The most important part of this is:
"Take nothing for granted and leave nothing to chance. Be ready for 2014 because just like 2010 I assure you, they will be ready."

I donn't either. (He hasn't been born yet)

there will be new young people who will reach voting age, many of them hispanic, asian, women and blacks. And in that same two year period, there will be many white elderly individuals who will pass.

It's just a matter of time. Those Romney voters weren't supporting the candidate or a party in particular. They were voting against the sea changes swirling around them. But they are beating against a rising tide that will eventually engulf them entirely. But they will continue to fight that change because they know nothing else and will never be able to accept this. That's why the idea of building fence borders as high as mountains and restricting/prohibiting immigration in its entirety is so compelling to these folks. But the fact they can't get their heads around is this: it doesn't matter because the population of minorities is younger and most of those young persons haven't reached maturity and are not beginning to reproduce as yet. Their populations will continue to grow whether another immigrant ever crosses into the US again despite those efforts.

I believe the contingent within the republican party that cannot understand or abide these changes will fight them with their last breath. They've been doing the same thing since before the end of the Civil War. They will continue that fight and and all the ugly and violent actions that the desperate are wont to engage in when they feel threatened. And it is profoundly disturbing to imagine what lengths these desperate individuals would result to to prevent the inevitable.

Obama needs to do an FDR type "give me a congress" speech.

Rec

Last edited Mon Nov 12, 2012, 11:20 AM - Edit history (1)

Those in my family like Obama somewhat, they think he is a good man, but they are terrified of the changing of America. They are terrified of no longer being the majority, and the white men are terrified of not being in control. I keep hearing "you are changing America (the collective "you" of the Dem party). I don't even think it is necessarily racism, but the fear that comes from losing control. They are used to being at the top, to getting the good jobs, to having every opportunity. And it's not like those in my family think others should NOT have those opportunities...I think that this is just the first time that the America they knew is going away/is already gone and they are mourning it. My hope for them, because for the most part they are good people, if that will get through their mourning and come out the other side understanding how easy they have had it and that it shouldn't be just that way for them, but for EVERYONE.

Now, that is not to say that a lot of the crazies are just crazy and it is about racism and it is about superiority and it is about their need to force their views/beliefs on absolutely everyone. I am just providing a snippet into what I am seeing within my own extended family.

They say I'm playing the race card if I bring it up, and throw Oprah Winfrey and Tiger Woods out there (it's always Oprah and Tiger, not some non-white schmoe down the street) when faced with the "would you trade places?" philosophical question.

So the question I ask is this - if there's no such thing as "White Privilege", why are they so depressed? Why all the dramatic "buy a farm!" "git yer guns and ammo!" "we're doomed! DOOMED!" crapola? I suspect that in their mind, this election did make them trade place with that non-white schmoe. And they don't like it one bit.

As a poster above said - "It's the racism, stupid".

The past 2 election cycles have heralded the beginning of the end of the system of white supremacy. It will definitely NOT go away lightly and will still time and effort and sacrifice to purge... And like reconstruction in the late 1800s with the election of black Senators and Congressman leading to the implementation of Jim Crow in the post-reconstruction aftermath, we will take some steps back. But at least we got this far.

whole new meaning. Thanks for the post. Explains their sense of urgency. They are scared shitless. watch your backs.

Will it come to another civil war? Possibly.

of that person attending a rally, before Mittens was sent back to his big house with the car elevator, who was wearing a T-shirt that said "Put the White back into the White House". Poor baby, now he has to spend 4 more years with that uppity Negro in the Oval Office and he gets to watch his racist country continue to move to something more inclusive. That is just fine with me. Cultural diversity is much more interesting than the status quo of people like that. Just imagine that generations from now people will look back and hopefully say with incredulity - "People used to hate, and discriminate against, other people because of the color of their skin? Incredible." Let us hope so.

In Maricopa County, AZ, the election officials decided to try and speed up things by creating two lines for voters. One line for Hispanics to cast provisional ballots and the other line for everyone else. 172,000 ballots were cast in that manner in Maricopa County making Arizona about the only State where the Republican candidates ran stronger than what the polls were showing.

Election officials claimed that that was necessary because voters didn't come prepared. Oh, the voters came prepared -- they came prepared to vote but the election officials weren't perpared to let their vote be counted. Disenfranchisement is a major problem in this country and it centers on the color of your skin. The GOP has not given up on this issue. Not by a long shot.

 what to do with "immigrant" comments: (144+ / 0-)
Invite them to agree by making it personal, like this:

Bob - Is it America voting for President, or immigrants? Are immigrants really American, or just trying to be American?

You - Of course we are!  My grandparents got off the boat from (country) and (country).  How about you?

[Notice the technique:  "Of course we are", but what exactly we "are" is not specified, thus it refers to both immigrants and Americans, thereby creating a logical equivalence.  The next part refers to family and invites Bob to say where his ancestors came from, which he will most likely do, with pride.]

Bob - Mine came from (country) and (country), but we've got a little bit of (something else) on my mother's side.

You - See, isn't it great?  And that's how we beat the Axis in WW2.  Their master race theory couldn't compete with a nation of mutts.  

[Technique: Affirm the positive: isn't "that" (we're both grandkids of immigrants) "great"?  Then referring to a major victory provides a patriotic example.]

Bob - Yeah, of course.  But we've slipped, our morals have slid, nobody wants to work any more...

You - I agree, and the way we tolerate lying and cheating in high places is disgusting. [Note: shift the moral discussion to progressive ground.]   But as for work, you like lettuce & tomato on your burgers, right?   [Note, everyone likes lettuce & tomato on their burgers, this is a very safe guess.]

Bob - Yeah, and onions.  What's that got to do with anything?

You -  Think of picking that lettuce or those tomatoes all day in the hot sun.  Whew, talk about hard work!, I couldn't do it! [Note: implied, "and neither could you" but unsaid so not offensive], but those Mexicans [Note phrasing "those Mexicans" is similar to rightie phrasing] come right up here and work their butts off.  That's something to think about every time you have a burger. [Note embedded planted meme: think about hard-working Mexicans when you're enjoying a burger.]

See how that works?  I could go on but this should be sufficient.  The key to it is looking for things that are personal and that you & "Bob" agree on, and then linking those to progressive points that will stick in his head later.

Talking about immigrants in the abstract, or making classic liberal points about the First Nations and slaves, doesn't go to the root of Bob's problem, which is insecurity based on fear.  But linking immigration to his own family and to hard work, helps overcome the fear by reference to common values such as family and hard work.  

Overcome the fear, and the rest will follow in its own good time.  

We got the future back.

by G2geek on Mon Nov 12, 2012 at 12:34:47 AM PST

Our attention should shift to 2014, NOT 2016!! It's fucking insane that "the people's house" is so right-wing!

that conservatives have about the future.

I remember getting into a debate years ago with a homophobe about marriage equality.
We went round and round about it until I simply asked why he was so afraid of homosexuals.
That led to one of those responses where you realize that you hit paydirt.

It all boils down to fear.
In the case of this election, the fear is of the unknown.
How white folks adjust to the reality of modern American demographics will determine how well they do in the future.

specifically: Losing power over anyone that is NOT white male. And that includes white women. When the original poster talks of 'white people,' don't include white women. They have been cleaning up after these white dudes forever. I do NOT want to be included with the oppression these white dudes have inflicted on others.

I believe the Fear is much more intense in the South (Bible Belt). Reviewing the vote tallies, it looks like Obama lost by roughly 65 to 35% in most Southern states. In some ways I wish the South was its own country. They might be happier and I wouldn't have to put up with all those Southern Senators and Congresspeople.

Racism is part of the fear, but also fear of losing power over women. The Bible (and all organized religions) gives all power to the white male so these Bible Thumpers hold on to that with a death grip...The Bible gives them their VISION OF AMERICA. I don't think that can be stressed enough.

Patriarchy has been the rule since time began for humans. But women are starting to poke holes in that way of life. Women want their freedom. And if we can't have control over our own bodies, we're NOT free.

In the OH legislature, the white Patriarchy is back at it and reintroducing the meanest and most cruel anti-abortion bill in the nation. Open session starts Wednesdy. Also legislation to defund Planned Parenthood....which in the way I see things is "Pre-meditated murder on any woman who dies of breast, ovarian, cervical cancers." was introduced as well.

The white dudes are backed into the corner and this is when they are the most dangerous and most cruel.

P.S. The Secret Service better stay alert.

As Frank Herbert put in his book 'Dune,' "Fear is the mind killer."

Excellent. Thank you.

I am a (nearly) 43-year-old white male living in a district of California (Issa) where Republicans outnumber Democrats by more than 2-1. Being car-free, nearly all of my campaigning in this election cycle occurred online. I did it relentlessly, mostly outside the comfort zone of DU. I hit Facebook almost daily. I wrote politically-slanted fan-fiction on a gaming site. I posted original music containing not-so-sneaky themes of power-abuse and suburban angst on Soundcloud. I basically dropped everything I could have been doing to help myself so I could wade into a chilly pool of apathy and goose everyone I could find.

Down-ticket was a huge priority for me when it became clear that Romney would be the nominee; that guy was bound to trip over his dick from the get-go, but inevitably most of the discussion ended up being about President Obama -- and it was always just a matter of waiting for someone arguing to get to what I knew was eventually coming:

Playing the "playing the race card" card.

Many people don't even realize how racist the phrase "playing the race card" is. Almost everyone picked it up from the OJ trial and it has served as a handy conversation-ender ever since. Folks who drop this line are almost always in denial; the MSM told them that the election of President Obama was "the end" of racism in America. Lots of white people are tolerant as heck until some brown people move in down the street, then they start worrying about their property value.

The trick is to hammer away at that myth while keeping one's cool and not hipping people to the fact that you are schooling them about their own lurking racism. Do not insult. Do not rant. Show don't tell. People have been conditioned to hate learning and resent those they identify as teachers. That's pretty damn sad, but I played along and changed the subtitle under my name to read "self-appointed know-it-all political asshole."

By the week of the election I had lost count of the number of Facebook posts that started with something like "I never get political on FB, but..." with "Thanks for posting this. Stuff like this is why I didn't block you from my news feed 6 months ago" running a close second.

I could go on forever about how we DUers need to cultivate an outreach strategy if we want to hold onto what we gained on Tuesday, but someone with 50,000 posts should probably tackle that. My stuff tends to drop like a rock around here.

You should expand this and post it as an OP. Now that the election is over, the board is slowing down a bit and the good bits of wisdom are less likely to be lost in the maelstrom.

Poor, poor Bob. It took a long time, but some white men got what they gave. And deserved.

thinking it has a monopoly on truth and they are supposed to always be the wise man on the mountain to which all unenlightened minorities (and that means ALL minorities) must heed their warnings or be forever lost.

They are the teachers and everyone else is the student.

This election challenged their status as teacher of everyone else and they are throwing fits over it.

They have to sit in the chair now and be taught and that infuriates them. And so their predictions of doom and destruction for not heeding them will only rise and rise.

...this for years. Since Nixon--it's called the "Southern Strategy".

We have to beat back the Confederacy continuously. I wish to God we could find a way for them to secede and leave them to themselves, because they are poisoning the well endlessly for everyone--in America, and in the whole world, when you consider how they prevent progress on climate change.

But, I do not think we can underestimate the intense desire that Bob and his ilk have to control women's sexuality.

Misogyny is as old as human culture and fortified by organized religion. If, by magic, racism would disappear, Bob would still be calling women sluts.

People get all squirmy whenever I remind them that they have made most of their decisions based on an inborn belief system that blames women for getting us kicked out of Paradise.

WhoooBoy does the ear-steam spout!

He was very despondent. It is like the end of the world for him. When Fox told their viewers that this was the most important election of their lifetime, they really believed it.

All he has is Fox talking points. He literally knows nothing, with respect to news, outside the bubble. I can run circles around his arguments because I know them and can categorically counter every one of them.

Finally, after debunking many of his Fox myths, the conversation boiled down to the crux of his despair. Gays, blacks, "Mexicans", and pot. His vision of the "Leave it to Beaver" utopia was crushed on election night. This isn't about anger for him. This is about fear. He is afraid of the future.

why Fox isn't labeled commentary and entertainment. It has almost single-handedly turned a huge segment of Americans into ignorant fools.

I'm a boomer baby, who grew up in Dallas. My Dad was a cop, who changed the channel any time a black person came on. I can distinctly remember his cop buddies laughing about how they beat up a "nigger wire head" one night. I went to segregated schools K-12, and the Univ of TX (of which I am an alumna) had 20K students, but only 600 were AA and 300 Mex-Amer. In 1963 when I was 16, my Dad and Mom gave me hell and threatened to put me in juvenile hall for participating in a protest to desegregate the lunch counter at the downtown Woolworth's in Dallas.

It wasn't until I moved to San Francisco in 1972 that I had my eyes opened to multi-culturalism. While I wasn't surrounded by blacks (who were mostly in the East Bay, I was surrounded by Asians and Hispanics, Russians, French, Samoans, Filipinos, Aleuts, Arabs, Persians, Tibetans, Japanese, Vietnamese, Hindis, and many many people of mixed race. All the schools were integrated, and the kids had close friends BFs, GFs of every imaginable mixed background. I remember a friend from South Africa, who was shocked to see people that were part japanese and part AA.

The truth that there is really only one race, the human race. We are all, despite color, country of origen, or language, 100% plug compatible. If you look at the US electoral map, you'll see that the blue states, the west coast, NE coast, and NM/Nev & FL corridors are where we have experienced a great influx of people from other nationalities. It is the deep south that has such a fear of "race mixing."

100 yrs from now, all that race BS will be well on the way out because there will just be so many people all over every part of the country with multi-ethnic backgrounds. It will be very common to see different skin colors, hair textures, and physiques within the same family. Then Dr King's dream of being judged by your character and not your skin color will bear fruit. So stand firm in fighting racism where ever it rears its hateful ugly head.