BP spill could move Southern whites left, but will Dems be there?

[yurbud]

I was a conservative & evangelical in 1989, seemingly the unshakable base of the GOP, but I went to work as a commercial fisherman in Alaska that summer and ended up cleaning oil off rocks and picking up dead animals instead.

More disturbing to me than the actual spill though, was the relationship between the Coast Gaurd and Exxon, the corporation that caused the damage.

A helicopter landed on a beach we were cleaning, and a Coast Guard captain and a greasy, frat boy Exxon exec got out. I expected the captain to be leading this guy around by the scruff of his neck and rubbing his nose in the oil patties. Instead, the Exxon exec was barking out orders and the Coast Guard captain was all "Yes, sir! No, sir! Right away, Sir!"

I grew up with a great respect for the military, was in a cadet program all through high school, served briefly in the military myself, and was shocked to see a high ranking officer grovel before a corporate criminal...

http://professorsmartass.blogspot.com/2010/06/bp-spill-could-move-southern-whites.html|THE REST>

[aquart]

1. Which is exactly what happened in the Gulf.

Oh, shit. I've always had such a positive, loving, trusting feeling about the Coast Guard. You know, the army that doesn't kill. A purely defensive peace patrol.

I HATE LOSING THAT FEELING.

[G_j]

2. great article

and BP had it's hands in that cleanup also.

[JI7]

3. there is nothing to show southern whites have moved left

the black voters are the ones who vote Dem in large numbers. if southern whites are moving left they would be able to elect liberal politicians state wide .

from what i see most of the southern whites are calling on obama to end moratorium on drilling.

and Polls still show david vitter leading in the senate races.

[napi21]

4. I can understand why many people in La. are screaming for the drilling to

continue. Many of their jobs depend on itt, and La gets a lot of $$ from the drillers. I think if my livelihood depended on a particular industr, i would be very difficult for me to say make it go away! I do question why there seems to be so much love for Vitter though. He's an obvious BSer and he broke the RWers code of cheating with hookers! I haven't heard his stump speach, and even if he were televised, I couldn't listen to him. I'll be interested to see how the polls change after the runoff election.

[yurbud]

6. right wingers only care about Democrats sex scandals. Their own guys can have sex with goats and

they wouldn't care.

[yurbud]

5. give it some time. I didn't say abandon Southern blacks, we should have an aggressively progressive

agenda for them and all Americans.

[meow2u3]

7. Some Southern whites may move left on economic issues

but they won't become liberals. They're likely to become either radical centrist ("deep center") political switch-hitters, lefty on economic issues but social righties. I call that ideology paleoliberal, which was the liberalism of FDR, JFK, and Truman. Others call it communitarainism.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communitarianism#Ideological_communitarianism

[blue97keet]

11. Economic and environmental is enough, to hell with all the rest.

[Uncle Joe]

8. I believe many of them will go left on environmental/energy issues and

more populist on economic issues.

Thanks for the thread, yurbud

[yurbud]

9. you're welcome!

[TwentyFive]

10. That's why Limbaugh is there....to move them back Right.

Limbaugh uses lies, deceptions and partial truths to make democrats look like some type of corrupt, third world communist party. I heard Limbaugh read "an excerpt" from Obama's college essay which made Obama look like a socialist. Problem was...the essay was a hoax. Limbaugh later announced that...but stood by his comments because they 'felt' true.

Edit: clarity

[burnsei sensei]

12. The Democratic party,

in its majority faction, will not be there for Southern whites should they develop a left-wing.
It won't be there because it is pro-corporate and buys the gospel of deregulation.
So far.
I'm sure that when enough of us are sick and impoverished without hope, there will be some kind of convulsion and things will change.
But not until some kind of convulsion takes place in the left.

[yurbud]

13. we have to dig in our heels--preferably in the faces of DLCer and Blue Dog corporatists

and then kick their asses out of the party.

Bill Halter said one thing I think we need to hear more of: he promised he'd never work as a lobbyist. I'd like to hear pols say that and add they will never work as a CEO, corporate board member, corporate lawyer, or corporate consultant.

In fact, if they do any kind of work after they leave office, it should be pro bono since they get a very generous pension from the taxpayers.