Woe is Dem
Published November 04, 2004
It sure was easy for Republicans to read the newspapers tonight. My favorite liberal whining piece was in the NY Times, though, not the Boston Globe. The Times has a quite humorous piece about New Yorkers and the little gem below about a few disaffected folks from Portland (with apologies to readers who hail from the Rose City)."In Portland, Ore., a city so staunchly liberal that it is sometimes called the People's Republic of Portland, the outcome of the presidential race was absorbed with the levity of a mass funeral. Given the gravity of things, there was really only one thing that Wilder Schmaltz, a 25-year-old Portland artist who had refused to remove the anti-Bush button from his lapel, felt he could do. He called a friend and headed straight to the Red and Black Cafe, an all-organic, wheat-free, vegetarian coffee and food shop, which is run as a collective and is a popular hangout of the Socialist Party USA's candidate for president, Walt Brown.
'I figured that in this place we wouldn't run the risk of being around any cheering Republicans,' Mr. Schmaltz said. Upon entering the cafe, Mr. Schmaltz, who is Jewish, grabbed off the cafe's bookshelf 'A Beggar in Jerusalem,' by Elie Wiesel, and read it glumly over a bowl of vegetarian chili. 'Something Jewish will do me good right now,' he said.
At the next table, Tchula Z, 33, an artist and part-time barista at her sister's coffee shop, who uses only Z as a last name, said she woke up Wednesday, learned that Mr. Bush had won and 'smoked a cigarette and freaked out.' She added, 'You know, as Janis Joplin said, 'Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose.' I think people should start using that line again.' Her friend Tracy Conklin, 45, a freelance writer and photographer, was equally dark, concluding that there was no hope and only isolation for those on the left. I am prepared to keep my head down, possibly for the rest of my life, under a totalitarian regime,"There may be a few folks in places like North Korea, Iran, Cuba, Vietnam, and Tibet who would gladly share Mr. Conklin's suffering in the Red and Black Café under the totalitarian regime he finds in Portland.
In the Boston Globe, Joan Vennochi speculates on the possibility that the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court provided ammunition for Bush when they ruled that the Massachusetts constitution required the Commonwealth to sanction gay marriage. She ends her column thus:This year, the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl and the Boston Red Sox won the World Series. For the second time in 16 years, a son of Massachusetts tried for the White House and failed. Sharing initials with the last presidential candidate from Massachusetts to win the presidency is not enough. If the presidency is the goal, a candidate needs more in common with the rest of America.
What a sobering thought. Not.
- Woe is Dem
- Published: November 04, 2004
- Type:
- Section: Politics
- Writer: Harry Forbes
- Harry Forbes's BC Writer page
- Harry Forbes's personal site
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Living in the Rose City as I do, and feeling disaffected during the entire political campaign season due to the overwhelming proliferation of anti-Bush signs, I am pleased to learn of this cafe. After all, the freedom to have such a place is itself one of America's great strengths. Incredible how tolerance, nay, celebration, of the "other" seems to be actually a part of the (gracious-winning) right wing rather than consonant with the vitriol pouring from the lips of my liberal sisters and brothers.
Try to find a conservative-friendly cafe in this town. That's the real challenge!
Some people are only happy if they can portray themselves as victims or counter to the norm.
To each his own.
Harry, I realize that you are someone who was barely capable of being toilet trained. That words like 'truth,' 'discernment,' and 'balance' can't be grasped by a cretin. That even the simple concept that all the material in a refer does not constitute its link is beyond you. But, I am not going to sit here and let you misrepresent the city I live in.
A few hipsters at a cafe frequented by, as a normal person would guess, hipsters, are hardly representative of Portland or anywhere else. Oregon, said to be the state with the highest percentage of library use and book buying in the country, was carried easily by John Kerry. Most of the people who supported him can offer coherent reasons for why they backed a candidate who would have:
~ Ended the occupation of Iraq.
~ Implemented intelligent and workable measures to combat terrorism.
~ Restored American prestige in the world.
~ Ended George W. Bush's executive order banning research on embryonic stem cells, providing hope for those suffering paralysis and other disabilities.
~ Stymied the flight of well-paying jobs and investments to other countries.
~ Appointed respected jurists to federal courts instead of partisan hacks.
~ Not have created an atmosphere of fervent hatred of homosexuals to win the election and then proceeded to maintain it as a key to his popularity.
Perhaps if you strain you can follow an analogy. You, Harry, to John Kerry, are as a flea is to a thoroughbred horse's butt.
I know there are people just as retrograde as you are in Portland. Fortunately, they failed to impose their views on the city and state in most ways in this election. When the next act of terrorism killing scores, hundreds or thousands of Americans occurs, our consciouses will be clear. We will not have enabled the tragedy. Throwbacks like you will bear the responsibility instead.
"Harry, I realize that you are someone who was barely capable of being toilet trained."
Aww, how cute. A Kerry supporter speaks...
"words like 'truth,' 'discernment,' and 'balance' can't be grasped by a cretin."
More unedited vitriol from MD, who personally attacks those "she" doesn't agree with...
"Ended the occupation of Iraq."
In other words, caved in to terrorists.
"Implemented intelligent and workable measures to combat terrorism."
In other words, pandered to Frenchmen.
"Restored American prestige in the world."
In other words, begged the UN for help.
"Ended George W. Bush's executive order banning research on embryonic stem cells"
A flat-out lie.
"Appointed respected jurists to federal courts instead of partisan hacks."
Yeah, because Justice Ginsburg is SOOO non-partisan...
"Not have created an atmosphere of fervent hatred of homosexuals to win the election and then proceeded to maintain it as a key to his popularity."
If voting against court-imposed gay "marriage" is akin to "fervent hatred of homosexuals" then I guess something like 2/3rds of Americans are "fervent haters of homosexuals"...
"Perhaps if you strain you can follow an analogy. You, Harry, to John Kerry, are as a flea is to a thoroughbred horse's butt."
Cute. A lame personal attack from an Anti-White Leftist...
"Throwbacks like you"
More personal attacks that go unedited...
Mac attacks calling me a flea don't sting. Remember, those folks are in pain this week. In fact it reminded me of this:
And I remember one whose name appeared
Between the pictures on a movie screen
Election night once in Franconia,
When everything had gone Republican
And Democrats were sore in need of comfort:
Easton goes Democratic, Wilson 4
Hughes 2. And everybody to the saddest
Laughed the loud laugh the big laugh at the little.
New York (five million) laughs at Manchester,
Manchester (sixty or seventy thousand) laughs
At Littleton (four thousand), Littleton
Laughs at Franconia (seven hundred), and
Franconia laughs, I fear---did laugh that night--
At Easton. What has Easton left to laugh at,
And like the actress exclaim "Oh, my God" at?
-Frost, New Hampshire
You forget making the blind see and the lame walk, alas, we'll never know.
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It warms my heart to see the fringe Left suffering so.
The latest news: Musical "artist" Moby is seriously pondering a secession movement for the Left Coast and New England.
LOL...