Posted on 06/26/2007 5:17:28 PM PDT by Mamzelle
Over the past months of this nightmare of immigration scofflawry, listening to the rhetoric from the aristocratic Republican elites--I’ve been carried back to the Magnolia Melodramas I enjoyed reading as a teenager. Gwen Bristow’s “Plantation Trilogy”; Frank Yerby’s “The Foxes of Harrow” and the magnificent mother of them all--Margaret Mitchell’s “Gone With The Wind.”
George Bush once said, “I’m not a southerner, I’m a southwesterner.” He was trying to distance himself from the south and the taint of racism, a “compassionate” insult to every southerner who voted for him. But he has every resemblence to the linen-suited julep-drinking Massa of the Old South.
And the dynamic of the Elites verses Middle-class Conservatives is exactly like the plantation owner and his nearest inelegant neighbors...White Trash. Scots-Irish subsistence farmers couldn’t afford to the leisured fineries of the Planter Class because they were trying to eke out an existence in competition with the institution of slavery.
Remember the characters of the Slatterys and the Macintoshes, Gerald and Scarlett O’Hara’s WT neighbors? Not only did the O’Haras hold them in contempt for being so hardscrabble, tacky and rough-textured, but the slaves themselves of the plantations held themselves in higher esteem than “po’ whites.”
And the Massa with the Big Heart dearly loved his servants, loved condescending to them--What treasures! Just like members of the family! Not that he set them free, or ate at the same table. There are limits to paternalism and noblesse oblige. But Massa and Missus were unfailingly thankful that Mammy and Pork picked up Scotty’s poop off the Big House lawn.
The irony--it’s the Southern middle class that makes up a lot of the soldiers who trusted him enough to serve in Iraq.
George Bush thinks he can afford to openly display the contempt he has always felt for Joe Redneck...er...Sixpack. His chief overseer, Tony Snow, let us in on the secret in the wee hours after election day. He can now concentrate on indulging his oozing childhood sentimentality by handing his house servants a deed to America.
I’m reminded of another scene from Gone With The Wind--Scarlett was being lectured by an elderly matriarch about Trash. “And when you’re done with them--kick them away and do it thoroughly, because Trash clinging to your coattails can ruin you.”
I have entered into many discussions about illegal immigration with a comment--housework and yardwork are political. This is a class issue between overlord elites who can’t conceive of a life spent actually cleaning up after themselves. They break the laws, then have to justify the transgression by accusing the law of being bad. That’s why they become insulting and defensive when requested to obey the law.
I’m done with Bush. I don’t trust him--or any member of his Indolent family.
That is how much so many of us disliked the alternative.
We need a viable Third Party in this country. The Republicans have gone to the "Dark Side"!
Nicely written.
Points on style.Points on substance.
I enjoyed it.
Let me remind everyone, that Jorge was never the Free Republic favorite in the primaries. We all voted Alan Keyes! Just how we came to like and admire an inarticulate non-reader has been a mystery to this feline.
The last laugh will be on Bush and Cheney and those that put them in office.
Bush has extended the powers of the presidency to unconstitutional limits, I believe, paving the way for the socialist takeover
I’m a Texan by birth and I consider myself most definetly Southern, although I have never lived in the Deep South.
To a strict constructionist like myself, there really is no difference between the Republicans and the Democrats...both will lead to the same destruction of our republic.
“I’m not sure Southerners think Texas is part of the South.
Of all the complaints you could make about the man, this is perhaps one of the silliest.”
Agreed. Being from the South, I and everyone I know considers Texas to be in the Southwest with a distinctly different history and culture.
There are no classes in America, so think of another reason for your resentment. Stay away from history and goegraphy, too. They are not your strong suits.
Because Bush has joined with the likes of Ted Kennedy and other odious traitors in the Senate to push for the immigration bill. Bush has made it his bill. If Bush doesn't want it to be his bill all he has to do is say he will veto it. Why doesn't he?
Being a southwesterner, I will admit to being a little annoyed with people from “The South” who don’t think the southwest is part of the “real” South. When pressed, they usually admit to being from “the southeast”.
Once, however, I got my own back. I was at a snooty upper class bank in the southeast, hoping to make a bank transfer. The secretary who saw me had her nose up in the air, since I wasn’t from one of the prominent families of the area.
She asked several borderline impertinent questions, but then made a fatal boo-boo. She noticed that I was from Arizona, so made a sneering comment, “You’re from Arizona? Are you a Yankee?”
Instantly, I hopped to my feet, and in my best impression of Foghorn Leghorn in a rare rage, I yelled, “A YANKEE!?!”
Within one and a half heartbeats, the bank manager was there, looking quite scared, and nervously said, “Is there a problem, Suh?”
“This...woman...called me a YANKEE!”
I think I saw the blood leave his face, accompanied by a look of sheer horror.
Needless to say, amid profuse and excessive apologies, my wire transfer was done immediately. I also have a feeling that that secretary’s day had just taken a strong turn for the worse.
Unfortunately, I can’t find exception with what your are saying. Actually, I have came to that conclusion long ago, see my profile.
There are a lot of different ways to classify and categorize groups, but one method campaign strategists use is Economic Elitists, Cultural Elitists, Economic Populists, and Cultural Populists.
Economic Elitists are business, industry, and investors.
Cultural Elitists are educators, media, lawyers, and govt employees.
Economic Populists are unions, social justice, and environment.
Cultural Populists are southern and heartland culture plus the religious right.
The democratic coalition is Cultural Elitists and Economic Populists. The GOP coalition is Economic Elitists and Cultural Populists.
The GOP coalition is dissolving.
The democrats' southern/midwest strategy in 08 will be to unite the Cultural and Economic Populists into Moral Populists
No native Texan I knew considered themselves solely Southwesterners. We considered outselves Republic of Texas first, Southern second, Southwestern third. One would never disassociate oneself from being part of the South; thus being associated with Yankees which, in Texas, are anyone not priveleged enough to not be born and raised South of the Mason-Dixon line and East of New Mexico.
Maybe it depends upon which part of Texas one was raised? I guess Kennebunkport was the Southwestern part of TX and that hotel for tax purposes in Houston was too “new” to be Southern.
There are still plenty of Bushbots around here that would twist themselves into knots agreeing with Bush if he declared that the sky was green.
You would be called anti-american, a terrorist supporter, and of course, my favorite, a Traitor if you even dared to suggest to them that the sky was blue.
Now, Texans have a chauvinism unequaled by any other southern state. I never heard so much "Yankee this" and "Yankee that" even in the Deepest South.
They haven't reached critical mass yet. I had a vast store of loyalty to be drain, too. You invest your heart in someone and you have to spend a long time in denial...
That's what I've noticing for the last 6 years too. My theory is that he wants the Jihadist and/or la Raza to start something big. La Raza and the Jihadists are forming an alliance. Maybe a suitcase nuclear attack by the Jihadists and/or social unrest by the Mexicans. So, with the troops all over the world, the UN peacekeeping force must be introduced to keep peace and order. Now, those with "tin-foil" hats don't sound too crazy after all. Maybe this is part of the plan of the New World Order, making the USA into a Third World country, ruining its economy as a result of 100 million illegals sucking dry the social services. If the USA becomes a Third World country, then it's much easier for the sheeple to accept a one world government. It's the old Hegalian "problem-reaction-solution". Jorge is the Manchurian Candidate.
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