Tennessee incubator

Tennessee has become quite the incubator for Republican values over the past few years. And with that, it becomes quite the incubator for crazy, as well.

County GOP organizations (where the crazy is stepped up several notches) are passing resolutions taking issue with the Republican governor, who is not quite crazy enough for them. They want him to fire Democrats and replace them with Republicans. And they're really hopping mad because he hired a Muslim to an economic post.

Here's the funnest passage:

“To date, the Haslam Administration has displayed an unfortunate ignorance to the threat of Shariah,” (Kevin Kookogey, chairman of the Williamson County Republicans,) said in an email to TPM. “They seem willing to accept the claims and defense of the Muslim Brotherhood at face value, refusing to even consider that, perhaps, those bent on destroying Western Civilization might just be infiltrating our institutions. … It is not like this has never happened before. The Muslim Brotherhood is following the blueprint of the Communists, who infiltrated the highest levels of government and society in the 1950’s. Shariah, however, is an even greater threat, because it has cloaked itself under the auspices of a religion, thus confusing the uninformed.”

Awesome! And while some of the other counties mentioned in the story are podunk outposts where you'd expect crazy to thrive, Williamson County is actually a suburban Nashville county.

Another highlight, from the Williamson County resolution, is the misspelling of "offered":

“Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam has elevated and/or afford [sic] preferential political status to Sharia adherents in Tennessee, thereby aiding and abetting the advancement of an ideology and doctrine which is wholly incompatible with the Constitution of the United States and the Tennessee Constitution,” the Williamson resolution, dated July 10, 2012, states.

What's good for me...

Here is a problem that cuts both ways: folks in the U.S. don't understand that their specific situation isn't the same as everyone else's.

This is part of a much larger problem with our overall psyche, but this particular part of it has helped the Republican Party stay legitimate. If people really understand how policy, etc., affected them, the GOP would be relegated to a 30 percent stake in this country, mostly made up of the top one percent of earners and libertarians (who would be wise to start their own party in that case).

I've long known that conservatives like to exploit the middle class dream of becoming rich -- many among the middle class sympathize with those much wealthier than them when it comes to raising taxes, because the American Dream is just around the corner, and you, too, will be making $250,000 any day now.

But this story made me realize that it cuts the other way, too. I always thought the rich had all gotten the memo about using the middle class' hopes and dreams to further their own goals, but it appears that for at least some of them, they also don't fathom that what is good for them isn't particularly good for all.

A quote, excerpted from TPM:

A New York City donor a few cars back, who also would not give her name, said Romney needed to do a better job connecting. “I don’t think the common person is getting it,” she said from the passenger seat of a Range Rover stamped with East Hampton beach permits. “Nobody understands why Obama is hurting them. 

“We’ve got the message,” she added. “But my college kid, the baby sitters, the nails ladies — everybody who’s got the right to vote — they don’t understand what’s going on. I just think if you’re lower income — one, you’re not as educated, two, they don’t understand how it works, they don’t understand how the systems work, they don’t understand the impact.”

Maybe, in some cases, they do understand the impact. And in that, maybe there is some hope, yet.

Values?

A study by Pew Research shows that during the 25 years of their polling on "values," people of all stripes are coming more together on many issues -- all except for two stripes, that is....

The divide between Republicans and Democrats has grown greatly, especially during the past two presidents. On issues like the environment and welfare, the difference in opinion at the end of the Reagan presidency was narrow; now, they are among the defining issues separating the parties.

This is not a surprise, but why has it happened? I blame the Republicans, oddly enough. George W. Bush won a controversial election and governed like the cowboy he is, and it rankled liberals much more than Reagan or Bush the First ever did. And Republicans hate Obama because he's black (it's not that simple, but it almost is). So they've been polarizing figures, each in his own way.

It also is interesting to note that on welfare and environmental issues, the Democrats have stayed pretty true to the numbers from 1987, while the Republicans have flocked away from such views -- proof to me that they are the ones who have become more polarized. One area where Democrats have changed more: religiosity.

If you can't spell, how can we trust you to run it?

Oops.

And what adds to the fun is that changes to apps in the Apple Store take a while to get approved.

Real news

I skim Deadspin headlines for interesting sports stories, and I generally dismiss 90 percent of what they write. However, interestingly this story has a legitimate opinion that veers into politics, slightly.

The AP Is Gay For Stupid

The point the writer makes is that in a story the AP does about the UConn hockey team doing a PSA about homophobia and not bullying homosexuals, the reporter felt the need to get an opposing viewpoint.

He says it well:

What is this shit?

I'm not even talking about Peter Wolfgang, who by all appearances is just a dime-a-dozen bigot wrapping his boring old chauvinism in cheap faith and whiny grievance. I'm talking about the AP, which feels compelled to phone up that dime-a-dozen bigot to get his side of a story with which he has fuck-all to do. This is like covering a flower show and asking a Boston Terrier for his opinion. Why does Peter Wolfgang get to toot his own stupid bugle for two paragraphs? The answer: "Balance." "Objectivity." Gayness is a "controversy," you see, and all controversies have two sides.

I know it's just two throwaway paragraphs in a wire story—it's a small miracle for the industry that the AP is even willing to send a reporter to Storrs, Conn.—but this kind of craven shit is how the weasels get invited into the national living room. This is how we get a little bit dumber. A reporter or editor somewhere decides that all real knowledge can be found only at a point equidistant between two competing claims, no matter if one of those claims deserves as much attention and respect as the guy with the shopping cart screaming at the contrails in the sky. Crazy gets normalized. Stupid gets a hearing. You know how you can tell we're in an election year? Even the sportswriters are acting like Politico.

Kudos to Deadspin for hard-hitting commentary.

Tennessee, aka the Republican Law Incubator

So Tennessee's latest crazy Republican-created law

prohibits students from exposing “underwear or body parts in an indecent manner that disrupts the learning environment.”

A law for this? Really?

OK, I'm guilty of poking fun at the way kids dress, and think saggy pants are silly. I also think sweatpants and Uggs look bad on a girl (or guy, for that matter). But in my day, we wore blue jeans with all kinds of holes in them -- the more holes you had, the cooler they were. How dumb was that?

This is just another case of picking on what is thought of as "thugs." Guys who were saggy pants are stereotyped, and now we're bullying them with laws.

The best part of this actually was Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam taking the media to task for focusing on some of these silly laws instead of more "substantive" issues. But if it's worthy of spending time debating a passing a law, isn't it substantive.

The GOP is the Great Wizard of TN....pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain.

Stupid things Tennesseans do...

So this Gibson County High School student decides to wear a Confederate flag dress to her prom, and it denied admittance. She is, of course, shocked at the controversy. They always are.

Oh, and her name? Texann. She was born for this role.

There are other names for folks like this, none of them good, however.