I posted a substantial excerpt at Tower of Babel blog, where I’m a contributing author:

http://en.towerofbabel.com/blog/2008/09/17/rocket-scientists-and-hillbillies/

~ Karl Jones

I posted a substantial excerpt at Tower of Babel blog, where I’m a contributing author:

http://en.towerofbabel.com/blog/2008/09/17/rocket-scientists-and-hillbillies/

~ Karl Jones

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If you look at politics you will often find an alliance between the folks at the top and the folks near the bottom against the folks in the middle. The Romans, for example, had their senatorial class who pandered to the lowly citizens (slaves didn’t vote) who both looked down on the equestrians. The emperors knew how to play this, and they played to the mob, even after the republic was ended. The difference was that now the senators were in the middle. Of course, the senators and the knights wrote the histories, so our view of the Roman emperors, especially the earlier emperors, is colored by this.

You get this alliance in many kingdoms. The lower classes complain about the vizier, or the cossacks, or whatever else afflicts them, but they are loyal to their king, just a regular guy. Hell, the Kaiser used to make a big thing of cutting wood to show he was a man of the people. It is a workable political dynamic.

I don’t think Bush sat around reading Tacitus and his ilk when he decided that the scion of an aristocratic New England family would do well to play the role of a bluff Texan if he intended to do well in politics. People haven’t been voting for New England patricians in a while. When they voted for a New England president they voted for a damned Irishman. Bush probably just figured he’d need to change his image, though he didn’t have to change his politics all that much.

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I’ll also agree with Arne that the Scots Irish played a major role in the US revolution. The Scots Irish were Scotts who were moved to Ireland to pacify the native Irish population. They knew how this kind of colonization worked. When George III started changing his policies in the New World colonies, they knew precisely what he was doing. Their ancestors had done it for his ancestors, and now they wanted no part of being on the receiving side.

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If you look at politics you will often find an alliance between the folks at the top and the folks near the bottom against the folks in the middle. The Romans, for example, had their senatorial class who pandered to the lowly citizens (slaves didn’t vote) who both looked down on the equestrians. The emperors knew how to play this, and they played to the mob, even after the republic was ended. The difference was that now the senators were in the middle. Of course, the senators and the knights wrote the histories, so our view of the Roman emperors, especially the earlier emperors, is colored by this.

You get this alliance in many kingdoms. The lower classes complain about the vizier, or the cossacks, or whatever else afflicts them, but they are loyal to their king, just a regular guy. Hell, the Kaiser used to make a big thing of cutting wood to show he was a man of the people. It is a workable political dynamic.

I don’t think Bush sat around reading Tacitus and his ilk when he decided that the scion of an aristocratic New England family would do well to play the role of a bluff Texan if he intended to do well in politics. People haven’t been voting for New England patricians in a while. When they voted for a New England president they voted for a damned Irishman. Bush probably just figured he’d need to change his image, though he didn’t have to change his politics all that much.

—-

I’ll also agree with Arne that the Scots Irish played a major role in the US revolution. The Scots Irish were Scotts who were moved to Ireland to pacify the native Irish population. They knew how this kind of colonization worked. When George III started changing his policies in the New World colonies, they knew precisely what he was doing. Their ancestors had done it for his ancestors, and now they wanted no part of being on the receiving side.

The main threat has been to call anyone who was not for Obama “racist”. As someone who lived through the days of George Wallace, that is right up there with ‘nigger’ if you had to fight racism as some of us did. We had to fight our own families. Then we endured the mau mauing in school from both sides.

Are there bigots? Yes. They come in all colors, sizes and creeds. What do you call an anti-bigot?

These days they seem to be called fools. Should I accept that? I don’t think so.

The mainstream used names on Hillary Clinton that will never be forgotten by her supporters and that, not Palin specifically, is why PUMA exists.

So if the redneck meme is to be tossed around, if we are to be labeled hillbillies, Ellie Maes, Bodines, all the little sly cuts, then the other names are coming out too. This will get uglier than anything you think you remember. Will we burn the cities again? This isn’t a threat. As someone who works in the public safety industry, I’ve studied the cases, the Kerner Report, the events in Cinncinnati in 2001. It doesn’t take much to light that match, but it takes a lot of effort to put it out.

And this is precisely what I’ve been warning the Obama camp about here and elsewhere since last winter. At the other end of the campaign, racial sensitivity will be at the lowest it has been in five decades. The N word will become acceptable.

I used an old actor’s name against another character’s name as a way to point out how this will go. A very volatile mixture was put together by the Obama camp. The mau mauing in the caucuses in Iowa and Texas was evident. The threats were evident for the black congressmen who didn’t support Obama.

The ends do not justify the means, and at the end of the night, a band that uses the mean drum finds itself in a parking lot full of people ready to fight. And deservedly so.

I grew up buttermilk if you understand that slang. I’ve no use for either side of this bitter butter battle but if that is what it takes for Obama to beat McCain, Obama needs to lose.

America may just need another four years to figure out what Stephen Vincent Benét and Washington Irving were trying to say lest we all wake up and realize what Old Scratch has in mind with his stacked jury “for it was him they’d come for, not only Jabez Stone”.

There is no Us vs Them. There is a class war for power but few of us are members of those classes. There is Us and unless we want to Burn Baby Burn, we might best remember what Old Scratch said: “I am merely an honest American like yourself – and of the best descent – for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster, though I don’t like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours.”

The main threat has been to call anyone who was not for Obama “racist”. As someone who lived through the days of George Wallace, that is right up there with ‘nigger’ if you had to fight racism as some of us did. We had to fight our own families. Then we endured the mau mauing in school from both sides.

Are there bigots? Yes. They come in all colors, sizes and creeds. What do you call an anti-bigot?

These days they seem to be called fools. Should I accept that? I don’t think so.

The mainstream used names on Hillary Clinton that will never be forgotten by her supporters and that, not Palin specifically, is why PUMA exists.

So if the redneck meme is to be tossed around, if we are to be labeled hillbillies, Ellie Maes, Bodines, all the little sly cuts, then the other names are coming out too. This will get uglier than anything you think you remember. Will we burn the cities again? This isn’t a threat. As someone who works in the public safety industry, I’ve studied the cases, the Kerner Report, the events in Cinncinnati in 2001. It doesn’t take much to light that match, but it takes a lot of effort to put it out.

And this is precisely what I’ve been warning the Obama camp about here and elsewhere since last winter. At the other end of the campaign, racial sensitivity will be at the lowest it has been in five decades. The N word will become acceptable.

I used an old actor’s name against another character’s name as a way to point out how this will go. A very volatile mixture was put together by the Obama camp. The mau mauing in the caucuses in Iowa and Texas was evident. The threats were evident for the black congressmen who didn’t support Obama.

The ends do not justify the means, and at the end of the night, a band that uses the mean drum finds itself in a parking lot full of people ready to fight. And deservedly so.

I grew up buttermilk if you understand that slang. I’ve no use for either side of this bitter butter battle but if that is what it takes for Obama to beat McCain, Obama needs to lose.

America may just need another four years to figure out what Stephen Vincent Benét and Washington Irving were trying to say lest we all wake up and realize what Old Scratch has in mind with his stacked jury “for it was him they’d come for, not only Jabez Stone”.

There is no Us vs Them. There is a class war for power but few of us are members of those classes. There is Us and unless we want to Burn Baby Burn, we might best remember what Old Scratch said: “I am merely an honest American like yourself – and of the best descent – for, to tell the truth, Mr. Webster, though I don’t like to boast of it, my name is older in this country than yours.”

No, I didn’t get that. Thanks for the clarification. Rednecks aren’t a problem. It’s just another label.

Fear is a real problem, and there is plenty of that to go around. When we can’t trust the media to be objective, when there is a 24 hour media blitz by all sides, when everyone is yelling, people get uptight and then their brains shut down.

The Democrats kept being beaten by a very astute spin machine so they decided to get one of their own. Now we have two of the beasts on the loose and nowhere to get trustworthy information. Classic Spy Vs Spy.

Rick: Obama’s credibility has been erased by his own supporters playing Us Vs Them. Palin dissolved his mojo by the oldest trick there is: A New Kid In Town.

So now it’s a real Battle of the Bands.

No, I didn’t get that. Thanks for the clarification. Rednecks aren’t a problem. It’s just another label.

Fear is a real problem, and there is plenty of that to go around. When we can’t trust the media to be objective, when there is a 24 hour media blitz by all sides, when everyone is yelling, people get uptight and then their brains shut down.

The Democrats kept being beaten by a very astute spin machine so they decided to get one of their own. Now we have two of the beasts on the loose and nowhere to get trustworthy information. Classic Spy Vs Spy.

Rick: Obama’s credibility has been erased by his own supporters playing Us Vs Them. Palin dissolved his mojo by the oldest trick there is: A New Kid In Town.

So now it’s a real Battle of the Bands.