The Glade 4.0

Sadly, it was the Republican party that came up with and implemented the Southern Strategy. Which is to say, a political strategy with racial divisiveness at it's core. It's a strategy still being vigorously employed today (looking no further than the Governor of Arizona as proof positive).

I look at the two parties and I see some pretty clear differences on race. Democrats work to protect and ensure enfranchisement of minorities, and Republicans and conservatives use race to divide and inspire fear in voters. They make false claims about immigrants causing violent crime, or how they're all drug mules. They go ballistic at the thought of a mosque on ground zero, or assume that every Muslim is just another terrorist waiting to strike. And if you don't think that sort of race baiting is part of the Republican electoral strategy, I have a large number of advertisements to show you that says other wise. They couldn't even help themselves from emphasizing the President's middle, Arabic name, in the hopes of convincing a certain demographic that he was a Muslim.

Of course, Republicans will clutch their pearls and feign insult when you point this out. They will accuse *you* of being a bigot for pointing out the bigotry inherent in their political platforms and electoral strategies. But that doesn't change the reality.

The Republican party succeeds through fear mongering and race baiting. The non-white other is out there, stealing your jobs or plotting your death in some terror attack. The non-white other is angry and uncontrolled! He's arrogant and doesn't know his place.

You can see these messages clearly in Republican talking points, ad campaigns, and in the Tea Party movement that forms the Republican base. They will scream bloody murder if you point it out, but that doesn't change the reality.

So yeah, if you want to draw a weak, false equivalence and say that Democrats use race, you can. But there is a clear difference between the two parties regarding race. One party seeks to enfranchise, and the other party seeks to roll back civil rights protections and other progressive advances that have helped to make our union more equal and more perfect over the last several decades.

When I look at both of those parties, it becomes clear to me which one I need to vote against, every election, every time.

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It feels like all the people who want limited government really just want government limited to Republicans.
---The Daily Show

Except that there is no "southern strategy" in that sense. That was simply the recharacterization of it by the left, specifically Atwater, with his absurd "dog whistle" argument that allowed them to claim it was racially motivated no matter what strategy the Republicans pursued.



Nobody cares what you see.



Except that Democrats use fear of the white man to garner minority votes and they don't work to protect enfranchisement of minorities except against nonexistant threats.



Illegals do cause significant violent crime and significant numbers are drug mules. That's one way people that move illegals get payed; they make people crossing carry some drugs.



Why would you build a mosque there? Or a church or anything else other than another WTC?



You can find people like this but they aren't those in the public eye.



No, they couldn't help pointing out that he has the same name as Saddam Hussein. It's the name of a specific individual, which while irrelevant, has nothing to do with race. No, you don 't have any advertisements to show, either.



The reality is that there isn't any inherent bigotry. The inherent bigotry is in the Democratic party's strategy of "Anyone who's not white, straight, and Christian, you better jump on the bandwagon! That mean ole white man is plotting to oppress you for the evulz and you can't possibly make it without us in office to give you free money!"



Because when people propose that we give special privileges to *gasp* non-white people, it must be racist to point that out! When terrorists threaten us, we can't do anything about it because they aren't white and that means anything we do is racist! This is just you rephrasing things in racially-charged language then claiming it's the actual position of Republicans. It's why no one takes you seriously.

You can see these messages clearly in Republican talking points, ad campaigns, and in the Tea Party movement that forms the Republican base. They will scream bloody murder if you point it out, but that doesn't change the reality.



Except that neither party does the things you claim. The Democrats cannot possibly be seeking to enfranchise; all adults already have it. The Republicans are not seeking to roll back civil rights protections. They're rolling back special privileges.



That's because you're a **** idiot.

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"Hysterical children shrieking about right-wing anything need to go sit in the corner and be quiet while the adults are talking."

lol. You know, I'm actually kind of glad someone is injecting a little humor into their posts.

Wait... is he serious?

oh.. my... god.
jesus christ on a **** bicycle. Why now?

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Darksiege
Traveller, Calé, Whisperer
Lead me not into temptation; for I know a shortcut

Apparently the mods are conducting a live experience on the definition of crazy.

Montegue hasn't been banned for the last 4 or 5 months.

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I thought the last banning was permanent? Or am I misremembering the post by Lenas regarding the issue?

Misrememberation.

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Please tell me I'm still asleep and I'm having a nightmare.

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"It is true that democracy undermines freedom when voters believe they can live off of others' productivity, when they modify the commandment: 'Thou shalt not steal, except by majority vote.' The politics of plunder is no doubt destructive of both morality and the division of labor."

You're still asleep and having a nightmare.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Monte's ban was 1 month. We removed his ban precisely on time, but he hasn't actually logged onto the board until now.

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So I take it the news story I heard a couple weeks ago about the two-time, sex-offender, illegal immigrant who was recaptured by Border Patrol was false? Or the kidnappings that go on in Phoenix? Or the murder of the rancher on the AZ border where tracks were found going back across the Mexican border?


Do you want to see video footage of this? Because seriously, I can link it. The fact is, MANY illegals coming over transport backpacks full of weed as part of their fee.

But all of that is beside the point. Because furor over illegal immigration is not racism.

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The Dude abides.

Refer to RD's comments for the primary reason it needs to be portrayed as such.

Sure, but the point is, you've heard of of those crimes, but how many other sex offenders or murders have you heard about recently? The reality is that immigrants, both legal and illegal, commit crimes at a lower rate than American citizens, but a crime by an American is par for the course, while a crime by an illegal immigrant is headline news. You don't think Republican politicians benefit from, and therefore have an incentive to help continue, that dynamic?



I know this was in response to Monte, but speaking for myself, I don't think it's driven by racism, per se, in most cases. Rather, I think it's driven by a variety of economic and cultural resentments that break along racial lines and that cynical politicians (of both parties) exploit for their own electoral gains.

That's a pretty bold claim.

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Not true.

100% of illegal immigrants commit crimes. 100%. All of them.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Aye, but you know what I'm talking about, Mus - crimes against people and/or property, not regulatory infractions (which, given the number of regulatory rules out there, 100% of Americans have committed as well).

I'd say that folks trying to fly under the radar typically have a lower crime rate. Pretty much part and parcel of not being deported.

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In time, this too shall pass.

Even accepting that that claim is true (which I don't, btw), a violent crime committed by an illegal immigrant should have been avoidable because they never should have gotten inside our borders to commit it in the first place. Republican politicians, well, some at least, continue that dynamic because they're just as incensed about that fact as the people who voted for them. I'll exclude John McCain from this list. He's only upset about the problem because it's an election year.

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The Dude abides.

I'm sure you've read this somewhere, but this has got to be the most easily manipulated statistic ever created. What qualifies as a crime? When something does qualify, do you value them all equally? If you do, you get problems like citizens committing more "crimes" by getting a bunch of traffic tickets while the illegal immigrants who don't have cars don't get any. Of course, if you do assign valuations, that makes it even worse, as you could twist those assignments to get whatever result you wanted.

Numbers please.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

The stats are pretty undeniable regarding legal immigrants. With regard to illegal immigrants, though, I grant that my statement was overly confident. It's obviously hard to get solid stats on what is, by definition, a semi-hidden population group. That said, most of the stats I've seen suggest the claim holds for illegals as well. It's a pretty easy Google for anyone that wants to check.

So basically it's a baseless assertion that draws a connection based on similar heritage that ignores a major difference in ethics to begin with. Gotcha.

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The Dude abides.

100% of Illegal Immigrants are criminal. As such, it's pretty undeniably true they commit crime at a higher rate than the general population. Now, we can quibble over the rate over OTHER crimes, but illegally entering the country is a crime.

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I don't know why you guys seem so convinced that Democrats are purely cynical operators, playing the race card for their own electoral gain, yet you're so resistant to the idea that Republicans might be just as cynically manipulating their (white) base on the same racially charged issues. I mean come on! If there's any universal truth we can all agree on here, it's that politicians of all parties are manipulative, soulless bastards, right?