What I wanted to say about white rust-belt voters but couldn't.

While I'm choking on the allergens and pollutants from our coal plants here in PA and can't do any productive work, I just thought I'd share a few links at the Washington Post that I found depressing and upsetting interesting.

Knowing that people think you are somewhow less-than-human is one thing. It's not fun, but it's a daily fact of life.

Reading that there are bigots actually willing to go on record with their prejudices in front of both white and black campaign canvassers is quite another.

Highlights include:

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: "It wasn't pretty." She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn't possibly vote for Obama and concluded: "Hang that darky from a tree!"

In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: "Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don't know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can't convince me that some of that didn't rub off on him.

"No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office."

Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. "I trust him," Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama's face on Seifert's T-shirt and said: "He's a half-breed and he's a Muslim. How can you trust that?"

If you have a really strong stomach and a lot of spare time, you can read through the 3300+ comments on the article, many of them racist and nonsensical, others defensive of Obama because he's half-white and they believe in 'color-blindness.' Oh, yeay.

Other posts and analysis of interest:

Transcript: Election 2008: Racist Incidents Rattle Obama Backers

Dark Side of the Campaign

Opinion: Misogyny I Won't Miss

Oh, and McCain says, "Not to worry! When I'm President, almost all of our troops will be home by 2013!"

...Um, yeah. NO.

The one bright spot today was that California's Supreme Court overturned the gay marriage ban there because it relegated GBLT couples to "second-class citizenship." Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto any challenges to the ruling, which is probably the most honorable position he's taken on anything, ever. Pretty damn cool. I'm liking California more and more every day.

What I wanted to say about white rust-belt voters but couldn’t.

While I’m choking on the allergens and pollutants from our coal plants here in PA and can’t do any productive work, I just thought I’d share a few links at the Washington Post that I found depressing and upsetting interesting.

Knowing that people think you are somewhow less-than-human is one thing. It’s not fun, but it’s a daily fact of life.

Reading that there are bigots actually willing to go on record with their prejudices in front of both white and black campaign canvassers is quite another.

Highlights include:

Victoria Switzer, a retired social studies teacher, was on phone-bank duty one night during the Pennsylvania primary campaign. One night was all she could take: “It wasn’t pretty.” She made 60 calls to prospective voters in Susquehanna County, her home county, which is 98 percent white. The responses were dispiriting. One caller, Switzer remembers, said he couldn’t possibly vote for Obama and concluded: “Hang that darky from a tree!”

In a letter to the editor published in a local paper, Tunkhannock Borough Mayor Norm Ball explained his support of Hillary Clinton this way: “Barack Hussein Obama and all of his talk will do nothing for our country. There is so much that people don’t know about his upbringing in the Muslim world. His stepfather was a radical Muslim and the ranting of his minister against the white America, you can’t convince me that some of that didn’t rub off on him.

“No, I want a president that will salute our flag, and put their hand on the Bible when they take the oath of office.”

Karen Seifert, a volunteer from New York, was outside of the largest polling location in Lackawanna County, Pa., on primary day when she was pressed by a Clinton volunteer to explain her backing of Obama. “I trust him,” Seifert replied. According to Seifert, the woman pointed to Obama’s face on Seifert’s T-shirt and said: “He’s a half-breed and he’s a Muslim. How can you trust that?”

If you have a really strong stomach and a lot of spare time, you can read through the 3300+ comments on the article, many of them racist and nonsensical, others defensive of Obama because he’s half-white and they believe in ‘color-blindness.’ Oh, yeay.

Other posts and analysis of interest:

Transcript: Election 2008: Racist Incidents Rattle Obama Backers

Dark Side of the Campaign

Opinion: Misogyny I Won’t Miss

Oh, and McCain says, “Not to worry! When I’m President, almost all of our troops will be home by 2013!”

…Um, yeah. NO.

The one bright spot today was that California’s Supreme Court overturned the gay marriage ban there because it relegated GBLT couples to “second-class citizenship.” Schwarzenegger has vowed to veto any challenges to the ruling, which is probably the most honorable position he’s taken on anything, ever. Pretty damn cool. I’m liking California more and more every day.

If I've enlightened, inspired or enslaved your mind, please consider buying me a tea. Hell, just buy me one anyway. I'm still poor.

Originally published at Folklore Fanatic. You can comment here or there.