the US.  I asked a former japanese girlfriend (back when she was not yet a former girlfriend) about Americans, and she was quite clear on this point:  "American" means white.  I have since asked other East Asians the same question and heard the same answer.  When they meet a person of Sub-Saharan African, East Asian, Hamito-semitic, or Native American (Amerindian, if you prefer) descent, they don't refer to them as "American," but as something else, where "something else" is "black" in the case of Sub-Saharan African, or "Asian" in the case of East Asian, or "Indian" in the case of South Asian, or whatever.  Even when these Americans have had ancestors in this country longer than I.  None of my ancestors came to the US before about 1910, and yet I am seen as a true American, whereas, say, an eight-generation Chinese-American will generally not be seen as an "American" by Asians.  So I submit that this problem to which you allude (the difficulty of ethnic assignment) isn't one borne by Southerners alone, but by all gringos, regardless of color.  (By that I mean it must be as frustrating to the non-European Americans to not be regarded by non-US people as True Americans as it is for non-Anglo Southerners not to be regarded as True Southerners, and equally as frustrating as it is for European-Americans who are generally sensitive to this phenomenon, etc.)

For the purpose of this thread, I'd assumed we meant birthright, but who knows.  I submit that the perception is one that all gringos, and not just Southerners, share.  It is a point of commonality, and a equally frustrating for all, Anglo or not, European or not, Southerner or not.  It's a matter of being from a country (or a region) where we're really not united by blood, common gods, or even common values.  China has ancient architecture, a population of which 98% are ethnically pure Han peoples, a common native language, and a common philosophical system.  What do we have?  An idea.  That's about it.

Inside in, if you will.

On a more important note, I don't think the boy's buying into the Santa Claus schtick.  The old lady took him out for a bit today, and I surreptitiously purchased and wrapped some presents and put them in our living room under the Christmas Tree.  (I've never done a Christmas Tree till this year, but my wife has been nagging me every year about it and I finally caved in.  I guess she sees it as part of her assimilation process.  Fair enough.  So we went out and got a Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago.  Strapped it with a nylon rope to the roof of my Mercedes-Benz and made the two-mile drive, very slowly, on ice- and snow-covered streets from the tree man's lot in front of K-mart to my house with the tree.  Man, Christmas trees are messy.  Just carrying it from the driveway to the front door made my hands sticky and got little green needles all over my sidewalk.  And today I went out and spent $523.87 on Christmas presents.  More than I've ever done before.  Not that I'm cheap, but I'm pretty cheap, and haven't made a big deal about Christmas shopping the past.  But I'm trying to get into the whole Holiday Spirit, and what with the boy old enough to appreciate the consumeristic aspect of the Worlds most commercial holiday, I figured it was about time.)  So I put the hastily-wrapped packages under the old Tannenbaum, and when they got back, he immediately noticed "the boxes."  Hey, Daddy, somebody came and left some boxes under the Christmas Tree.  I explained that they were "presents."  And then I quickly explained to him that Santa Claus had come to Cedar Falls, Iowa, and had left very specific instructions that they not be opened till Christmas.  He's not even four yet--his birthday is December 30--and he was quick to point out the Charlie Brown wrapping paper looked much like "our paper that we bought last week."  Of course I explained that Santa Claus asked me to help him and so I simply used the wrapping paper we already had.  He shot me a look of incredulity.  I must say I was astonished by the whole conversation.  We have never done Christmas Trees or Santa Claus or any of that till this year.  I'd assumed that he was old enough, finally, to do those things, and for the most part he isn't pawing and chewing at the ornaments, although we are getting a bit tired of vacuuming the carpet of tiny green needles daily.  Anyway, I had expected this ruse to be much easier.  I'd hoped to work it a bit:  maybe talk about how good boys get present and naughty boys get nothing.  Exploit that to my advantage.  A way to elicit peace and harmony at home.  Just put down some presents and say some fat, hairy, nearsighted white guy in a sleigh brought them in.  Now that I say it out loud, it does seem rather far-fetched, doesn't it?  I have to work on my poker face a little more.

[Sam Spade]

The funny thing in all of this is that the generic Southerner (born in the South, not a transplant), particularly the white Southerner, is one of the few persons in this country who might take it as a personal insult to be shut out of government, if it were pointed out to him/her.

[Meeker]

Ron Kirk is the new US Trade Representative, so I suppose he kind of counts as a Southern Cabinet member.

[Sam Spade]

Ron Kirk is the new US Trade Representative, so I suppose he kind of counts as a Southern Cabinet member.

If you mean South Dallas, then yes (inside Texas joke)

[jokerman]

First time I've viewed this thread...interesting.

The tendency of the Northern bourgeois to descend into delusional arrogance is very amusing, is manifesting itself vividly in this thread, and has and will continue to lead to pain for themselves and the country.

As far as this forum goes...too many kooks; I'm on hiatus.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

It's a pretty crappy cabinet for lacking Southerners.