Saturday, August 30, 2008

Quote of the Evening

From my father, at dinner tonight. He said this unprompted about Sarah Palin:
What an absurd pick. I mean, two weeks ago, she was the mayor of a Wal-Mart.

Both he and my mother (both Clinton supporters in the primary) seemed to take her selection as an insult to their intelligence as voters (quoting my dad again: "It's like he [McCain] thinks he's dealing with a group of moronic Kindergarteners").

10 comments:

Superdestroyer said...

Since your parnets are jewish and have probably ever voted for a Republican in their life, who cares what they think of the Republican candidate. Does Chuck Schuemer really care what Baptist in Alabama think about him?

PG said...

Since your parnets are jewish...

David, to continue putting up with this sort of commentary indicates that you'll manage well in academia -- you've a thick skin against what could be interpreted as either ignorance or anti-Semitism. It also inoculates you against the level of illiteracy you'll see in student papers.

David Schraub said...

I feel like I'm going to be taking out a lot of pent up aggression on my student's papers, unfortunately.

Unknown said...

What pg said. I would absolutely have banned this jackass.

Superdestroyer said...

Caring about what David's mother thinks about Republicans is about as important as care what his mother thinks about Young Jeezy, Kurt Busch, or Kenny Chesney. Since the Palin nomination like Hip-Hop, NASCAR, or Country music was never meant to appeal to suburban, elite jews, then who cares what they think on any of those issues.

David Schraub said...

I was under the impression that Jewish female Clinton supporters were prime McCain targets, given that Barack Hussein Obama is a stealth Muslim who hates women and wants to see Israel destroyed.

I guess I can't keep my inanities straight.

Superdestroyer said...

Sarah Palin, if meant to appeal to any group, is meant to appeal to moderate Democratic women in the Midwest who voted for Clinton in the Democratic primary in large numbers and who may be persued to vote for McCain versus Obama. Calling them Clinton supporters when they only thing they did for Clinton was vote for her in the Democratic primary.

Of course, I know you understand the concept of soft support and at the margin. Please do not try to confuse the issue with hard core Democrats who voted, donated, and volunteered for Clinton versus people who pay casual attention to politics and voted for Clinton.

Since there are so few Republicans or even moderate Democrats in Maryland, I guess it is outside your normal worldview.

PG said...

I understand why, if David's parents have in fact been lifelong Democrats, someone would say they are unlikely to have shifted to voting for McCain regardless of who his VP pick was. I'm just really confused as to how Judaism came into this. Why does the fact that David's parents are Jewish make any difference in a discussion about their politics?

The only relevant thing I can see is that McCain and Republicans generally are in fact making a serious bid for more Jewish votes this year based on discomfort with Obama. SD apparently is ignorant of this fact, or just thinks that Jews can't actually vote for Republicans and therefore McCain's efforts are irrelevant.

As I said, either anti-Semitism or ignorance at work here. Or both.

David Schraub said...

Ironically, given where I grew it's actually quite likely that any given person in my parent's demographic set (liberal, affluent, and Jewish) has voted GOP at some point or another, because Montgomery County, MD was represented for 16 years by Connie Morella, a (very, very, very moderate) Republican. She won re-election largely through her ability to appeal to voters like my parents. I have no way of knowing if my parents particularly voted for her, but given that there is no way to win the 8th district without a sizable chunk of the liberal, affluent Jewish vote (are there even other voters here?), the generalization is, as usual, false.

Superdestroyer said...

Jews vote over 80% for Democrats and are probably the second most likely Democratic Party suppoters behind blacks. Educated, suburbs Jews are even more likely to be Democrats.

Asking Jewish Democrats in Montgomery County Maryland what they think about the Repubican candidates has as much relevance as asking black democrats in Prince Georges County about Republicans. Or it is the equivalent of asking rural mormons in Utah what they think about Joe Biden.

And yes, any appeal by the Repubicans for the Jewish vote is pointless. Given how little Jews support Republicans, it is amazing how much influence they have in the Repubican Party (see Neo-cons).

And yes, I remember Connie Morella, the textbook example of a RINO, and I remember how the Parris Glendening redistricted her right out of a job by removing the middle class whites from Frederick County and adding blacks from Prince Georges County.