Add to Del.icio.us
Add to Technorati
Add to Digg
Add to Newsvine
Tuesday April 1, 2008
Category: DemocratsThe Prose Purple
From the Obama Messiah Watch desk, a dispatch from Alice Walker, the Tolstoy of our time, who warns that if America does not vote for Barack Obama, it will only show the world what a racist, backward country it remains:...Filed Under: Barack Obama, casting stones, Democrats
posted by Rod Dreher @ 8:57am Permalink 
Email This 
Add to:
About Crunchy Con
Rod Dreher is an editorial columnist for the Dallas Morning News, and author of "Crunchy Cons" (Crown Forum), a nonfiction book about conservatives, most of them religious, whose faith and political convictions sometimes put them at odds with mainstream conservatives. The views expressed in this blog are his own.
Subscribe
Comments
Well at least its written in English which is read from left to right. That makes it extremely easy to read her.
Posted by: Joe | April 1, 2008 9:22 AM
Hmmmm. Gee, if Obama is the new Mandela, does that mean Michelle will be the new Winnie? Just asking!
Two impressive things about Mandela which immediately come to mind: (1) he endured imprisonment (and worse) for his beliefs; and, (2) he made peace with his captors and worked for healing. He bore no grudges.
John McCain did the same. He endured years of hell in the Hanoi Hilton and refused special treatment. Years later, he worked with John Kerry and others to reconcile Vietnam and the United States. He bore no grudges.
Posted by: Reaganite in NYC | April 1, 2008 9:40 AM
Wow, that paragraph actually makes me want to vote for McCain. Up to now, I would have thought that impossible.
Posted by: Derek Copold | April 1, 2008 9:41 AM
It sounds like some of those broken bottles that were thrown at her did indeed cause head injuries. What cr*p.
"I want the Israeli government to be made accountable for its behaviour to the Palestinians, and I want the people of the US to cease acting as if they don't understand what is going on."
Count me among the fwowing-up crowd.
Posted by: color poiple | April 1, 2008 9:45 AM
There are some good points in the rest of the article. Her point about Clinton carrying some baggage is spot-on. Still, the piece proves Johnny Cochran's insight, all things being equal, race will trump gender.
Posted by: Derek Copold | April 1, 2008 9:46 AM
Obama is just what we need to complete moving this country from a Representative Republic into total socialism. There is not a socialist country in the world that is as well off as we are now because a few of us have an incentive to work and to make our own way without having to live on welfare.
Posted by: Jonette | April 1, 2008 9:50 AM
There is not a socialist country in the world that is as well off as we are now because a few of us have an incentive to work and to make our own way without having to live on welfare.
But there are social democracies--German, the UK, Canada come to mind--that are just as productive and have a thriving economy. And they don't have dire poverty, people unable to access heath care
Posted by: Daniel | April 1, 2008 9:55 AM
>>>
Obama is just what we need to complete moving this country from a Representative Republic into total socialism.
>>>
Yes, it would be indeed tragic if Americans had to endure the third-world conditions of Sweden.
Posted by: John E. | April 1, 2008 10:22 AM
"Yes, it would be indeed tragic if Americans had to endure the third-world conditions of Sweden."
A 70% taxation rate would be kind of a drag. Plus having to put together all our own furniture....
Posted by: | April 1, 2008 10:42 AM
John E.: If Sweden is so swell a place to live, how come their suicide rate is so high?
Daniel: Two of the social democracies you mention -- Germany and Canada -- recently elected center-right governments because the welfare state bureaucracies in those countries are choking their economies. For the same reason, the French elected Sarkozy this past year.
The really exciting economies -- the ones the US should be studying -- are the ones with relatively lower marginal tax rates. Ireland, Singapore, India, China. You can't blame US companies for exporting jobs to countries with well-educated workforces and lower tax rates. It's the same reason foreign car companies put their US plants in places like Tennessee and South Caroline rather than New Jersey or Michigan.
Posted by: Mel | April 1, 2008 10:51 AM
High tax rates kill societies. Why do you think all the British musicians keep their money overseas?
Posted by: | April 1, 2008 11:02 AM
are the ones with relatively lower marginal tax rates. Ireland, Singapore, India, China.
Because there is no abject poverty in any of those countries. The three Asian countries have some of the most oppressive conditions for the poor on the entire continent. Ireland is being propped up by the EU and mass immigration of poor Eastern Europeans. None are models for US economic expansion.
center-right governments because the welfare state bureaucracies in those countries are choking their economies
Of course, both Germany and Canada elected leaders who could be considered downright progressive in U.S. terms. It's all relative. Angela Merkel would be a far-left Democrat if she were in the U.S. Stephen Harper would be a center-left Democrat.
Posted by: Daniel | April 1, 2008 11:35 AM
Countries like Germany, Canada, France, etc, have their own problems, but when they elect center-right leadership they still remain way, way to the economic "left" of the U.S. And yet they have a high standard of living. They have rich people and entrepreneurs. Maybe they move a few inches to the right and eliminate some of the truly wacky disincentives (I think Sweden had some tax rates above 100%) but the electorate in those places isn't clamoring for the Social Darwinist economics that we have here.
Obama would be considered an pro-business, center-right candidate in these places.
Posted by: Wingless Crow | April 1, 2008 11:40 AM
You can't blame US companies for exporting jobs to countries with well-educated workforces and lower tax rates. It's the same reason foreign car companies put their US plants in places like Tennessee and South Caroline rather than New Jersey or Michigan.
Not only do they pay less in taxes, but they pay less costs in labor. People in India, Singapore, and China will work for far less than an American. Does anyone know the average wage for an assembly line worker or a computer tech in those countries? What kind of health care benefits are the Chinese demanding these days? Foreign car companies placed their plants in places like Tennessee and South Carolina because they had people willing to work for nonunion wages and nonunion benefits.
It's all about screwing the laborer.
The biggest problem that I have with Americans paying low taxes is that those who want to lower them only seem to want to pull the food off of a hungry kid's table. Everyone wants good schools, a strong military, roads and bridges that are functional, NASA, and all of those other things that chew up our money. It takes a lot of money to live in the type of society that we've built, but people don't want to pay for it. They just want to moan and groan about paying for it.
As for this article, Alice Walker seems to be out to lunch. Obama needs to prove himself before she starts calling him another Mandela. What has he ever done that would make her say something like that? The things that she said about Hillary seem a little off the wall, too.
I have to vote in a few weeks, and I'm still undecided. Alice Walker makes me want to give Clinton my vote.
Posted by: watsy | April 1, 2008 11:50 AM
>>>John E.: If Sweden is so swell a place to live, how come their suicide rate is so high?
The long winters with little sunlight - it is a question of latitude.
Posted by: John E. | April 1, 2008 12:00 PM
Sounds like a good reason NOT to vote for Obama.
Posted by: Charles Cosimano | April 1, 2008 12:04 PM
Everyone wants good schools...all of those other things that chew up our money.
There is no correlation between "good schools" and amount of money spent on them (unless we are talking about the actual building, which I don't think we are). Money spent and school quality actually have an inverse relationship.
There is, however, a strong correlation between school performance and proximity to the Canadian border. Now busing students that far would indeed chew up money!
Posted by: mdavid | April 1, 2008 1:09 PM
As for this article, Alice Walker seems to be out to lunch. Obama needs to prove himself before she starts calling him another Mandela. What has he ever done that would make her say something like that? The things that she said about Hillary seem a little off the wall, too.
I think Alice Walker has the hots for Barry Obama and has let her hormones control her thinking. She's using her prose to disguise what is in actuality a crush. ;^)
Posted by: | April 1, 2008 1:15 PM
"I think Alice Walker has the hots for Barry Obama and has let her hormones control her thinking. She's using her prose to disguise what is in actuality a crush. ;^)"
I think that's also true of Andrew Sullivan.
Posted by: meh | April 1, 2008 1:51 PM
I think Alice Walker has the hots for Barry Obama and has let her hormones control her thinking. She's using her prose to disguise what is in actuality a crush
I've given this a little more thought. I haven't really listened to Obama speak. I did read the speech that he gave in response to the Rev Wright accusations, and I thought that it was very good. It's possible that she's been listening to him and has been moved by his words. I wish that I could pay more attention to what's coming out of the mouths of politicians. I don't know how I'm going to become an informed voter in a few weeks if I can't stand to listen to them.
She might have a crush on him. I think that he's kinda cute. But, then again, just about any man looks good(and smart) after 8 years of Bush.
Posted by: watsy | April 1, 2008 2:11 PM
Bush looked good (and smart) after 8 years of Clinton.
Posted by: Ostrea | April 1, 2008 2:18 PM
Bush looked faithful after 8 years of Clinton. He never looked smart.
Posted by: watsy | April 1, 2008 2:31 PM
Well, Dorothy Parker may have been all that and a bag of chips . . . but anyone who doesn't love Pooh is OBJECTIVELY DISORDERED.
Eeyore is the quintessential conservative, too. From "Pooh Builds A House," in which Pooh and Piglet find an untidy heap of sticks and build a comfy house to keep Eeyore warm . . . only later finding out that what they'd really done was turn Eeyore's own abortive attempt at a house into something livable, free of charge, and, as it turns out, without getting any of the credit for it:
"It just shows what can be done by taking a little trouble," said Eeyore. "Do you see, Pooh? Do you see, Piglet? Brains first and then Hard Work. Look at it! That's the way to build a house!" said Eeyore proudly.
Posted by: sigaliris | April 1, 2008 2:33 PM
LOL! Sig, you love that phrase dontcha? It makes me smile to see you use it. Be careful though, or you'll be labeled a bully in the playground!
As far as Osama and Walker, didn't Walker declare that we already have a black president?
Posted by: Max Schadenfreude | April 1, 2008 4:10 PM
ROFL! Oops! That should have been, "Obama". My Freudian Slip is showing.
Posted by: Max Schadenfreude | April 1, 2008 4:15 PM
Sweden do not have the worlds higest suiciderate rate!
It newer had, not ewen close! It is simply a rat in the pizza story!
I belive it originated with one of your presidents in the fiftis,
to score some domestic political point aganst welfare.
Forgive my english spelling.
Posted by: lars | April 1, 2008 4:54 PM
Anyway, if Sweden did have the highest suicide rate, could you blame them? The government forces them all to watch Bergman films and listen to ABBA, constantly! It's like North Korea, except with meatballs in cream sauce!
(Kidding, kidding. I love me some Swedish meatballs. And Liv Ullmann. But not "Winter Light" and "Persona").
Posted by: Rod Dreher | April 1, 2008 5:20 PM
I kind of prefer my Bergman to your Woody Allan!
Posted by: lars | April 1, 2008 5:51 PM
Oh sure -- Allen was never worse than when he tried to be an ersatz Bergman.
Posted by: Rod Dreher | April 2, 2008 3:15 PM
Post a Comment
Are you aware of our Rules of Conduct?