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In reply to the discussion: Regarding things from the south. [View all]JustAnotherGen
(31,631 posts)38. I don't think this is condescending
How do you get poor white people to admit they're poor white people who need help? Don't be condescending. We give the political right the best weapon they have, and they use it well. They accuse us of being elitist ivory tower jerks out of touch with the reality of people's lives, and we give them examples to point at every day
.
It's a fair question.
Those same people have NO problem attacking a poor black or latina teenager as the 'problem' - as not having 'worked for it'. As being 'less deserving'.
They have to admit it - if you are a poor white christian single 19 year old in a rural southern town - you gotta admit that you are NOT more deserving than anyone else in this country regardless of race, religion, region.
See - I SEE the groups as 'one'. But I'm not so certain they see my former pregnant teenager, now single mother of caucasian/black/Puerto Rica ethic background 19 year old neice the same. Or her daughter - who is cute as a button. And just as deserving as the blond haired blue eyed little southern girl.
And I had a similar discussion with my dad in 2008. He wanted to applaud the 'no red America or Blue America' nonsense Obama was spouting. It doesn't work for me. It doesn't work for a lot of people.
I applaud your efforts and I think we both agree: Poverty is a serious issue. And it's one attached to so many and that if we don't get ahead of this - then we ARE in decline.
I just disagree with a Federal Solution. We've had a Federal Solution called 'welfare reform' (the move to SNAP and TANF, etc. etc. in the mid 1990's) and guess what -
It hasn't worked.
Same folks get marginalized. Same bullshit stereotypes about blacks - and now that is being expanded to latinos/hispanics. And no one is getting pulled up.
There isn't a Federal Solution that can be done. Maybe I'm 40 and old and tired and cynical - and I'll take those words on the chin. Because it's true. I'm cynical. I have more faith in my State Senator to Trenton than I do a Saxby Chambliss or Lindsay Graham. I just do. I also have more faith in that State Senator than I do Bob Menendez on this issue - and I love Bob Menedez!
And - if you go back and read your OP - it's kind of critical of folks who've just been 'hurt' by the South and what they exported to the rest of the country. If someone spits in your eye enough - and makes you the face of evil . . . sooner or later - you start to lose feeling for them. Indifference isn't bad - sometimes it leads to calm heads that do no implicit harm to one another.
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In 2016 the vast majority of the country will vote for Hillary and will turn blue
graham4anything
Jun 2013
#2
Stop it. Just stop it! They will not vote for Hilary or any other democrat in the deep south.
madinmaryland
Jun 2013
#42
the generation is over.Women in record numbers will indeed vote for Hillary in the south.
graham4anything
Jun 2013
#43
See, you will vote for her in a race vs. Jeb Bush(and I hope the same against anyone repub.)
graham4anything
Jun 2013
#53
It took a generation just to get to the point LBJ was talking about. We still have another
madinmaryland
Jun 2013
#57
If Dr. King and LBJ were as pessimistic, we would still be living in 1859
graham4anything
Jun 2013
#59
What the hell are you talking about. Wasn't it Abraham Lincoln that moved us into the post-1859
madinmaryland
Jun 2013
#61
I think many will vote for Hillary. My daughter-in-laws family are dems but they hate
southernyankeebelle
Jun 2013
#79
+1,000!!! The poor are more likely to fall for the TV brainwashing which displaces their anger,
Dustlawyer
Jun 2013
#15
the democratic party has abandoned poor people, and I wouldn't exactly call this a liberal website.
liberal_at_heart
Jun 2013
#16
For some of us who were around in the 60s it feels like we have to do it all over again. Or maybe it
jwirr
Jun 2013
#36
Where conservatives live and actively oppress "the other", poverty reigns supreme
SoCalDem
Jun 2013
#44
How in the world can the counties in SD that comprise Pine Ridge not be deep red?
KamaAina
Jun 2013
#73