Left In Lowell

What Kind of…

by Lynne at 5:06 pm.

What kind of sitting US Senator talks like this?

“And I’ll be back tomorrow getting Mickey Ward’s endorsement. She’s welcome to come up to Lowell, if she can find it.” [bold is added]

This is the sort of nanna-nanna-boo-boo rhetoric that you see these days in politics. Mostly (though not entirely limited to) conservatives. (Never mind that Ward, as Jack’s post below mentions, rebuffed Brown after he figured out Brown’s voting history, just as the Brown campaign was planning on swooping into Lowell and getting his endorsement.) This also ignores that Warren was recently in Lowell at that very same gym Brown was heading to.

This mocking, churlish, childish and whiny kind of politicking was on full display last night with Clint Eastwood’s “surprise” (I’ll say) speech at the Republican convention last night. Where he did such things as pretend Obama, represented by an empty chair, told Mitt and Clint to go f*ck themselves. If you’ve been living under a rock since last night, you can go watch it here.

Brown’s been caught saying really childish and stupid things before. He consistently refers to his opponent as “Professor Warren,” and while at first glace that looks like a mark of respect, his entire campaign’s been built on painting Warren as an uppity but undeserving Harvard Professor. There are instances like Mitt Romney joking about no one asking to see his birth certificate, which has the double duty of dog-whistling to the bigot contingent of his party. I do understand, zingers abound on the campaign trail (though I do wish they’d all just leave comedy to the bears). But there’s a difference between a simple gaffe, a well- or badly-placed joke, and malicious rhetoric intended to belittle. There’s addressing real policy differences with humor, and whining because the other side calls you out on your policies and values. The difference really comes with how much hate and anger is put behind the so-called “joke” or comment. While most Democrats I know (pols and voters) just want to have a good substantive debate about the issues and what’s at stake - and I have evidence of this in how most of our primaries are conducted - it seems that most of the other side desires to obfuscate the truth with their “humor,” and drum up hate and anger.

I’m not a huge fan of Bidon and his foot-in-mouth syndrome, but frankly, I’d even take his stupid gaffe-generating humor over the insulting, asinine, hateful, and largely untruthful insults from the Republican candidates that only intends to bring out the worst in their followers. The worst, as in throwing nuts at a black CNN camerawoman and saying “This is how we feed animals.”

You think those people were delegates at the RNC by accident? If you spend your time lying about welfare reform under Obama, as a dog whistle, and cracking jokes about birth certificates and elitist professors or producing an impression of “foreign” about your African American opponent, you should not be surprised when such awful incidents happen.

[Filed under MA politics, National Politics, State Elections] [link]

8 Responses to “What Kind of…”

joe from Lowell Says:
August 31st, 2012 at 10:14 pm
If you’re going to do “mocking, churlish, childish,” you’d better not screw it up.

And who the hell is this rich suburban white guy to tell anyone they’re welcome to come to Lowell?

Beg pardon, gents, but might I invite you all down the Wrentham or wherever-the-hell for cocktails at the country club? Pffffft.
Eleanor Rigby Says:
September 1st, 2012 at 12:14 pm
You guys do know tht Mickey Ward withdrew his endorsement of Scott Brown, right?

AFL-CIO issued a press releaed on it yesterday.
Prince Charming Says:
September 1st, 2012 at 6:24 pm
Let’s see if the local Republicans blow smoke up Micky’s arse now.
Jack Says:
September 1st, 2012 at 7:53 pm
Up Micky’s arse, you say?
Brian Flaherty Says:
September 3rd, 2012 at 3:58 pm
Bad timing Lynne after your boy called Scotto a “girl”
Lynne Says:
September 3rd, 2012 at 4:48 pm
(ER - yes, I did sort of obliquely mention it in my post, sorry for not being clearer…I was more focused on the content of the childish rhetoric…)

And PC - I predict not. First, there’s just not that many of them, and some of them are actually respectable. Second, Micky’s too popular!
D_in_10 Says:
September 4th, 2012 at 3:45 pm
I don’t mean to keep returning from the heartland with counters, but you’re too easy to prod. You know that over the coming days of the DNC we’ll see some real “mocking, churlish, childish,” rhetoric, not in “code” or via “dog-whistles”.
Sheesh.

Ann Althouse

“Black Woman Gets Standing Ovation at RNC — Media Silence; Two Bozos Throw Peanuts — Media Frenzy.”

2 incidents:

1. Mia Love, an African-American Republican woman, gave a speech and received loud cheers and a standing ovation from almost every single one of the thousands of white Republicans in attendance.

2. Two bozos, of unknown identity, “threw peanuts” at an African-American woman camera operator for CNN, while purportedly saying “This is how we feed animals,” and were ejected from the convention.

[Note from Mr. Lynne: The commenter originally quoted Ann Althouse’s post in its entirety. As a rule in blogging etiquette, this is a no no. I’ve done it, but only when the quote is so small that any selective citation is meaningless without the whole. I have therefore edited the post, blockquoted the reference, and added links to the original.]
joe from Lowell Says:
September 4th, 2012 at 7:40 pm
There are two types of stories: dog-bites-man, and man-bites-dog. Nobody reports on dog-bites-man, because that is boring and happens every day. Everyone reports on man-bites-dog, because that’s unusual and noteworthy.

So, what is your point, exactly? That Republicans acting boorishly towards a black person is actually so dog-bites-man as to not warrant the media coverage it received?

Or perhaps you’re saying that Republicans reacting favorably towards a black speaker is so man-bites-dog that it deserved a great deal of attention?

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August 31, 2012

What Kind of…

8 Responses to “What Kind of…”

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