Makes me not to ever want to look up friends from my wild youth. How
depressing.
> Bosco Bosco <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: I just
> got confronted with this on a personal level that's making me
> feel like I need a bath and a brain scrub.
>
> Recently on My Space, I caught up with some old
> friends from the Punk Rock days of the early 80's and was confronted
> with the fact that they had become Conservative Republican
> Christians. I need a psychic enema.
>
> Please note that I am not Anti Christian. It's not my faith but I
> don't have any qualms with it per se. However the folks that tend to
> identify as Conservative Republican Christians seem to lack a clear
> understanding of the teachings of Jesus in my mind. The seem to be
> constantly saying something like Jesus: Wrong on Forgiveness, Wrong
> on Tolerance, Wrong On Compassion, Wrong on the Poor, Wrong on The
> Sick. Something about the basic message eludes them and yet they
> insist that they understand Christianity better than anyone.
>
> They kind of make my skin crawl.
>
> B
> --- "Tracey de Morsella (formerly Tracey L. Minor)"
> <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> > This is the America I know. It disgusts and terrifies me.
> > -------- Original Message --------
> > Subject: White Men Hold Key for Democrats
> > Date: Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:56:31 -0600
> > From: Skee OuiZy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> >
> >
> > /*THE DECIDERS*/
> > *White Men Hold Key for Democrats*
> >
> > Contest May Hinge On Blue-Collar Vote; Opening for McCain?
> > By *JONATHAN KAUFMAN*
> > February 19, 2008; Page A1
> >
> > YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- In a Democratic presidential nomination race
> > that
> > pits a black man against a woman, the victor may well be determined
> > by
> > white men.
> >
> > The working-class white men who toil in the steel mills and auto
> > plants
> > here are part of a volatile cohort that has long helped steer the
> > nation's political course. Once, blue-collar males were the bedrock
> > of
> > Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal coalition. They became "Reagan
> > Democrats,"
> > helping to propel Ronald Reagan into office in the 1980s. Bill
> > Clinton
> > won many of them back to the Democratic Party in 1992. Two years
> > later
> > they were "angry white males," resentful of affirmative action and
> > the
> > women's movement, who helped Republicans capture Congress.
> >
> > [photo]
> > '/It seems like someone else should be there,' says Dan Leihgeber,
> > a
> > smelter in a Youngstown steel plant./
> >
> > Now this group of voters is set to help determine the Democratic
> > nominee, and the next occupant of the White House. Working-class
> > white
> > men make up nearly one-quarter of the electorate, outnumbering
> > African-American and Hispanic voters combined. As the Democratic
> > primary
> > race intensifies, some of these white men are finding it hard to
> > identify with the remaining two candidates, Sen. Hillary Rodham
> > Clinton
> > and Sen. Barack Obama.
> >
> > "It seems like someone else should be there," says Dan Leihgeber, a
> >
> > smelter in a steel plant here, who is supporting Sen. Clinton.
> > "It's
> > like there's someone missing."
> >
> > As the Democratic race moves toward primaries in blue-collar
> > strongholds
> > -- today in Wisconsin, Ohio on March 4 and Pennsylvania on April 22
> > --
> > the allegiance of blue-collar men is up for grabs. While Sen.
> > Clinton
> > runs strongly among working-class women, she and Sen. Obama are
> > perceived equally favorably among working-class men, according to a
> >
> > January Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll. The two candidates have
> > seesawed among blue-collar men in the primaries: Sen. Clinton won
> > them
> > in Georgia, Missouri and New York, while Sen. Obama captured the
> > working-class male vote in New Hampshire, California, Maryland and
> > Virginia.
> >
> > Blue-collar men could also emerge as an important swing
> > constituency in
> > November -- either backing the Democrats' eventual nominee, or
> > shifting
> > to some degree toward Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican
> > nominee, whose war record and straight-talking approach could make
> > him
> > appealing to many working-class men.
> >
> > Marc Dann, Ohio's Democratic attorney general, frets about the
> > reluctance of some of these blue-collar Democrats to embrace either
> > of
> > his party's candidates. "I worry about [the appeal of] McCain,"
> > says Mr.
> > Dann, who lives in Youngstown. "It's not like watching an episode
> > of
> > Archie Bunker -- but there are real issues" that white male voters
> > here
> > have with Sen. Clinton and Sen. Obama.
> >
> > Working-class men are generally defined as those without a college
> > degree, including union members and workers with service and
> > technical
> > jobs, typically making less than $50,000 a year. They are
> > especially
> > crucial in Ohio, where they make up about 28% of the vote, as well
> > as
> > other battleground states including Michigan (about 27%), West
> > Virginia
> > (33%), Missouri (27%), Minnesota (27%), Pennsylvania (27%),
> > Wisconsin
> > (29%) and Iowa (34%).
> >
> > In Youngstown, many working-class men say they will vote according
> > to
> > issues, especially economic ones including health care, free trade
> > and
> > the loss of manufacturing jobs. But in conversations in union
> > halls,
> > bars and factories, race and gender are never far from the surface.
> >
> > "I don't think the country is ready for a woman president yet,"
> > says
> > Duane Tkac, a burly vocational instructor at a prison here and a
> > member
> > of the local branch of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters
> > union.
> > "The country is in too much turmoil. I don't think she can handle
> > the
> > pressure, the terrorists." He plans to vote for Sen. Obama.
> >
> > Don Pompelia, retired from the Air Force, supports Sen. Clinton.
> > "I'm
> > hoping Hillary gets the nomination. But if she doesn't, I'm not
> > voting
> > for that guy. I'm going Republican," he booms as he picks up his
> > morning
> > coffee at McDonald's. "There are going to be a lot of people
> > crossing
> > over to the Republicans because he's black."
> >
> > *Back Into the Fold*
> >
> > After decades in which Republicans often successfully wooed
> > blue-collar
> > men, many Democrats see 2008 as a chance to bring them back into
> > the
> > fold, motivated by the worsening economy and their disaffection
> > with
> > President Bush. In the 2006 midterm election, union members and
> > other
> > working-class men voted for Democratic candidates by a margin of
> > almost
> > two to one, helping the Democrats win control of Congress.
> >
> > [chart]
> >
> > Youngstown has been battered over the past 30 years by job losses
> > and
> > plant closings. Buoyed by unionized steel jobs that paid as much as
> > $20
> > an hour, the city once had one of the country's highest per-capita
> > incomes. But as companies have shuttered steel and auto plants,
> > outsourcing jobs to nonunion parts of the country and overseas, the
> >
> > city's population has fallen by 50% since 1960, to about 80,000.
> >
> > Few young people stay here; the average age at one steel plant is
> > 55.
> > Families survive because women have poured into the work force out
> > of
> > necessity, changing the dynamic within traditionally conservative
> > families where women used to stay at home.
> >
> > *'Poster Child'*
> >
> > "For a lot of blue-collar guys over 40, Hillary Clinton is a poster
> >
> > child for everything about the women's movement that they don't
> > like --
> > their wife going back to work, their daughters rebelling, the rise
> > of
> > women in the workplace," says Gerald Austin, an Ohio political
> > strategist.
> >
> > Mr. Leihgeber, the steelworker, says he supports Sen. Clinton for
> > her
> > experience and positions. He carries a book bag to work every day
> > with
> > his lunch and a newspaper inside and a Clinton button pinned to the
> >
> > outside. Some days, he says, he turns the bag around so the Clinton
> >
> > button doesn't show; he says he doesn't like dealing with his
> > co-workers' derogatory comments. Mr. Leihgeber says he wouldn't be
> > heckled so much for an Obama pin.
> >
> > "People don't want to speak out against Obama because of the fear
> > of
> > being seen as racist," he says. "It's easier to say you want to
> > keep a
> > woman barefoot and pregnant....You can call a woman anything."
> >
> > In national polls, white men overall have been more favorable than
> > white
> > women toward Sen. Obama. In a survey done in September by Pew
> > Research,
> > white men overall gave Sen. Obama more positive ratings than did
> > white
> === message truncated ===
>
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>
>
> "There is no reason Good can't triumph over Evil, if only angels will get
> organized along the lines of the Mafia." -Kurt Vonnegut, "A Man Without A
> Country"
>
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