I wish I could laugh about it.

LOL

Isn’t that what a leftist discussion usually is…

Never address the point made. Just attack the messenger.

Not only are you without knowledge and power. But you are lazy. Therefore you have zero respect from me.

“…..there’s an equal group of folks who believe it’s ONLY grounded in race.”

As a Southern white male, I have to agree with this statement.

Sad, but it’s true.

Of course, the folks who believe it’s all about race are likewise The Won’s firmest supporters!

So yes, it’s about race – but not in the fashion they’d like to stereotype it as!

I’ve been waiting for it and waiting for it: it was inevitable. It appears, today, in MSNBC’s First Thoughts Blog, whose authorship is credited thusly: “From Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Domenico Montanaro, and Ali Weinberg”. This is the unstated, uncoordinated, yet widely understood goal: the “Southerners are racists” campaign will be whispered and speculated over weeks and months, gradually building steam – a la “Clarence Thomas harassed Anita Hill” and “Bush lied, people died” – until, eventually, it will become stone cold acknowledged history that Obamacare failed b/c Southerners were racists. That this will happen, I’ve zero doubt. My grandchildren will be taught this in high school history. The opening salvo, from today’s “First Thoughts” blog:

“The Elephant In The Room: At what point do what a bunch of folks in D.C. believe privately become more public — that there is a dramatic divide between how people in the South view Obama versus the rest of the country? Sure, the South has always been more conservative and has been increasingly more Republican, so it shouldn’t be a surprise this region is less open to a Democratic president’s ideas; it’s no different than folks in New York City and San Francisco not being open to a Republican president’s proposals. But is it really the “D” next to Obama’s name that has folks upset in the South? Yes, there was a “coastal” divide when it came to George W. Bush, and the election results of 2004, 2006, and 2008 proved that. But is it ALL just ideological? It’s truly subjective… As defiant as some on the right are about the fact that this has nothing to do with race, there’s an equal group of folks who believe it’s ONLY grounded in race. Bottom line: Whether it’s fair or not, there is a perception growing that race is driving some elements of the opposition to Obama. It probably means this tumult will only grow for the time being.

And so it begins for real.

I thought it is impossible to explain better than Scottie did – but you managed to pass it through and don’t understand a thing.

Up to this point I’ve hesitated to include any personal notes on the discussion.

However, since Tom Lansford has begun relating personal anecdotes, I’ll offer my own.

Last year, after many decades of heavy smoking, my father-in-law had quadruple bypass surgery.

Of course, he spent those same decades working his a$$ off.

He has been self employed for at least 20 years, and one of his businesses at one point required him to be up by about 4:00 or 5:00 AM, and he didn’t get home until around 5:00 or 6:00 PM, 6 days a week, for years.

Do I even need mention the amount in taxes he paid over those years as a small business owner?

My brother-in-law, born with Down Syndrome, had to have open heart surgery before he was even a year old.

Now over two decades later, he’s one of the brightest, most positive people you will ever meet – and has a chest scar that would make a US Marine cringe.

My father-in-law once explained that he could not get insurance on either my mother-in-law or his son after he was born.

He had to make regular payments for the surgery that was performed, and it took years to pay it off.

He paid it off without government help – he’s kind of stubborn that way – and he never declared bankruptcy in the process, either.

He had a debt and he took care of it.

This year, as if that wasn’t enough, my father-in-law is now undergoing treatments for prostate cancer, and shortly after he was diagnosed his brother was likewise diagnosed with a different kind of cancer!

He is quite aware of how insurance works.

He is also quite aware of what’s being discussed in Congress at the moment – and he’s adamently opposed to the plans being floated about.

He knows deep down, he – or someone like him – would probably end up being a cost cutting measure at some point for a government bureaucrat facing a departmental budget shortfall and under strict orders not to increase the deficit.

He is likewise concerned that his son would also have been placed into the same catagory at birth.

I have had many political arguments over the years with my father-in-law.

He’s an old school democrat, and I’m a Reagan Democrat, but I admit even I was surprised at how fierce he reacted to the subject when it came up on the news one evening while we were visiting.

As I noted before, morality is strictly based upon personal perspective – and nobody is in a position to lecture me – or my father-in-law – on that subject.