Election '08

[Sharessa]

Lich said:

Southern Iowa is scarier than you might think.

I assure you that southern Iowa has nothing on northern Idaho. That place is kind of scary.

[ReFracture]

Gokuma said:

I officially declare Wyoming the most racist state, closely followed by Utah and Oklahoma.

I must not get out much. I live in Utah and I don't see racism a whole lot here... do you base this on most of the state voting for McCain?

[Patrick]

We have to remember that Wyoming is simply a conservative state. Being conservative does not entail racism. Besides, if you've ever been through downtown Laramie, you'd be surprised at the number of Obama bumper stickers you see there.

[AndrewB]

Always surprising to know that Texas is one of the more progressive redneck states. I believe Houston voted for Obama by something like 2-to-1.

Washington D.C. voted 93% for Obama.

[Butts]

you have no idea how friggen narrow minded some of you sound if you base the fact that being republican/voting for mccain makes a person a racist.

[Technician]

Patrick Pineda said:

I happen to be hispanic. The color I would describe myself as is "abnormally light skinned for a mexican." Not quite white, but not quite olive. I have an aversion to sunlight.

Olive? God it's like almond or something.

[CODOR]

Use3D said:
If i have learned anything from this election it's that racism is alive and well in America.

On the other hand, although all of the five states who elected George Wallace in 1968 (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia) elected McCain this time around, none of them voted less than 39% for Obama...

[Doom Marine]

CODOR said:

On the other hand, although all of the five states who elected George Wallace in 1968 (Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia) elected McCain this time around, none of them voted less than 39% for Obama...

Blacks came out in droves for Obama.

[esselfortium]

Butts said:

you have no idea how friggen narrow minded some of you sound if you base the fact that being republican/voting for mccain makes a person a racist.

Yeah, seriously. If someone didn't want to support Obama, it's totally because he's black and they're a racist! Someone not supporting him couldn't possibly have anything to do with any of his stances on the issues.

It's the same crap with "What?! You want to keep people from illegally immigrating, instead of following the legal process like everyone else? WHY DO YOU HATE MEXICANS?!"

Racism indeed.

[Patrick]

esselfortium said:

It's the same crap with "What?! You want to keep people from illegally immigrating, instead of following the legal process like everyone else? WHY DO YOU HATE MEXICANS?!"

Racism indeed.

I have sympathy for illegals, but if my ancestors could immigrate legally in a time of racism in the US, I don't see why they can't ... OMG I AM RACIST DESTROY ALL MEXICANS

...wait...

EDIT: I've decided that this is my last post in this thread. I'm going to end here by saying that I did not vote for Obama, but instead of griping about it, I'm going to support the new president. The last thing we need is more conflicts. This man represents my country and I respect that.

[Fletcher`]

Patrick Pineda said:

EDIT: I've decided that this is my last post in this thread. I'm going to end here by saying that I did not vote for Obama, but instead of griping about it, I'm going to support the new president. The last thing we need is more conflicts. This man represents my country and I respect that.

This is what separates the good men from the retards.

[Cardboard Marty]

AndrewB said:

Always surprising to know that Texas is one of the more progressive redneck states. I believe Houston voted for Obama by something like 2-to-1./B]

But Houston is actually very largely hispanic and black, believe it or not.

From what I've seen down here, our redneck population is surprisingly low.

[MasterOFDeath]

Texas is a really weird state when it comes to politics. I gave up trying to figure this place out politically ages ago.

Marty Razor Kirra said:

From what I've seen down here, our redneck population is surprisingly low.

There's some pretty bad rednecks here in East TX where I live but honestly it's still nothing compared to the rest of the south.

[Creaphis]

Carnevil said:

Yeah, and also whether or not the Redskins win their last home game before the election "determines" who the president will be (except 2004)... I mean, it's definitely not coincidence or anything!

Aw, you took what I was going to say. I just learned about that the other day in a research textbook of mine, and I was totally going to be the thread winner. Anyways, here's the scan I already made if anyone hasn't heard of this:

Tonight my friends, I have hauled down the stars and stripes above my home and replaced them with Old Bonnie Blue and the Rebel flag.

I may love John McCain, but I will not accept his call for unity. This President and his Ayatollah loving Vice Fuher can go to hell.

We have lost the war, that now is with a sure and vile certainty. America tonight voted to throw the noose around its neck.

My family will stock its food, its guns, its bullets and its money for this country is now on a one way trip to the weimar republic of self destruction.

I have told my Nephew, who wished to join the Navy, to forget it and I do urnestly warn those who refused to vote for this scum, to get their children out or stop them from joining the military as soon as they could.

I will not support this vermin, I will pray night and day for his demise and for God's wrath upon this now Godless nation.

I pitty these fools.

If this was written as a parody of conservatives, I would reject it as the most crude and over-the-top attempt at social criticism ever written. It has no remaining wit or satire, and it does not serve as a humorous caricature, because these effects are buried under gross sentences of absolutely absurd exaggeration.

But this wasn't written as a parody of conservatives.

The full height of human potential may some day be reached. But, the full depth never will be - there is always further down.

[Scuba Steve]

esselfortium said:

Yeah, seriously. If someone didn't want to support Obama, it's totally because he's black and they're a racist! Someone not supporting him couldn't possibly have anything to do with any of his stances on the issues.

Actually, I've never heard anyone make this argument before. I've heard people rail against it... but I've never actually heard someone claim that voting against Obama is racist.

[Gokuma]

Gokuma said:

I officially declare Wyoming the most racist state, closely followed by Utah and Oklahoma.

I wasn't really serious, since it should be obvious I do not have such official powers vested in me. But for states Obama lost by such a large margin to McCain, I can guess the likely reason. BTW, I voted for Nader but I expected Obama to win and I'm relieved that McCain didn't win. That's right, I did vote for an Arab, who can speak Arabic, mofos!

Creaphis said:

The full height of human potential may some day be reached. But, the full depth never will be - there is always further down.

The full height of human potential won't be reached, because we'll shoot ourselves in the foot first.



Also, I'd like to deeply congratulate Ralphis, Deathz0r, and the Goatse guy on utterly thrashing McCain/Palin in a landslide.

[esselfortium]

Scuba Steve said:

Actually, I've never heard anyone make this argument before. I've heard people rail against it... but I've never actually heard someone claim that voting against Obama is racist.

I've heard plenty of claims that "if Obama loses the election, that's evidence that racism is still alive and well". I might be wrong, but I'm pretty sure there were some in this very thread.

[GreyGhost]

alexz721 said:

Where do you think the apathy stems from? Lack of confidence in elected officials.

And if those same elected officials are relying on voter apathy to keep them in office are you going to just sit tight and wait for them to die of old age?

[myk]

esselfortium said:
I've heard plenty of claims that "if Obama loses the election, that's evidence that racism is still alive and well".

Arguably, given the data coming in it would have been hard to explain a win from the McCain camp. Okay, maybe fraud, but it's been pretty clear from the overall political climate, the polls, and the AndrewBs that Obama was going to win. And it's not like the McCain campaign didn't use a good dose of prejudice* as one of its attractors as the campaign progressed. Not racism specifically because it's not exactly something that works well these days, but just about anything else they could.

* This is not uncommon in political campaigns, but in this case the breach between the prejudice and the facts often seemed pretty big, such as trying to tie Obama to terrorism (which itself seems to have a rather racist aspect in the common imaginary) through Bill Ayers.

[Nuxius]

Patrick Pineda said:

Besides, if you've ever been through downtown Laramie, you'd be surprised at the number of Obama bumper stickers you see there.

Yep, both Albany (w/ Laramie) and Teton (w/ Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks) counties were the only 2 in Wyoming to favor Obama.

The only 2 states where every single county favored McCain over Obama were Oklahoma and Alaska, with Hawaii being the only one were every county favored Obama over McCain. Everywhere else was mixed.

AndrewB said:

I believe Houston voted for Obama by something like 2-to-1.

Negative. The race was close with 50% for Obama and 48% for McCain, with the other 2% voting for other candidates.

[Butts]

those conservatives are a bunch of... well... *insert word here* (i cant think of a proper word, but morons seems to fit). im all for supporting my country no matter who the president (unless the president happens to be tyrannical -- bush was not, he just made the wrong choices, said the wrong things, and had a sup-par level of intelligence and judgement). i just hope obama does not take my guns away.

and somewhat related, both of my brothers are extreme -- one is in the marines, in iraq right now, extremely conservative, and the other is extremely liberal.

[Sharessa]

AndrewB said:

Always surprising to know that Texas is one of the more progressive redneck states. I believe Houston voted for Obama by something like 2-to-1.

Washington D.C. voted 93% for Obama.

The cities in Texas, especially Houston and Austin, are actually very liberal and the people from there don't even have accents. However, the rural areas of Texas are very conservative. Since Texas has a LOT of land area, they tend to win out.

Washington, D.C. is like 80% black, so it's no surprise at all that he won there. That's also the reason it took them until the 70s to have the right to vote, and why they only get one electorate since then. :P

[Patrick]

Nuxius said:

Yep, both Albany (w/ Laramie) and Teton (w/ Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks) counties were the only 2 in Wyoming to favor Obama.

This doesnt suprise me. Laramie is fairly large for a wyoming city (more than 3 people lol) and UW is there, so there's a lot of young college age folks there.

To get to Wyoming, you have to go through Owl Canyon in Northern Colorado. That desolate strip of highway on North 287 is the biggest hick country in the US. Little backwards mountain towns all over the place. These people haven't been to Denver since 1953 and are still convinced that the Russians are our enemies.

[Scuba Steve]

esselfortium said:

I've heard plenty of claims that "if Obama loses the election, that's evidence that racism is still alive and well".

That's different than "If you don't vote for Obama, you're a racist." I would probably agree, if Obama HADN'T won, it would be strong evidence of Racism in this nation. Plenty of people polled as saying "they couldn't vote for a black person", and questions were CONSTANTLY raised about him being an "other" or "not one of us" because of his skin/nationality (He's a muslim would NEVER work as an attack against a white candidate). Polls, towards the end, consistently showed Obama with a lead... if he had lost, that would mean some unaccounted statistical error was missed... and I would probably attribute race to some of it.

Now that the election is over, it STILL doesn't mean racism is gone, it hasn't changed any since the election began. I always wonder, if it had been Obama's daughter who got pregnant at 17 and married a guy who claimed he liked to "shoot shit" and was a total rebel... what people would have said.

So, I would argue that "You're racist for NOT voting for Obama" is a totally different claim than "If Obama loses, it's further evidence of racism."

[DooMAD]

Not just racism, but homophobia too.

I was just about to congratulate the US on not being an gargantuan retarded this time around, but then California went and pulled this shit. Now I'm back to thinking the country is still overrun with intolerant fuckwits who only think it's "the land of the free" if you happen to follow the same religion they do. It's even more depressing than a glance at that stupid conservatives forum.

[Jello]

Scuba Steve said:

That's different than "If you don't vote for Obama, you're a racist." I would probably agree, if Obama HADN'T won, it would be strong evidence of Racism in this nation. Plenty of people polled as saying "they couldn't vote for a black person", and questions were CONSTANTLY raised about him being an "other" or "not one of us" because of his skin/nationality (He's a muslim would NEVER work as an attack against a white candidate). Polls, towards the end, consistently showed Obama with a lead... if he had lost, that would mean some unaccounted statistical error was missed... and I would probably attribute race to some of it.

Now that the election is over, it STILL doesn't mean racism is gone, it hasn't changed any since the election began. I always wonder, if it had been Obama's daughter who got pregnant at 17 and married a guy who claimed he liked to "shoot shit" and was a total rebel... what people would have said.

So, I would argue that "You're racist for NOT voting for Obama" is a totally different claim than "If Obama loses, it's further evidence of racism."

On an off note, 95% of black Americans voted for Obama, which seems slightly racially biased to me. I didn't vote for Obama, but it had nothing to do with his race, I simply don't agree with his policies. I just see him as another politician who's made promises he has no way of keeping in order to get elected. I didn't vote for McCain either, just so there's no argument there.

I think it's great the United States has elected it's first minority president, it shows we've come a long way in our efforts to make the country a place where all men are created equal, and have all the opportunities everyone else has. I don't think it's great that our first minority president was Obama though, simply based on political preferences. Same as if Hillary would've been our first female president. I have no doubt that a person of any ancestry or gender can be a good leader, but I just didn't care for either Barack or Hillarys policies. If Powell would've ran, I would've been first in line to vote for him.

Yes there are racist people who wouldn't vote for Obama simply because he was black, which I find incredibly ignorant, however there's clear evidence that the racial divide is still incredibly strong simply because of the fact that almost the entire black community voted for Obama, and while I haven't seen many statistics I would imagine a fair few voted for him because he was black. This election will go a long way to help race relations in America, but they will always exist simply because there are people on both sides of the argument who will only support someone of their same color. From the white trash in the South who think Obama is the anti-christ, to the blacks in New York who while 'getting out the vote' stared maliciously at all the white people who walked by while grabbing any minority youth they could find and getting them registered.

Maybe I'm living in a dream world, but I would love to see this country vote purely on the issues and views of the electee, instead of on what race or religion he or she is, and that goes for all sides. But again, I think that's too much to ask at this point.

In the end, I still think Bob Barr has a chance to pull this off. Just because McCain conceded doesn't mean that Barack won, there's still three other candidates! I was really hoping there would be more of a third party influence on this election to send a message that the people are sick of the two party system. Maybe in 2012.

[Sharessa]

DooMAD said:

Not just racism, but homophobia too.

I was just about to congratulate the US on not being an gargantuan retarded this time around, but then California went and pulled this shit. Now I'm back to thinking the country is still overrun with intolerant fuckwits who only think it's "the land of the free" if you happen to follow the same religion they do. It's even more depressing than a glance at that stupid conservatives forum.

The weird thing is that about 95% of black people who voted, voted to ban gay marriage. They were the most opposed race to it. Latinos were like 70% opposed too. Mostly whites and asians were the ones who were for it. Why do blacks and Mexicans hate gay people? :o

I'm thinking that Obama's running for president got a lot of blacks into the polling booths. If he hadn't been running, perhaps that law wouldn't have passed. Kind of ironic, isn't it?

Jello said:

On an off note, 95% of black Americans voted for Obama, which seems slightly racially biased to me. I didn't vote for Obama, but it had nothing to do with his race, I simply don't agree with his policies. I just see him as another politician who's made promises he has no way of keeping in order to get elected. I didn't vote for McCain either, just so there's no argument there.

That's not too surprising, considering 90% of blacks vote for the democrat normally. Add the fact that he's black, and it can only go up.

[myk]

Jello said:
Maybe I'm living in a dream world, but I would love to see this country vote purely on the issues and views of the electee, instead of on what race or religion he or she is, and that goes for all sides. But again, I think that's too much to ask at this point.

How are racial considerations (which are really about cultural differences) not an issue to consider? That's not something that goes away unless a culture is totally egalitarian*, or else is a slaver culture where it is well established that only one dominating ethnic makes decisions. It's definitely not going to go anywhere in a large country that has strong immigration and a steep wealth distribution curve.

Given the cultural circumstances (the mess that reality is) I'd go as far as to say that there's something prejudiced, if not racist, in having a problem with the race issue.

* Economically and politically; maybe some sort of democratic grass-roots communism.

[Technician]

I'm a member of a few American based boards and some of these guys are pissed off. They are honestly thinking Obama will have a complete black agenda. I’m getting tired of every fucker saying WHITE House and REVOLUTION.

[40oz]

Technician said:

I'm a member of a few American based boards and some of these guys are pissed off. They are honestly thinking Obama will have a complete black agenda. I'm getting tired of every fucker saying WHITE House and REVOLUTION.

Fuck those people. The sooner they realize that he is an AMERICAN and not just a "black man", the better off this country will be.