Gary Johnson wins Libertarian nomination

[poorgradstudent]

Gary Johnson = Ron Paul – teh Crazy

If it was Johnson vs. Obama I’d have to give Johnson a long hard look. He’s a centrist on a lot of issues, he doesn’t pander to the religious right, he believes in science. I don’t agree with 100% of his positions, but he doesn’t get the auto DQ that Romney/Gingrich/Santorum/Paul do for advocating blurring the line between Church and State. I hope Johnson pulls a decent percentage of the vote in the general.

[briansd1]

[quote=Allan from Fallbrook]

Brian: This one’s for you. Came across this article in The Atlantic and thought of you: http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2012/05/american-snobbery/256931/

Give it a read and I’d love to hear your thoughts. Clive Crook, the author, is British and delves into the key differences between British and American snobbery (including disdain for “rednecks”.)[/quote]

Thanks for the reading recommendation.

In America elite and demotic cultures aren’t merging, they are moving farther apart. The elite is ever more confident of its cultural superiority, and the demos, being American, refuses to be condescended to. I don’t think it’s economic pressure that causes much of the country to cling bitterly to guns and their religion, as Obama put it so memorably. It’s a quintessentially American refusal to be looked down on.

First, it seems to me that in Clive’s world, the American elite is the “new upper class”, a class of liberal professionals rather than the 1% monied elite.

I partially agree with Clive in that Americans don’t like to be condescended to. In fact, Americans are very sensitive to that.

But economic pressures are the primary reasons that working class Whites are worried. There was a time when being a White American put one at the top of the social economic ladder worldwide.

Now, because of globalization of education and almost instantaneous transfer of technology, working class whites have to compete worldwide.

Immigrants of generations past used to be poor. But now, they are H1B holders, university students and better educated professionals. Working class Whites see that, and they are worried. Besides, how can they compete with Mexican immigrants who work twice as hard for half the pay?

[I]s it really the case that [the American upper class] does not preach what it practices? [Murray] notes that, at the very least, this ruling class preaches the doctrine of non-judgmentalism. He also observes that, from time to time, the new upper class feels comfortable with using derogatory labels, particularly towards fundamentalist Christians and rural working-class whites. However, the preaching of this privileged elite is not confined to the denunciation of the backwoods redneck and the gun-loving members of the National Rifle Association. In fact, when it comes to preaching, Murray’s SuperZips are in a class of their own. They may use a self-conscious rhetoric of non-judgmentalism – words like ‘inappropriate’ and ‘challenging’, or phrases such as ‘people in need of support’ and ‘people with issues’ – but they have no inhibitions about instructing others about what food they should eat, how they should bring up their children, or what forms of behaviour are healthy. Outwardly they eschew the language of morality. Instead of sermons, they use the language of ‘raising awareness’.

Furedi and Crook seem to believe that upper class Americans fail to lead by preaching core values, but instead they preach “non-judmentalism” despite looking down upon the rednecks and the obese.

Any kind of preaching won’t work because rednecks will turn against condescension. Is it really possible to teach people the errors of their ways without their feeling condescension?

*

I don’t know enough about Britain, but I doubt that Oiks, over there, support the 1% conservatives in power.

In America, we have the rednecks who vote the 1% economic elites into power. It’s quite a one-sided alliance.

As far as class goes, in America, we have social economic status, but we lack class.

I’m still at a loss over Tea Partiers being outraged that the Obamas offended to Queen of England. In fact, the Queen was never offended. Instead she welcomed the Obamas into her circle of friends. If one knows anything about society, one should take cues from the grace and favours of the Queen.

Conservatives in Britain are probably aristocrats who cling to their centuries old traditions. In America, conservatives love to quote the Founding Fathers, but they are crude gun totting anti-intellectual rednecks, except for the 1%, of course.

I believe that snobbery could be an American trait. We are the greatest and we know it. We love to repeat it to ourselves; and we want the whole world to never forget that. May God bless the USofA.

Yes, I’m being snobbish. 😉

[Anonymous]

Apparently none of the Republican national delegates are bound and the approximate delegate counts are now closer to 550 V 800. Sign up to be a delegate in California. The straw vote does not matter:

http://youtu.be/anWsU93fFsk

[Anonymous]

Great news!

My vote doesn’t matter, and that’s exactly what Ron Paul wants.

[Allan from Fallbrook]

[quote=gregw9898]Apparently none of the Republican national delegates are bound and the approximate delegate counts are now closer to 550 V 800. Sign up to be a delegate in California. The straw vote does not matter:

http://youtu.be/anWsU93fFsk%5B/quote%5D

Markmax, Jr.: So nothing on Graeber? Crickets, huh?

Boy, you sure don’t like facts, do you?

[Author]

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