Why it looks like anti-Hillary crowd is condescending

At least with regards to West Virginia primary

from JoeUser Forums

Another Joe User wrote a lovely (read that sarcasm as intended please!) article complaining about Obama Supporters Condescending ways...  That article could be found here: Condescending_Obama_Supporters (sorry, I didn't use the original article title, but it's close enough for my purposes and doesn't alter the intent, or at least I don't believe it does, of the original poster (OP) of that article.)

In anycase, thanks to an AP news article on events going on in West Virginia today, I've got a nice rebuttal piece to that original article.  Read on for the details...[more]

News today: Clinton seeks largely symbolic win in W.Va. (from Myway.com, originally from AP)

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) - Hillary Rodham Clinton reached out for a largely symbolic victory in the West Virginia primary Tuesday over Barack Obama, front-runner in a historic Democratic presidential race nearing an end. Obama conceded defeat in advance in the state, looking ahead to the Oregon primary later in the month and the fall campaign against John McCain, the republican nominee-in-waiting.

Interviews with West Virginia voters leaving their polling places showed an electorate that was overwhelmingly white.

Nearly one in four of all ballots were cast by voters 60 and older, and a similar number by West Virginians with no education beyond high school. More than half the voters were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less. Clinton has done particularly well in primaries to date among older, less well-educated and lower-income families.

End of quote

The original poster (OP) of the first article linked above here, Locamama, wonders why people make generalized statements that only stupid people are voting for Hillary, or that only older people are, or that racists are.  Apparently that OP hasn't looked into the details that are represented in the news quoted above.

Let's pick it apart for a second:

Interviews with West Virginia voters leaving their polling places showed an electorate that was overwhelmingly white.
End of quote

If one didn't have the history of the state and region to look back on, that part about the electorate being overwhelmingly white wouldn't be something one could really generalize about, but... W.Va.'s reputation, heck the reputation of much of the Appalachia region, preceeds this news so most educated individuals look at the common knowledge and facts that the KKK has such a rich history in W.Va. (look up Robert Byrd's history for example, or research the history of the KKK for example, and so on, and so on...) and they logically conclude that an overwhelmingly white electorage in a state such as W.Va. means the voters will overwhelmingly support the white candidate, whomever that may be.

 

Continuing...

Nearly one in four of all ballots were cast by voters 60 and older
End of quote

Gee, really?  So it's mostly older voters?  (Where have I heard that before...)  Mostly older voters in a state known to have a history of racism?  Mostly older voters that are likely to be casting ballots to supporting a white individual because many of those older voters were raised in a time when the color of a man (or woman's) skin made all the difference in the world.  Yup, to be expected.

 

Continuing a bit more...

... and a similar number (of votes cast) by West Virginians with no education beyond high school.
End of quote

No high school education.  Hmm, perhaps that is why those voters are described as being under-educated, or why some use words such as 'ignorant' or 'stupid' (though those terms incite and denote hate and ignorance of a different type...)

 

More...

More than half the voters were in families with incomes of $50,000 or less.
End of quote

Where I come from that would likely be considered 'poor'.  The article writer actually uses another term in the last sentence in the paragraph:

Clinton has done particularly well in primaries to date among older, less well-educated and lower-income families.
End of quote

There you go, a nicer, more polite way of saying 'poor', and a less hateful way of saying ignorant or stupid too.

democrat
3,507 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

I don't think this addresses my issue at all.  The condescending attitude of "you're stupid if you don't vote for Obama" doesn't change with the demographic of the voters.  The attitude is the same.  It would be different if they didn't use the belittling language to describe these voters. 

I'm glad you thought my article was lovely. 

Here's an article that might interest you about why Obama supporters should stop piling on Clinton and her voters. 

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/05/obamicans_pile_on_clinton_at_o.html

Reply #2 from JoeUser Forums Top
I don't think this addresses my issue at all.
End of quote


No it does not. Indeed it just re-inforces your issue. The article and quotes are replete with stereotypes, most of them wrong, and just plain lies. I think this article clearly demonstrates the bias of the press against Hillary. A bias that did not exist prior to the second coming of the messiah.

The press could have a field day with Hillary. She has enough faults and faux pas' to fill a tome, and easily an article. INstead, in trying to trash Hillary, they trash a region that does not deserve it. I am sure the author of the article is totally ignorant of area or they would not print (well maybe they would since the National Enquirer seems to have more integrity than the rest of the MSM) the lies.

I doubt either know that while Robert KKK byrd is a racists bigot, most of the people sided with the NOrth (where the hell do you think the illegal state came from to begin with???), and that the people of the "area" also harbored and facilitated run away slaves. There was very little, if any, slavery in Appalachia before the war, for the simple reason it was not conducive to it, nor the people in favor of it. And that the area is settled by many Amish/Mennonites that have a stated policy of the dignity of all men. Long before it was fashionable in the north.

The article is a trash piece. And one that cannot stand the light of day, and is therefore not even worthy of quoting. I love to trash Hillary because I cant stand her. But I am not going to set up a strawman based upon easily disproven lies. That only makes me out to look the fool. Not the people of WVA.

But then I am not surprised either about this. For it was WVA (along with Tennessee) that "gave" the election to Bush in 2000. And the press did the same hatchet job then. But then it was good and legal as it was about how the stereotypes applied to only Republicans.
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Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top

Dr Guy,

You are making a very good point about West-Virginia there. I doubt that most people remember why West-Virginia is a state and what its population stands for.

Incidentally, that reminds me of something that happened, I think, a year ot two ago. Queen Elizabeth II visited Virginia and the governeur (a Democrat, I think) called on her to apologise for the role of the British Empire in the crime of slavery. I couldn't handle the irony.

A _Democrat_ (of the party that supported slavery) governeur of _Virginia_ (a state at the forefront of the fight for slavery and the site of the Confederacy's capital) demanded that the queen of the _British Empire_ (who shut down the international slave trade, were the first to outlaw slavery, AND fought wars to end slavery worldwide) apologise for slavery.

I think it would have been more fitting for HER to ask HIM to apologise for his party's, his state's, his government's, and his country's role in delaying her country's attempt to eradicate slavery in the 19th century.

 

The Democrats - The Party of Lincoln. :-)

 

Reply #4 from JoeUser Forums Top
Virginia and the governeur (a Democrat, I think) called on her to apologise for the role of the British Empire in the crime of slavery
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I was here (last may), about 50 yards from her (That is where I worked, i did not go to the hullabaloo). And he is a democrat. An idiot too! (No, that is not a statement about Democrats, just this one). So I would expect nothing less from the buffoon.