Who Hijacked Our Country

Sunday, August 14, 2011

Rick Perry vs. Barack Obama: The Culture Wars

Might as well cut to the chase. Rick Perry IS the Republican candidate for the White House. Tim Pawlenty has already thrown in the towel, and the rest of the wannabes will be dropping like flies. Why go through the motions — and millions of dollars — of campaigning in the primaries? It’s a done deal.

The Perry vs. Obama campaign will bring out America’s Culture Wars like you’ve never seen; never even imagined. They’ve been simmering since the 1960s. They’ll be brought to a full boil — a volcano! — when Perry and Obama start slugging it out.

This Daily Beast article by Michael Tomasky hits the nail on the head. In addition to the economy and other issues:

“… an Obama-Perry race would be something else, too: a war between the two Americas, each side represented by its respective cultural standard-bearer, each side’s foot soldiers absolutely smoldering with contempt for everything the other guy stands for and indeed the way he looks.”

In case you still think Romney has a chance:

“Republicans don’t want a posh, well-spoken Yankee who works at a place with a name like Bain Capital. In their deepest souls, they want a Texas governor. They want a shit-kicker. And here, we circle back to culture.”

Since there’ll be inevitable comparisons between George W. Bush and Rick Perry, Bush:

“…represented Southern country clubs and Dodge Durangos and Browning bolt-actions and homes with no books in them.”

And now, get ready for Dumbya on steroids:

“Perry, on this scale, is chillingly Bush-like. I saw a clip the other day of him saluting—an off-screen soldier, perhaps, or a flag. It was a small thing. But he looked exactly like Bush. The chest pumped up with self-regard. The overly aggressive way he thrust his saluting hand out from his forehead. He even, I swear, was smirking. I shuddered all over again.”

And here’s how the red-staters see Obama:

“They look at him and see wine-and-cheese parties where people have jazz playing in the background and where talk turns to the merits and demerits of Jonathan Franzen, who drive Priuses (or is it Prii?) and buy espresso machines and live in homes with far too many books in them. And worse than that: for much of Red America, Dr. Frankenstein himself could not have stitched together a more perfect Other: urban, urbane, sophisticated, intellectual.”

We’re gonna be living in interesting times between now and November 2012.


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21 Comments:

Blogger jadedj said...

It's a bad dream. Coming back to haunt us. I was in shock the first time, not to mention the second. If it happens again, I don't know.

August 14, 2011 at 1:22 PM  
Anonymous Jess said...

Perry is the candidate for people that thought comander cuckoo bananas was too intellectual. Scary shit to come down the pike, if you ask me.

August 14, 2011 at 3:21 PM  
Blogger Snave said...

Unless the economy turns around a bit, and unless some really good dirt can be dug up on Perry, I see the White House as Perry's to lose.

"Dumbya on Steroids" says it all.

The nation might be able to survive four years of Rick Perry, but I don't know about eight. Dems MUST do what they have to in order to keep this guy from wrecking the country.

August 14, 2011 at 5:57 PM  
Anonymous Jolly Roger said...

I told you, Tom, I told you. And I'm telling you: Guv Goodhair will be the nominee. All that has to be figured out now is how to get the election to the SCOTUS.

As far as 8 more years, or 4 more.... unless Obama changes his path, it doesn't matter which of the two of them gets elected. Collapse will occur either way.

August 14, 2011 at 10:27 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Lest we forget Obama took Iowa in the last primary, the most unlikely state anybody figured he could take but he connected with those folks.

Another Problem is this election is about the economy and Perry and the Republicans will have a lot of tough questions to answer when face directly in a debate.

There are no scarey moral issues like terrorism and gay marriage to deflect to....unless of course the Republicans do their usual thing and invent them!

The Teaparty is seen more and more by the rest of the country as a radical minority party, they don't mean enough votes if you just kiss their ass...and the rest of the voters will grow to resent a candidate who just bends to the extremes - this is why it's been hard for a Republican to beat Boxer, when they probably should've done it years ago.

Finally whatever happened to those independent moderate swing voters that both sides have to woo? Romney was seen as the only Republican so far that could do it.

They also have to worry about the potential of a strong minority turnout and once again the Republicans have failed to connect to (Alan West is not enough)

Erik

August 15, 2011 at 7:41 AM  
Blogger Lisa said...

Perry is pro business that's the message Americans want,not Obama's big government, economy killing policies.
Yeah they will vet every minute of Perry's life but refused to vet even one minute of Obama's.
Nothing Obama can say or do will persuade those who already have their mind made up. Like Bush or not I think Perry's record of pro-business is what the people are looking for right now because they get it and they feel it. They know Obama is anti business and we need business to boost our economy.
America already got his message and they ain't liking it.

August 15, 2011 at 12:18 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

I think Perry stands a strong chance to get the GOP nomination. If he does, it would be a mistake for us to summarily dismiss him as a one-dimensional clod cast out of the same mold as Bush. He probably has more on the ball in some ways than we've acknowledged, and that could turn out to be a mistake. Perry is a type that appeals to a significant portion of the population, and that includes a bunch of independents, unfortunately.

BTW, I just heard on Ed Schultz's radio show that Perry started out as a Democrat, and had been a district campaign chairman (or something like that) for Al Gore. I don't know if that was the first time Gore ran for president or in 2000, though.

August 15, 2011 at 12:25 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

Lisa, no one wants business to get off its dead, selfish collective ass and do something more than Barack Obama, because that would inevitably mean more jobs.

And no one wants business to sit on its dead, selfish collective ass than Republicans, because that means more miserable, angry voters — pawns Republicans see as their ticket back to the White House.

August 15, 2011 at 12:29 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

Lisa, no one wants business to get off its dead, selfish collective ass and do something more than Barack Obama, because that would inevitably mean more jobs.

Oh yeah SW businesses just love all these new regulations,anti-energy bills and not to mention the health care mandates coming down the pike.
They're just being selfish.

August 15, 2011 at 12:47 PM  
Blogger Snave said...

When some of them are showing record-breaking profits, why are they not investing those profits back into their businesses by expanding, and hiring more people? In these cases, it's surely not because of "all these new regulations,anti-energy bills and not to mention the health care mandates coming down the pike."

SW is right, the Republican party counts on playing voters' emotions. Close examination of their policies reveals that much of what they are about is not in the public's or nation's best interests. Rather, it is all intended to benefit corporate interests, as well as help those who wish to keep and consolidate wealth and power.

But if some voters can be distracted away from those things by other stuff, like a "moral values" agenda, for example... they will get mad about such things, bypass their critical thinking skills, and vote GOP anyway.

"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"

Not all voters are this way, but I would wager that a significant number of them are. That's how fear can be used to manipulate millions of voters.

And when Democrats use lines like "the Republicans will take away your Medicare and your Social Security" during the next year... it may look like GOP-style fear-mongering, but in my opinion, it's the truth.

I hope people will wake up and smell what people like Rick Perry are really all about... creating lots of new jobs, but mostly of the minimum-wage variety... actively working to wreck public education in his state... and talking about secession? Gee, sounds like he really loves America, eh.

August 15, 2011 at 1:05 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

creating lots of new jobs, but mostly of the minimum-wage variety.

Oh like the 50,000 new jobs at McDonald's the democrats were bragging about back in April?

You know the housing market was one thing but we can blame both democrats and Republicans for that one and yes Wall Street too. But you can't use that to compare Bush to Perry.
That BS Dodd Frank Bill needs to go because it not only restricts big banks which still allows for tax payer bailouts but it also applies to small businesses.
Now why would anyone want to kill our successful public education system as I recall is one of the biggest problems the left alway complained about. Or maybe that was just when Bush was president.I guess it's really great now ,just like we miraculously never see any homeless people in the news anymore.
I guess unemployment checks are more "stimulative" than lower wage jobs.

August 15, 2011 at 1:57 PM  
Blogger Snave said...

The left, generally speaking, does not criticize the public education system. Public education, despite its flaws, helps level the playing field. It always has, regardless of who is in the White House.

Perry likes to spend money on schools, but he wants to add prayer.

And if *this* guy is too "liberal" for Rick Perry and Texas, he is probably too "liberal" for you too, Lisa:

http://www.aolnews.com/2010/03/12/texas-removes-thomas-jefferson-from-teaching-standard/

August 15, 2011 at 5:36 PM  
Blogger Snave said...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/15/opinion/the-texas-unmiracle.html?_r=1&ref=opinion

August 15, 2011 at 5:58 PM  
Anonymous Jolly Roger said...

Oh yeah SW businesses just love all these new regulations,anti-energy bills and not to mention the health care mandates coming down the pike.
They're just being selfish.


It's just easier to call you stupid than it is to even try to answer the stupid things you say.

Let me guess, you'd be a Child Left Behind, right?

August 15, 2011 at 7:30 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

The Republican-right thought process in action:

"That BS Dodd Frank Bill needs to go because it not only restricts big banks which still allows for tax payer bailouts but it also applies to small businesses."

I rest my case.

August 16, 2011 at 12:04 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

August 16, 2011 at 12:54 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

The Dodd-Frank financial ‘reform’ bill contains costly and colossal new regulations and bureaucracies cloaked around empty rhetoric about consumer and taxpayer protections. This bill burdens banks with billions of dollars in new fees and restrictions that will be passed onto individuals and small businesses in the midst of an economic downturn. Further, in this Congress’s Orwellian tradition(meaning the democrat congress), the bill creates a massive new government agency with the power to monitor virtually any American citizen's or business’s bank accounts.

“This ‘reform’ does nothing to get at the root cause of financial crisis. Instead of ending failed government slush funds like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Democrats have targeted and demonized the very Wall Street firms they look forward to continuing to bail out in the future.

I rest my case

August 16, 2011 at 12:55 PM  
Blogger Lisa said...

Ok I couldn't resist


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=usvG-s_Ssb0

August 16, 2011 at 1:35 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

After characterizing the CFPB as a "massive agency," so we could all have a good laugh, Lisa wrote," Instead of ending failed government slush funds like Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Democrats have targeted and demonized the very Wall Street firms they look forward to continuing to bail out in the future."

Now Lisa's dissatisfaction becomes clear. Those awful Democrats failed to heed Rush Limbaugh and Fox's News' lies and propaganda in creating the new agency. So now, (boo, hiss) the CFPB is likely to serve the best interests of the unwashed masses instead of the greedy appetites of corporate America in general and the financial industry in particular. How very uncooperative of those Democrats.

August 18, 2011 at 6:57 PM  
Anonymous S.W. Anderson said...

BTW, Lisa, it's becoming clear Perry is pro business in the same crony-capitalist, economic Darwinist way George W. Bush was. Do you have any idea how many small and medium size businesses went belly up on George W. Bush's watch? I don't recall that exact statistic, but I've seen it, and it's a Texas-size number.

August 18, 2011 at 7:00 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

About the only way for the Republicans can find someone crazier than Rick Perry, it's to use the Michael Jackson Kit on Ghadafi to make him into an American and have him run. Sanity has no place in the GOP. Now, we need for GOP voters to WAKE UP!!! Don't vote these nut cases in!

August 25, 2011 at 8:26 PM  

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