Yup, you lost the Civil War all right

[andrewducker]

Comments

[perceval.livejournal.com]

Does that mean Ohio went Kerry???

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Does that mean Ohio went Kerry???

How would anyone know? They used Diebold.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Why do you find this idea comforting? The election wasn't stolen by fraud, it was won by people who have very cleverly played to people's worst fears.

[josephgrossberg.livejournal.com]

Or at least their homophobia.

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

Not just homophobia. Also fears of loss of control over families, of 'others' getting better breaks, of difference...

I could go on but I'd get more depressed.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

There's evidence that at least one precinct in Ohio was off by THOUSANDS.

In guess-who's favor?

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

Why do you find this idea comforting?

Why do you think I find this idea comforting?

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I guess because you're the person I've seen mention it the most in the last few days. However, I've decided to be good and take this over to my journal. Feel free to discuss with me there :) Or maybe even at lunch today...

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Civil war? CIVIL WAR!!! Y'all mean the war of northern aggression! Least down here south of the Mason-Dixon line. Grits?

[heron61.livejournal.com]

Dear gods that's depressing. What horrifies and baffles me is that there are millions of people (all of whom are in the South) who still feel passionately about that war and think their side should have won, almost 150 years after it ended.

OTOH, I did find out that it's possible to get an EU passport if one has a grandparent from the EU, and imester's grandmother was from Britain.

[pisica.livejournal.com]

Um, and the Northern Ireland conflict has its roots in the actions of Oliver Cromwell, and the situation in the Middle East goes back thousands of years....

Americans do not have the lock on ridiculous behavior.

[akicif.livejournal.com]

the Northern Ireland conflict has its roots in the actions of Oliver Cromwell

Naw.... it's waaaay older than that!

[angelofthenorth.livejournal.com]

Henry II??

Another take....

[blackmanxy.livejournal.com]

Re: Another take....

[hfnuala.livejournal.com]

I prefer this one. There's also a good one with county by county results.

Re: Another take....

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

Why is Utah so red?

Re: Another take....

[wendywoowho.livejournal.com]

I don't know you, so can't tell if you're being ironic.

Utah is so red because Utah is populated to a large degree by Latter Day Saints (Mormons) who skew WAY conservative.

Re: Another take....

[missedith01.livejournal.com]

That's OK - assume ignorance, it's a safe bet. :-)

Yes ... Utah ... Mormons ... I remember now ...

[douglasbryant.livejournal.com]

Nothing good to say.

[allorin.livejournal.com]

W.O.W.

[drainboy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I'll be playing on the American servers come November 24th.

Or was that not what you meant?

[allorin.livejournal.com]

L.O.L.

[josephgrossberg.livejournal.com]

FWIW -- it's not really central to the premise of a continuing north-south divide -- the South was solidly Democratic from the time of Lincoln (a Republican) until about a century later.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

Until very shrewd Republicans realized it was SO very easy to sway most of the south to politics of hate instead of addressing their shitty economy.

Deir, who lives in the poorest, 86% anti-homo state in the nation

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Actually, don't forget that your (former) KKK loving Robert Byrd, Democrat from West Virginia, and former Democrats Strom Thurmond and Jesse Helms, were part of a major contingent of Democrats that propped up a segregationist candidate for President in the 50's. And don't forget that Albert Gore, Sr., a Democrat with a now-famous son, was also a part of that same group.

American politicians either are a spineless bunch more interested in power than staying loyal to a cause, or perhaps they really do try their best to support their constituents, however nuts they are. Maybe we should just blame the southerners and the country hicks for ruining the Republican Party.

That being said, "politics of fear" appear to be a good way to divide and conquer, unfortunately. I don't foresee the Reps or Dems ever giving that tactic up.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

Yep... Sadly, the country was different then. I hate that it was, but racism bled all over party lines. Homophobia does it now, too.

It makes me sick that my current governor, Haley Barbour, is a rampant bigot and admitted racist, and Bush came down and campaigned for him, twice.

(by the way, I lean liberal, but I consider myself an independent... I'll vote for a moderate Republican if he shows integrity, even if we do happen to disagree on some issues. Please don't foist Thurmond off on me!)

[derumi.livejournal.com]

I'm classified as a heartless conservative or an society-breaking liberal depending on what party you are. ;) Libertarian platforms are partly co-opted by both major parties, and we allow lunatics to run for... office... Okay, so we're not the only ones.

There are a lot of things I'm grateful for this election. The divide was close to 50/50, it wasn't 60/40 or 70/30. We did survive 4 years of Bush, surviving the next 4 is conceivable. And we haven't started burning books on a governmental scale yet. There are a few things that need to be worked on (equal rights, freedom from governmental repression without just cause), but we're not limited to only making our voice heard once a year in November.

To his credit as a Senator, Thurmond might've been the ideal representative for his constituents, as he's changed his stances as his constituents have changed. Which brings up the question: Represent your people truly, or make your own decision when your people's wants are "wrong"? On one hand I admire that, on the other hand it's like, "Say, weren't you at KKK rallies before you started saying you liked us?"

BTW, you look like Bjork. @_@ (oh, wait, that /is/ Bjork. hehe.)

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

Nope, that's ME with my head in the scanner.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Oh, in that case, wow! I have a face in the scanner pic, too. Somewhere. It's pretty trippy because I had glasses on.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

It's kind of a theme for me: I don't have access to a digital camera often, so when I dye my hair, I'll send my dad pictures of the color by shoving my head in the work scanner when my boss leaves for lunch.

I did this one for http://www.sorryeverybody.com:

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Quick history recap:

Civil War era: Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, freeing black slaves. From that point forward, no Southern white would vote for a Republican, and no Southern black would vote for anyone who wasn't. This is the ultimate origin of the term "yellow-dog Democrats" -- because they'd vote for a yaller dog before they'd vote for a Republican.

Early-to-mid 20th century: In the North, the Democrats became the party of the Little Guy -- the blue-collar worker, the unionist -- against the Republicans, who were the party of the rich. In the South, the Little Guy was mostly poor and black... and if he was poor and white, he was still white, and wouldn't vote for "that n****r party", so the party roles there were reversed. Note also that, with one or two notable exceptions, most of the real Democratic party corruption in that era was in the former Slave Belt states.

Civil Rights era: LBJ signed the Federal Voting Rights Act into law, and the Southern Democrats went livid at this "betrayal". (You think the Clinton-bashers were vitriolic? These guys made them look like Mary Poppins.) At the same time, Barry Goldwater, the Republican presidential candidate, voted against that bill, for reasons the Libertarians would have heartily approved -- he thought that combating racism was not a proper role of the government. Southern blacks were equally appalled by this betrayal from the Party of Lincoln.

Flip-flop! With startling suddenness (as these things go), party roles in the South reversed... and the rich, corrupt Southern Democrats found a new spiritual home in the Republican Party, while the Lincoln Republicans forged common cause with Little Guys in the rest of the country.

And, with trivial exceptions, it's been that way ever since. It wasn't that the Republicans came looking for the hate-based power, it was that the hate-based power went to them. And, as a country, we're still feeling the aftershocks of a war that was OVER 150 fucking years ago.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

And then in Hawaii's case, foreign Republican plantation owners overthrew their Queen. Hence the penchant for Democrats as governors and senators.

[birdofparadox.livejournal.com]

and for the longest time, Alabama had been voting fairly Dem, until Karl Rove fixed his beady eyes on it some years ago.

[nosrialleon.livejournal.com]

Specifically, until Reagan.

[derumi.livejournal.com]

Started shifting during the Kennedy years, iirc. He didn't have full support of his party until after he was dead, no?