Is Howard Dean a racist?

IowaSkinsFan · #1 11-06-2003, 03:42 AM

Dean wants to win the votes of "guys who have Confederate flag stickers on the windows of their pickup trucks."

1st of all, isn't that stereotyping, assuming that the stickers are in pickup trucks? Not every Conferdate flag lover drives a pickup. I would be outraged at his stereotyping! It can't be good for America when a Presidential candidate sets this kind of tone in his campaigning.

Of course, all of Dean's opponents in the upcoming caucuses were shocked and outraged, but I am sure they will all be buddy buddy when the nomination is handed out. Hell, one of them will probably the others running mate.

Talk amongst yourselves!

RedskinsDave · #2 11-06-2003, 06:32 AM

I'm on the other side politically and I think this whole thing is ridiculous. Anyone with a brain and without an agenda knows what he was saying. He was talking about a group of people the dems used to have and have lost.

Robert, you didn't use any smileys but I presume your stereotype paragraph was tongue in cheek.

Ford · #3 11-06-2003, 07:57 AM

No, Howard Dean isn't a racist. I can't stand Dean but all this fuss being made over this is rediculous and reflects how rediculous political correctness can get.

IowaSkinsFan · #4 11-06-2003, 08:09 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by RedskinsDave
I'm on the other side politically and I think this whole thing is ridiculous. Anyone with a brain and without an agenda knows what he was saying. He was talking about a group of people the dems used to have and have lost.

Robert, you didn't use any smileys but I presume your stereotype paragraph was tongue in cheek.

That's a big 10-4!

BigCountry · #5 11-06-2003, 11:32 AM

I'm not his biggest fan either but that was ammusing.

Spence · #6 11-06-2003, 12:57 PM

It was just a poor choice of words. Dr Dean should have said something like: "Democrats need to appeal to working class whites in the South" rather than suggesting that the party of the civil rights movement ought to be wooing confederacy enthusiasts.

The South and Midwest are filled with working class whites who agree with the Democrats on many economic issues, but have been peeled away from the party since the Civil Rights movement, after President Nixon and successive Republican leaders pursued what they called "the Southern Strategy."

Shutting up about guns is one way the Dems intend to appeal to these people. [Well, not Dean. He is not going to shut up about guns because he has an A rating from the National Rifle Association. He talks that up every chance he gets as evidence of his ability to attract the sort of people he was talking about.] In the end, though, there are limits to what the Dems can do to win those voters back. Many of them did, in fact, leave over racial issues and the Democrats cannot appeal to those people for two reasons:

1] the Dems depend on African-American voters;
2] it would be morally indefensible.

Chief Seeway · #7 11-06-2003, 01:05 PM

Did any of you see his slip up in New York? He caught himself mid sentence talking about the debate of the confederate flag here in.... almost said "New York" and slipped in "presidential campaign". Gotta wonder who writes his stuff. Or better yet, proof reads its.

Chief Seeway · #8 11-06-2003, 01:06 PM

Once the Dem race gets to the south, the other Dem canidates are going to slaughter Dean over his comments, poor choice or not.

Spence · #9 11-06-2003, 01:17 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by seeway
Once the Dem race gets to the south, the other Dem canidates are going to slaughter Dean over his comments, poor choice or not.

Latest poll I've seen shows Clark 10 points up on Edwards in South Carolina, which is the first southern primary. Like you, I don't see any way Dean wins that one. It kills Edwards, too, if he does not win South Carolina. It's his own backyard and he's not even trying to win in Iowa or New Hampshire.

BigCountry · #10 11-06-2003, 01:41 PM

That crack won't help Dean much, funny as it was.

Keino · #11 11-06-2003, 01:42 PM

I would argue that those driving around with Confederate Flags are the Racists......

Spence · #12 11-06-2003, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Keino
I would argue that those driving around with Confederate Flags are the Racists......

Some of them certainly are. Others...I'm not so sure. There's a weird cultural/regional pride issue involved with that flag that northerners like myself don't understand. One of my good friends is a liberal from Tennessee [more liberal than I am] and she does not have a racist thought in her head. Nevertheless, she does NOT want to hear Northerners talking about the Confederate flag. It's just a sore point with her and is with many, many Southerners. For some, it IS about race. For others, though, it is a matter of cultural and regional pride. I'm not sure why, but it is.

The best thing that ever happened to the South was losing the Civil War, but it is a defeat some of them just cannot accept. I like Southerners, but I don't get some of them on the flag issue and I guess I never will. Maybe you have to be a Southerner to really understand.

Keino · #13 11-06-2003, 02:15 PM

Well I would have an issue with your liberal friend. That falg represents one thing and one thing only to me. Those who own it or advocate flying it their various states are sending the message to me that they long for the days when we N****** knew our place.
To me that flag represents 400 years of oppression, violation and cultural genocide.

RedskinsDave · #14 11-06-2003, 02:22 PM

That's the thing. Many of the folks who fly the confederate flag don't see as anything of the sort. They see it as a southern pride thing.

Keino · #15 11-06-2003, 02:24 PM

Pride in what?