That's a swell set of values you got there

[pecunium]

I'm sick and tired of the implication that I am not possessed of values, or somehow not taking them into account when I vote. I say this because I keep hearing the same old sorry trope that "values voters" favor republicans, didn't vote for Kerry, etc.

It's bullshit. I have values, they just aren't based on hatreds or limiting people's rights. I value choice, opportunity and equality.

On the other hand, reports from the Value's Voters Summit make it plain to me there is a significant portion of them who are racist scumbags.

While Obama Waffles takes aim at Obama's politics by poking fun at his public remarks and positions on issues, it also plays off the old image of the pancake-mix icon Aunt Jemima, which has been widely criticized as a demeaning stereotype. Obama is portrayed with popping eyes and big, thick lips as he stares at a plate of waffles and smiles broadly.

Placing Obama in Arab-like headdress recalls the false rumor that he is a follower of Islam, though he is actually a Christian.

On the back of the box, Obama is depicted in stereotypical Mexican dress, including a sombrero, above a recipe for "Open Border Fiesta Waffles" that says it can serve "4 or more illegal aliens." The recipe includes a tip: "While waiting for these zesty treats to invade your home, why not learn a foreign language?"

If those are the values they respect, they can keep 'em, and the candidates who court them.

Comments

[supergee.livejournal.com]

Everyone has values. It's like having a temperature.

[lt260.livejournal.com]

The sad part is near the end: “The Obama campaign declined to comment.”

How can McCain be leading in the polls? This type of thing should be disgusting to a vast majority of Americans. Add the inadequacies of Palin and Obama/Biden should be a no brainer. I’m all for Obama staying on target with key issues but where is the hue and cry from the majority party of both houses? Info packets should be speeding their way to every news source on the globe. The DNC should be pounding American Values and Focus on the Family while crowing of the connections both groups have with McCain and Palin. Obama shouldn’t have to say a word but Biden, Dean, Pelosi, Reid, Dean, and the rest of them do not have any excuses.

[shekkara.livejournal.com]

Have you seen this article? What Makes People Vote Republican?. It's by a professor of pyschology who explores this exact issue of how liberals and conservatives define morals.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the link to the article. It explains a lot of things I've been thinking.

ETA: And it makes me think of the Five Geek Social Fallacies. "The miracle of turning individuals into groups can only be performed by groups that impose costs on cheaters and slackers. "

[desert-vixen.livejournal.com]

I have values, they just aren't based on hatreds or limiting people's rights. I value choice, opportunity and equality.

This, exactly.

As for the actual post, I'm disgusted but not completely shocked...

DV

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

The word 'values' like 'morality', 'character' and 'family' have been appropriated by a small, but vociferous minority of people, and turned into weapons of mass confusion and frustration.

We have to take back those words- along with 'intellectual', 'elite', and 'liberal' and realign them with their original meanings.

Today, I see those words as 'dog-whistles' or 'shibboleths' of a certain narrow-minded sub-class of people who do not have the best interests of the majority in mind should they ever truly take power.

I have 'values'. They are remarkably similar to yours.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

To be honest, that's largely my sentiment as well.

[cakmpls.livejournal.com]

I've been ranting for years about the far-right's coopting the term "family values." So what are these principles that my family lives by?

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

It's worse than that; you (and yours) are lacking, "family values".

It's some really clever rhetoric.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Yup. For Republicans, "values" is a Code-Word covering (as far as I can figure out) a whole bunch of particular qualities they believe they possess, or claim to uphold. Apparently these include (but are not limited to) the superiority of White/Northern-European English-speaking culture, the possession of a comfortable and secure income, willingness to be governed by an authoritarian aristocracy, and a profound reverence for human life up until the moment of birth (after which society/government should leave them entirely on their own as far as economic support is concerned, with the exception of Important People/Businesses, which should be bailed-out with tax money extracted from the lower-income populace if they make poor business decisions).

[sharon-masters.livejournal.com]

Oh honey-- haven't we all figured it out yet?
THEY LIE.
Plain and simple-- and screaming or yelling at liars that they are lying is POINTLESS.

They really are racist scumbags.
They are angry nasty humans that i now have nothing to do with-- because you cannot argue someone out of the FEARS- and the few people that really do believe them whole hog are flat out afraid. Scared out of their minds BECAUSE the 'adults' they used to look up to have warped them into thinking that if they hadn't invaded Iraq we would all be prisoners in our own country, that if we don't stay the course the world will explode, a whole HOST of crap.

They are fearmongers and we cannot stop them until we take back the government and clean house. Something it may already be too late for. Their side is ruthless and evil.
And we still have too many morals and too much of a sincere belief that we should play fair.

Bullies usually win that way.
You are very correct-- they have co-opted the language and they frame each and every argument in their own terms.
We have to get some loud repeating folks out there pointing out their lies.
Over and over and over.

[fairestcat]

*shudders*

Yeah, I think I'll pass on those kind of values. I feel dirty just reading about them.

[shunra.livejournal.com]

Thank for the link to the article! It was interesting. I read it though, and I must say it made me feel very uncomfortable. The writer is a member of the group which would suffer least from a return to "traditional" values: a straight, white, adult male.

While he wasn't advocating a return to such values, he expressed an understanding for them (and enjoyed, in his anthropological practice, the benefits of that status).

Moreover, the third "extra" scale he mentioned, the us-vs.-them scale, tribe vs. not tribe, leads to dehumanization of the not-tribe-members and tends to lead to genocide when resources (of various kinds) get scared.

190+ million people were killed in genocide-type attacks during the 20th century. Killed by people who were attacking them because of that tribe/not-tribe dichotomy.

It is important to respect the people who hold those views. It is equally important to sustain a polite disagreement with them.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

IS THAT GAY POLAR BEAR LOVE ON THAT ICON YOU FAMILY-DESTROYING TRAMP?

*smooches you*

*smooches pecunium while I'm here*

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Asked if he considered the pictures of Obama on the box to be racial stereotypes, Whitlock said: "We had some people mention that to us, but you think of Newman's Own or Emeril's — there are tons and tons of personality-branded food products on the market. So we've taken that model and, using political satire, have highlighted his policies, his position changes."

Jesus, people, you're just not even TRYING anymore, are you?

[fairestcat]

It's a mama and a BABY!!! Get your head out of the gutter!!

*smooches you*

*smooches Terry too*

After all, it'd just be rude to come into his journal and leave all my smooches for you.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

well. Must't be RUDE.

*more smooches all round*

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

The purpose of calling them out is to 1: Let them know we see their lies and 2: to show those who are unaware (those, "swing voters" who only hear the words, "Values Voters") what those values are, and how those who espouse them are lying.

Silence = Assent

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Gay, INCESTOUS, polar bears?

Wow.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

Smooches seem valuable.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

MY FAMILY INCLUDES QUEBEC SMOOCHES!

[fairestcat]

GAHHHHH! I am never going to be able to look at my icon the same way again.

*retreats whimpering*

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry.

Have some smooches to make up for it.

[fairestcat]

*practices family values all over this thread*

What? They're my family's values.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

OUR family, sweetheart.

*"values" you roughly against a wall*

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

Plus, let's face it, it's fun.

[commodorified.livejournal.com]

The sad part is near the end: “The Obama campaign declined to comment.”

I dunno. I think a bland and deadly silence is a pretty good answer to this sort of thing. Especially when you know that others will respod on your behalf.

If they'd commented, you know it would have been portrayed as 'whining' or something.

[don-fitch.livejournal.com]

Oh, they're trying, very hard -- to get the votes of all the anti-Black racists. The number of votes they succeed in getting (or in getting recorded & certified, via partisan voting-machines and election Officials) will tell us some important things about the actual nature of our country today.

[fire1791.livejournal.com]

Especially when you know that others will respod on your behalf.

Therein lies the rub: so far, Obama has seen precious little support from the DNC or other dems. The Latter-Day Nazi Party Republicans howl in unison everytime McSame, or one of his minions, so much as farts.

I guess I just wish that, for just this once, the democrats would join with the rest of us vertebrates, grow a backbone, and fight back. It doesn't have to be Obama. It probably shouldn't be for obvious reasons. But it does need to be a strong and immediate reaction to all the BS the neo-cons are pulling.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

What horrifies me is how they're succeeding. Someone at work is convinced that Obama has only worked with black people, will staff the Cabinet solely with black people, doesn't know who Joe Biden IS - but thinks he will go along with Obama's black-only policy, and thus she has to vote for someone "who will look out for people like me."

She is also extremely pro-choice, but thinks that McCain and Palin won't "really" overturn Roe v. Wade, so they're the obvious choice.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

I think the essay has a problem in that it mixes the descriptive (this is the way I think people are) with the prescriptive (this is what we should do about it). It's easy to make it sound like "this is how people should be" -- and yeah, saying that people should be like that is really uncomfortable. I don't think he means to, but in a few places it does sound a little like that.

I think what he's trying to get at is that we need to find some nice progressive methadone to substitute for the heroin of Republican morals. Ok, that's a terrible analogy, but it made me laugh.

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I think the problem with that is partly that and partly his blindness to the problem of what the effects of the way the Republicans think is.

It's all very well to be outside a group one is actually outside. It's all well and good to say, "This cultural trait is interesting, I will record it," when the results of that neutrality are, in effect, neutral.

I can't be that sort of neutral. What the Republican party is doing affects me. That changes the relationship. Are there well meaning people in the Republican Party? Of course. Does that make a damned bit of difference if the result of "understanding" them means I will never have healthcare again? Means my loved ones won't be able to make choices about their bodies? Means the economy goes further in the tank?

Not a bit. Where is the appeal to them? Where is he standing and saying.. "Hey, I've gotten to know you and why the hell can't you realise the "liberals" are well meaning people, and some understanding and tolerance of their sincerity is in order?"

He's asking me to be nicer to the bastard who is abusing, and says plans to continue abusing me, and mine.

That doesn't work with indivdual abusers and it sure as hell doesn't work with institutional abusers.

They can be nice people all they want. I won't meet them halfway, nor make concessions.

[daedala.livejournal.com]

Maybe I misread it, then -- I didn't hear him saying, "be nice to the abusers," I heard him saying, "here is how to help them hear you." Because sometimes people are abusive because they're abusers, and sometimes it's because they're dumbasses. And I do think we need ways to explain to Republican voters just _why_ healthcare is good for everyone, and that the people they are trying to keep in the out-group can be part of the in-group, and so on.