Red-State Kerry voters: now that we've been written off by DU, will you

[CrownPrinceBandar]

The sheer amount of divisive talk spring up on this board amazes me. A month a go we prided ourselves on being a big tent party. Now, in the aftermath of the election, there has been talk of expatriation, secession and now social and economic exile for those of us in the red states, despite a sizable amount of the population of said states voting for change and Kerry.

That said, I realize that emotions are running high. I have personally experienced my share of Bushie poor-winners, but I have no desire to exact any kind of revenge on the red folks. I'm sure many of these folks didn't have a liberal-crushing agenda in mind when they voted for *. Independent of any outstanding vote fraud, they were most likely just voting their conscience (as ignorant and short-sighted as we see it). Revenge, as advocated by some on this board, will play right into the hands of the Pubs. I'd like to think we're better than that, and it totally ignores the Kerry voters in red states. But if that's what ya want, go ahead and disenfranchise your base.

edit: new at this poll thing.

[JohnKleeb]

1. Prove em wrong

Thats what I wanna do as a Virginian.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

2. Thanks Kleeb.............

Can always count on you.

[JohnKleeb]

3. No problem

I like to think that me and the other Fairfax County dems helped turn Fairfax County blue for the first time in ages, Virginia will be blue some day. I just can't stand intolerance to the Red Staters, it goes against everything we stand for as a so called big tent party. When we won with FDR so many years ago, we had southern whites, southern blacks, ethnic catholics, blue collar workers, farmers, etc.

[TroglodyteScholar]

4. Grain of salt...

You know, I've had to take all the shit-talk about southerners with a grain of salt, because I know that some amount of finger-pointing and knee-jerking is natural after an event like this. I am disappointed, however, in how intense and lasting such behavior has been. For being the party of rational thought and acceptance, it sure seems like people love to throw a little bitch-tantrum. I'm pissed off at the condition of the south, too, but I'm not spewing nonstop hatred as a result. That's sinking to their level, isn't it? If the Democratic Party believes so firmly in unity and progress, how is it that we so willingly alienate entire groups of people? Maybe there should be a little less speaking out and a little more introspection.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

7. You crystalized my point perfectly...........................

I can be accused of being a bit sarcastic at times to make a point.

[SCRUBDASHRUB]

21. Richmond voted 70 percent Kerry...70%, baby!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Qanisqineq]

44. OMG, I have said this stuff over and over since Nov 2

about alienating people. It HAS to stop. And I love the "bitch-tantrum". LOL That's what I imagine in my head when I read some of these posts. I imagine someone sitting at their computer wildly typing away while stomping their feet and pouting. LOL

[NashVegas]

5. We've Been Written off By DU?

Shit, no one sent me the memo.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

8. Are you sure?..............................

It was attached to the TPS report. I'll send ya another! (Thanks Office Space)

[JohnKleeb]

9. Sounds like some one has a case of the mondays

:D
God I loved that movie, especially that Ive done work in offices now.

[mondo joe]

6. You can join us gays who have been written off.

Soon the pro-choice people can join us, and then the civil rights crowd and the separation of church and state people, and finally labor.

Then we'll have... the democratic party.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

10. Red-State segregationists: Please join in!!!.............................

I'd love you hear from you!! (AKA: kicky!)

[NoPasaran]

11. I'd hang myself but I was never good with knots

SO I guess I'll just have to organize for 2006.

[seabeyond]

12. i had more fun with the southern dems fighting in their state

this election. you have so much passion and energy, you just over joy me. so screw all those people mouthing, this calif in the panhandle of texas totally understand, respect adn value your part on this. be proud of all you did and do. remember we won this election. bush lost votes in rural, bush stole votes so didnt show exactly the shift in the south. sorry you didnt get the credit you deserved

[CrownPrinceBandar]

13. Thanks.......

but credit is not what I'm looking for. What disturbs me is the paradigm shift that has occurred on this board (and most likely in the general Dem population as well), that any state that has not gone blue is not with the program. And those states not with the program should be abandoned wholesale. I remember being moved to tears by some DUers moves toward compassion and acceptance, now I am truly shocked by the bipolar shift that has been put forward by some of the same DUers I used to admire for their tolerance.

[seabeyond]

15. what happens in the heat of the moment. allow deep breathes

sometimes even i get pissed, at like family members i love so. fellow texans all around.

also know that a lot of the people mouthing havent had experience in the south, they cant see the higher or the good. they cannot know all the possibility. and why the south vote moved from dem, but possibility of it shifting back to dem.

all in good time. but stay strong. getting hit on both sides, the southern repug and fundie, lol and your fellow dems. know many are supporting you. the few yelling. the ones that yell are heard the best,........but doesnt make em right. we know this, listen to rush, hannity

[Zuni]

19. I am too, frankly

I do not hate misguided people. Many of the Bush voters are not lost causes. Sure there are the Freeper types and the fundies, but many others are far less sure about Bush and the Republican mandate than the Republicans would have you believe.

[AspenRose]

29. I think you're right

Yesterday in class the lone republican who admitted she voted for Bush (graduate social work class...we're mostly dems, including the prof) said she wasn't voting for Bush so much as she was voting for the republican platform.

She didn't seem thrilled about Bush at all. And she also seemed very uncomfortable admitting her vote.

I'm sorry you're so frustrated about the red state-blue state thing.

I get frustrated because I'm a liberal Christian and there are plenty here on DU who are nearly violent in their opposition towards Christianity and lump all Christians with fundies accordingly. (So what if MLK was a minister, Jimmy Carter is a Christian and Al Gore nearly went to seminary?)

It's so much easier to paint with a broad brush.

[Zuni]

42. I am a Christian too

and yes, it upsets me to see so many deride all Christians for the actions of some

[saracat]

46. I don't feel "written off' .

And some of the best Dems are in red states. That being said. the Bush voters are "lost causes" They betrayed their country and themselves. Who but a lost cause would put their country in the hands of a madman that they didn't like?

[CrownPrinceBandar]

14. No votes for the Lounge, but two for Repub conversion?...........

What happened to the DU I remember? This is too sad, I'm heading to the Lounge!:evilgrin: :toast: :beer:

[footinmouth]

16. Sending tight hugs

:pals: to all of you in the red states. I still luv ya. I'm glad I live in a nice blue state, but I'll never turn my back on any of you.

[Zuni]

18. Same sentiment. I live in the blue state on the border, MD

and I have known many red state people---they are not evil, just misguided
We can win them if we frame our message just right (not changing our values, just the way we explain them)

[Zuni]

17. Show them that we will fight for their rights even if they vote wrong

we will fight for every working person in this country, regardless. That is the message we need to send.
These people might have voted because of pro-life supreme court judges and gay marriage but in 4 years they will vote because of low wages, high interest rates and increased poverty---and we need their votes.9But not their social agenda)

[Warren DeMontague]

20. A couple points.

First off, I have nothing but respect for the hard-working Dems in Red States. Red Counties. Red Areas. I am also not someone who has lived in California all my life with a latte shoved up my nose. I spent most of my early years in the Midwest. Okay?

I realize that any talk of boycotts or the like can sound like an attack on Red-State Dems. The defensiveness is understandable but I'm not sure it's warranted. Here's why.

First off, the geographic generalizations were not started by us. Just this morning I opened my local paper to a slew of letters- written by local moral majority types who, yes, live here in Blue-land, bitching about how we in these islands of "out of touch coastal elitism" need to get our act together and start trying to "connect with the heartland", because obviously tiny jerkwaters like New York and California don't represent "real" America.
This meme is all over the media, and when I came to DU after the election, it was all over here, as well. As near as I could tell, the consensus among many was that the "liberal elites" on the coasts were responsible for the loss (personally, I'm more wont to blame the Diebold GEMS central tabulating machines, myself) and that unless we abandoned our commitment to reproductive freedom, jettisoned the gays overboard like so much ballast, and started talking the language of the born-agains, we would never win this monolithic entity known as "the heartland", or "red america".

Well, if "Red America" (notice, again, I'm not saying "red STATES") is an entity that has to be bargained with-- in the sense of abandoning our core values, I have to believe it's an entity that will respond to economic pressure, as well.

What I want to do is boycott businesses that supported Bush, first and foremost. But if I am honestly presented with the choice of buying a product that supports a community that voted 80% democrat, vs. one that voted 80% republican, what would you have me do, honestly? My idea with any and all boycotts would be to compile, out of the gate, lists of progressive, independent businesses, locally owned organic farms, companies with strong labor support, etc. etc. in ANY red "area" I would consider boycotting, so that I would know WHERE to target my purchases in any given area.

The alternative, for me, is to sit back and do absolutely nothing, and watch as my values and beliefs are told to get to the back of the bus, and remain quiet as my gay friends, my pro-choice friends, my "latte-sipping" friends, are told they are the reason for our electoral defeat.

I do not want to abandon anyone in this party, obviously we all need each other more than ever. Certainly like everyone else, I'm more than a little raw and rough around the emotional edges right now. My take on this issue is evolving and my plans with regards to what to do around this are still in flux and subject to change.

I apologize if I have personally alienated anyone or if my thinking out loud on this subject has increased division around here. I really, really am open to dialogue about all this.

[bloom]

37. I don't think it hurts to boycott targeted companies

that support Republicans...


but I think people should think about the power of marketing. Do you think any advertisers would win converts to their product or idea by boycotting something? It's crazy. I think we need to sell our ideas better - the same way any thing else is sold.

[supernova]

22. Keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming

Like I told another poster on 11/3, what happened really is that we just stood sill.

We may not have improved our lot by electing President Kerry, (Ha, that's for damn sure!) but we are no worse off either. Everything's the same.

What we need to do now is keep building upon the revitailized feeling that * has given us over the past four years. That means: keep all your election contacts, Dean/Demcracy for America, Moveon.org, etc. And yes, keep posting at DU. Keep being informed, keep protesting, keep speaking out.

If someone from a blue state wants to write me off, well they're going to have to put me on ignore to do it. :D

Supernova,

From my very blue county. ;-)

[amazona]

23. people are just venting

We haven't been written off.

[TalkingDog]

24. Why won't it let me vote in more than one category?

Isn't that the American Way?

[The Wielding Truth]

25. The amount of Kerry voters in the res states have sustained me.

I have taken conmfort in the fact that their are so many of you out there and you feel just as disappionted as me. I know how it feels to have the people around you go in another direction.
All you want to do is rescue them but it's like they are Pod People. They either pick one issue that undoes them or they are clueless about all candidates and decide they just didn't like one. No reason. Or they beleived the lies and slantings of Fox or Hannity.
You are my kind of person and I will not disown you or ignore you. Thank you for being someone with a concern about our future. You are one of the many who won't forget how this adminstration played us to get thier way. It's still incredible. Keep your head. We need it.

[The Wielding Truth]

26. You know I meant RED states.

[Stephanie]

27. I don't hate red states - I hate RED VOTERS

But if I were you I would move.

[CrownPrinceBandar]

28. Nope. Not gonna happen.

Fighters are needed here. now. I love WV, its way too beautiful to abandon it to the creeps.

[footinmouth]

30. WV is beautiful

We traveled through there last year on our trip from Buffalo to Key West and I think it was the prettiest state we visited. We stayed in Beckley and I felt very at home there. Senator Byrd has done a nice job on your interstate system. It was top notch.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

31. Oh geez

Look, I live in a red state. Have all my life. I voted for Kerry.

I really don't care what DUers say about red states. They AREN'T talking about US anyway. Geez, you think they'd bitch about Kerry voters?

Hell I'M pissed off at all the red states and I live in one.

I can understand their feelings. Yeah, the bashing does get a bit tiring, but it's got to feel crappy to be the ones who give out the most in federal dollars and get the least, where in the red states it's the other way around.

I didn't answer your poll as I found most of the answers to be insulting.

What am I going to do? Well, I'm going to keep being a Democrat, keep fighting, I'm shunning anyone I know who voted for bush (they made that choice, too fucking bad) and I'm living very very frugally now, as the economy is bound to get worse now and not better.

I'm going to continue to fantasize about living somewhere where I am not the minority while at the same time I am going to get even more vocal about how I feel.

[bluedonkey]

32. they all can kiss my grits

I don't hold it against them.Emotions run high and in a few days they will see they need us blue voters.
I am for boycotting reps businesses.They're not getting my money!

[henslee]

33. I am proud the red state resistence! Fight the good fight!!! n/t

[Swamp Rat]

34. I am a Blueberry floating in the Tomato Sea.

This "red state, blue state" convention is a construct that plays right into the hands of KKKarl Rove and his think-tank comrades.

[cheshire]

35. I have not ageed with that at all. Just want you to know.

[Stinky The Clown]

36. I'm a blue state Dem who in NO way feels we should abandon or ignore

the Red states, particularly red state Dems.

You're on our front lines. You're on the ground in the war zone.

When thinking of you the old "there but for the grace of God go I" thing comes instantly to mind.

Don't let all the natural anger and confusion and lashing out at any and all targets in the time of mutual upset get you down. In the end, we're all in this together.

[DuaneBidoux]

38. You don't get it though. The people who are in power wish to destroy

us. Don't kid yourself. Look at Shrub. He doesn't play well with others. He takes hostages then kills them, he is an asshole. And the people backing him will stop at nothing to control this country for the next 50 years. Something very bad needs to happen in the next four years, or with their judges there will be no more Democratic party. Judges ARE all. FDR stacked the judges for all 4 of his terms and it is why we were able to have weekends, labor unions, safe working conditions, safe food, etc. etc. etc. It didn't matter what legislation republicans tried to use to roll back protections after FDR because his judges ruled them unconstitutional.

NOW Shrub is in a position to do exactly the same thing with judges but in reverse. You don't get it. This is waterloo for us. We're talking 50 years if we cannot stop his agenda in the next four.

[chyjo]

39. As a Blue Stater

I feel every sympathy for the red staters. I live in a repug heavy suburb of Buffalo that went heavily to Bush, and it's hard to talk to most of my neighbors about anything in the news because they are so pro-bush. However, I do rest a little easier knowing NYS is a pretty deep shade of blue. I can't imagine the annoyance of living in a solidly red state.

I think you should write off a good deal of what has been said in the last week to post-election blues

[lynintenn]

40. Born and raised in Tennessee

does not make me one of THEM..............I was born with logic
I find myself looking at some of them in disgust myself. Luckily I have lots of support form my dem friends.
Blast the red states.I blame them too.

[AliceWonderland]

41. I hate that it's red, but I love my state

and I don't want to move. I lived in NYC before moving to Boulder and I'm much happier here. I love the mountains and the hiking trails and the friendly people and KGNU and the leftist collective bookstore where I volunteer. I love that all my friends worked for Dennis Kucinich and Mike Miles. I love that Boulder-Denver went about 70% for Kerry and we elected Ken Salazar to the Senate and his brother to Congress. We took back both houses of the state legislature, passed a state-wide amendment to increase funding for arts and culture and another amendment for 10% renewable energy by 2015. The students who did their "sit-in" here made the national news.

And, for the record, CO receives less federal money on the dollar than NY or CA.

I don't want to move.

I want to stay and fight with the wonderful left-liberal-arty-granola folks here.

[Qanisqineq]

43. well, I was thinking of becoming a freeper

the amount of hate spewed here lately seems to come close to that spewed over at FR. *LOL* Seriously, I do not know. It is making me rethink being a registered democrat. I'm thinking green party maybe? I really think the boycotting of any company that happens to be in a red state, no matter who it donates money to, is counterproductive.

[donheld]

45. Nobody, but Nobody has been written off

:spank::spank::spank: I will do my best to be the bluest thing in the red state of colorado

[Sugarbleus]

47. Yeah, I have enormous sympathetic feelings for those

gentle souls and Dems in Red states. I was angry at first, a reactionary thing, but I still want OUR WHOLE country back.

I'm an old school dem, I don't like each and every issue the New Liberals stand for.....but what other party can I join where I can have a voice?

So, when I remark about "red" states, I'm not talking about anyone in particular, I'm more riled about the "generalized scene" in which ultra conservatism is taking over... And there are pockets of this same movement in blue states too.

I don't hate old school Republicans either...

:loveya:

[donheld]

48. The way i see our country is like

a big blue and red dalmation.

[AliceWonderland]

49. To me, the situation is analagous to the country as a whole

As an immigrant to the US, I'm often put in the position of defending the United States to friends/family abroad. Or explaining, if not exactly defending. Increasingly, the world seems to want to write off the United States because the majority of people actually voted for Bush. If you believe the results of the election (I believe there was most likely widespread fraud), then this country is "red" overall. But I vigourously explain to everyone that the United States is a *very* diverse country, and there are many people here who have devoted themselves to fighting the RW machine. I feel the same way about my state. Dismissing it as "red" and unvariegated would be the same as writing off the entire country as inhabited by nothing but knuckle-dragging fundies.

This red/blue thing is getting out of control. I have nothing but respect for the liberals, leftists, etc. who are in states far more hostile than Colorado, and they have all my support in changing the political culture of their communities. Someone said elsewhere that they are on the front lines, and I think that's a good way of putting it.

[Sugarbleus]

53. Indeed-->"they are on the front lines"

Very well put. We need each other now...more than ever. :grouphug:

[depakid]

50. You all have to understand something

When your states consistently send people like Tom Coburns, Trent Lotts and Jesse helm's to the Senate, that's going to create a certain amount of animosity toward your region in general, whether you personally have any responsibility for it or not. When I've travelled abroad, I've taken take a certain amount of shit from people I've spoken with regard to the US government- and doubtlessly if I'd had I had a more recognizable accent- no doubt I'd hae taken more- as it is, Northwesterners I've been told more than once, sound like Canadians without the long "ou" s and the "ehs.')

So you pretty much have to expect resentment directed at your states. After all, many of them really do suck- politically and (in my opinion, sometimes culturally speaking). Your representatives advocate harm and do a great deal of damage to those of us who live in more progressive minded places. In the years to come, they will do a great deal more harm- and it's without question in my mind that they HATE people like me- so don't expect me to cut them any slack or come up with unrealistic ways to pamper them or pander the majorities in most of these states.

They're pretty much hopeless- at least in the near term of the next 8 years or so.

[Guaranteed]

51. Who "wrote off" red-state Kerry voters? nt

[Kilroy003]

52. Sorry if my Yankee talk has served to alienate you.

Can I still say that the people of MN made me proud last week? They really did.

[Bridget Burke]

54. You can't be a wimp & live in Texas....

I'm quite used to ignoring assholes. Here or elsewhere.