Donner Party democrats

[JoFerret]

Read it and weep.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/22/opinion/22egan.html?scp=1&sq=donner+party&st=nyt

And folks - the answer is not for Clinton to be stopped/ silenced/ removed/ stifled/ muzzled or any other of those charming responses some ott DUers engage in.

Nor for Obama to stop running and stop being a politician and doing the things politicians do.

[undeterred]

1. pass the salt, please

:popcorn:

[Armstead]

2. One big difference -- The Donner Party ate their dead --We are eating each other alive

[Teaser]

6. weren't there a few "suspicious" deaths

in the Donner party?

[mikekohr]

9. YES! The First Two Murders Were That Of Their Native Guides

from the website of International Brotherhood Days:

The DONNER PARTY:

Sympathetically remembered as people that were reduced to cannibalization of the dead in order to survive, the complete story is somewhat different.

The party, overburdened by material goods and far behind time, pressed forward into the ill-fated mountain pass against the advice and council of their two Indian guides. Although the two Indian men had been rebuked in their warnings they refused to abandon the party. As the snows came as predicted by the two Indian guides and the party floundered in the snow, starvation set in. Some of the Donner party expressed their intent to consume the bodies of their deceased partners. The two Indian guides were abhorred and sickened by such thoughts and strongly voiced their disapproval, which earned them the contempt, suspicion, and attention of the hungry pioneers. Perhaps to silence any dissent over the plans to cannibalize the dead, talk soon turned to killing the two guides and consuming them as well. One member of the Donner party warned the two Indian guides of this talk. The two horrified guides attempted to remove themselves from the snow-bound mountain pass but in their weakened condition were only able to place a short distance between themselves and their recently nourished pursuers. They were overtaken, shot, butchered, parceled out, and devoured.

Some cynics say that, "No good deed goes unpunished." Certainly in the example of the two Indian guides of the Donner Party, this was true. They paid with their lives for their humanitarian concerns in attempting to protect the members of the Donner Party from their own self-inflected disaster.

But in a larger sense, this tragedy is a microcosm of Native and White relations. The two Native guides helping and guiding the Anglo newcomers, until the time in which the newcomers inevitably would turn on their benefactors.


http://www.brotherhooddays.com/HEROES

[Orsino]

10. When there is food all around us. n/t

[theoldman]

3. I read the article and agreed with most of it.

Gingrich once accused the GOP of doing the same. He called them cannibals who ate their own.

[Mabus]

4. Here's to all the fine young cannibals,

all the fine middle-aged cannibals and all the fine older cannibals. :toast:

[BooScout]

5. yep. n/t

[NashVegas]

7. "Do something, Doc! Scream!"

Love that.

[ourbluenation]

8. eh.

I think we'll be fine, once the white hot light switches from the dem fight to the general election and the obvious shortcomings of McCain.

[JoFerret]

11. We will when we start to spread the hope and

not the hate.

[depakid]

12. "hatred for McCain was now hatred for the other party’s preacher."

That assumes that they ever "hated" McCain (the vast majority did not) and that its the Dem's who are at fault for Obama's preacher problem.

They are not- and anyone who thought this wouldn't be a problem back last September, when the first whispers about this began to surface, was naive. Indeed, it seems to me good fortune that the mess is on the table now- rather than next September.

Fanciful metaphors may be entertaining- but that doesn't mean they're accurate. Finding something to focus shallow Americans' anger and prejudices on has been their standard operating procedure for over 30 years. If it wasn't Rev. Wright, it's would be something else.

The inability to effectively deal with that and control the narrative has been (and remains) the Democrats achilles heel in presidential campaigns. It's far less a matter of "eating one's own" than it is a repeated failure to learn from past experience and take a few things from the Republican playbook.

There are reasons why they win, despite having (sometimes profoundly) unpopular positions on the issues. One key dynamic that they understand is that most Americans (even college educated Americans) are not sophisticated people. Nuance doesn't persuade in American campaigns; straight forward language tied to basic emotions does.

It's past time that the consultants and advisors grasp these proven facts- and start defining Republicans for exactly who they are and in no uncertain terms- let the electorate know exactly what will befall them if they continue to vote that way.