Old Lady (handing Bart a pie thru the back window in the dead of night): You'll have the decency not to mention that I spoke to you, won't you?

Sheriff Bart (smiling): Of course.

Sheriff Bart: I'm rapidly becoming a big underground success in this town.

Jim the Waco Kid: Gee, in another 25 years, you'll be able to shake their hands in broad daylight.

Mel Brooks wrote that 33 years ago, and we're still not ready to shake Bart's hand on the street.

This isn't about Barack Obama, he's just the catalyst. I spent a few hours last night surfing message boards, looking to see what folks had to say about Jeremiah and Barack. I tried to keep away from the extremists and the nutjobs to see what mainstream America is saying. And mainstream America ought to just buy itself a fucking white hood & robe ensemble.

The typical post often starts out reasonably, citing the Obama/Wright affair and how Wright went too far. But before you get very far, it becomes a balls-out rant about "them" and what "they" have done and how "they" live. I wish I could count the number of posts I read last night that followed this sad format. Reading one or two, you might not see it. But after reading a dozen nearly identical screeds by a dozen different people on a number of different sites, you can't miss the pattern.

So this morning, I'm pissed off. Mostly at myself, I suppose, for believing for just a half a second that a black man actually could get elected in the United States of America, that we had progressed that far. I suppose, that's what I get for a little optimism...a sharp stick in the eye. Nope, we're not anywhere near ready to elect a black man in this country.

Jim the Waco Kid had it right when he consoled Bart after his arrival in Rock Ridge. He was talking about all of America:

Jim the Waco Kid: What did you expect? "Welcome sonny," "Make yourself at home," "Marry my daughter." You've got to remember, that these are just simple farmers, these are people of the land, the common clay of the new west. You know . . . morons.

I think that one of the things one has to understand is that American patriotism is a strange thing. Sure there are a few who think that "My country, right or wrong" means to wave a flag and beat one's chest in favor of all policies of those in office.

There is another brand of patriotism-- those of us who love our country despite all its faults, who are only sometimes proud of her, and who strive to make her better. This is true of whites an blacks alike. There were a few points relating to this that I felt were missing in Obama's speech. In particular a distrust of the state is an essential and unique characteristic of what I call American patriotism.

However, I think it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the coming months.

Mel Brooks wrote that 33 years ago, and we're still not ready to shake Bart's hand on the street.

What you said is absolute bullshit. I don't know if you really believe it or not (Liberals are not required to believe their own lies) but if you do then I have to ask:

WHY THE FUCK NOT? Are you a bigot, a racist or just a chickenshit fucker who is scared of niggers? I shake Bart's hand in public, I shake his hand in private. I shake the hand of any man or woman, be they Black, White, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, or any other ethnicity or national origin, with whom I come into contact on a professional or private basis. Why the hell would I not shake hands with them?

I interact with all levels and all variations of the human species (in business, at church, in my grandkids' school, in the mall, at the homes of friends, etc).

What kind of fucking idiot, in this day and time in the United States of America, would refuse to shake hands with someone he meets in a business situation or a personal encounter just because that person is Black or of some other race or ethnicity?

Tell me that dipshit. And tell again me why you won't shake hands with Bart.

Now, why don't you see if you can get any sillier?

Jack

I've lived all over this great nation of ours, and it is still a collective heap of racists pointing their fingers at each other, screaming racist. We still don't get it.

Sorry to confuse you, you silly bastard. Did you even bother to read the rest of the post?

Yeah, now it's a metaphor.

Jack

10 - Why do black americans get to cut in line ahead of women for the presidential thing? wasn't affirmative action supposed to take care of us first?

9 - Why does some guy who's only been a senator for 2 years, and a "nothing" before that get all the media attention? i mean, isn't any actual experience required for this job? look what bush gave us, and he was an actual governor, and his daddy was previously the president. hello? we're buying a pig in a poke, here.

8 - how about a constitutional amendement to require each candidate to (broadly) outline which taxes he will raise, and which he will cut? obama's promised spending is something like a trillion dollars, according to some magazines. it would take 10 years to save that much even if we left iraq tomorrow. who's paying for his promises?

7 - shouldn't you be disqualified from running for president, if you even HAVE a religious guy appear on the podium and endorse you? separation of church and state, anyone?

6 - how can someone be old enough to vote, but not buy a beer? whats up with that? doesn't it call into question the qualificaitons of millions of voters, if we don't trust them to drink?

5 - isn't it an inherent conflict of interest to "loan yourself" campaign funding? i'm not against paying for your own candidacy out of pocket. but if hillary "loans herself" $5 or $10 million dollars, doesn't this create in inherent conflict where she's personally pocketing future contributions from individuals, unions and corporations? doesn't such a loan and payback scheme unavoidably distort the nature of campaigns, by forcing the candidate to promise things he/she otherwise wouldn't, in order to get "payback"? These sorts of self-loans are just elaborate schemes to avoid the appearance of being so rich you can avoid the presidency

4 - can we have an oath of office for the presidential spouse? especially important in bill clinton's case (he can't be the puppet master, he can't be chief of staff over the white house interns, etc.) . .. . but perhaps equally important for mrs mccain (who is a CEO and fabuously wealthy), and michelle obama, who has reportedly expressed sentiments not too dissimilar to those of the good reverend wright

3 - why can't i insist on each candidate naming a "probable cabinet" prior to the election, or even the nomination? i hate to wake up on november 5th

2 - mcain is leading (in a rasmussen poll) hillary by 10+ points, and obama by 7-8 points. doesn't the democratic party want to stop all this foolishness and nominate a less divisive candidate, one who both has experience, and does not have a history of evil acts (al gore, your strategy may be paying off)

1 - how does someone who is so much richer, and more powerful, and famous than me get to scream "god damn america!" like reverend wright does??? i'm sick to death of the reverend wrights, michael moores, and oliver stones biting the hand that feeds them

Race is an old wound in America. It was a pretty deep cut a few decades ago so we cleaned out the obviously infected tissue, packed it with sterile language and wrapped it up in layers of legal gauze. But it never did heal right, so now is as good a time as any to open it up and do another thorough examination. Obama did a pretty good exploratory, but he hasn't sewn it up yet.

It's work that got to be done, even though the procedure is painful and risky. It may take some time, but it's not like we're going to run out of patience.

Maybe, maybe not.

Speaking of forum posts and nut jobs, one thing to remember is the tendency of nut jobs to express themselves when others have nothing to say. (That's one of their defining characteristics.)

Point taken about your sampling of public opinion. Yes, Obama's personal relationship to the radical preacher has changed some minds, and politics derive from statistical distributions. The real question a day of skimming may not not answer is how the general population responds to the personal relationship and Obama's refusal to deny it. God damn America has occured to me often in this past seven years for many reasons other than racial injustice. How is that attitude distributed in the population? The issue will still be more about radical change than swiftboating the black candidate who knows why radical change is needed.

10- There is a line?

9- Bush was the CEO of two bankrupt oil companies, a VP of "special projects" at a third. I charity case at the Texas Rangers where they loaned him money to buy a share and stood around schmoozing, helped use emminent domain to steal homes and land for a new stadium and became rich. Then was a governor of a state where the governor doesn't do much....in short, he had no experience at all. Not even the 4 years of senate plus 7 years in the Illinois senate.

8- Where did you hear that Obama's new spending would be 1 trillion? Over what time frame? We are currently spending about $3 billion per week in Iraq. Obama has promised to allow Bush's tax cuts on over $200k to expire. Do you make that much? I do and don't care about the tax cuts. We need to pay the bills. We can't continue to borrow to pay for the tax cuts.

7- President Nader is on the phone and wants to thank you for this particular rule.

6- The drinking age differs from state to state. Take it up with your state rep.

5- Loaning yourself money doesn't change the dynamic. The amount of money needed is the problem. Fix that first. There should be no donations without a social security number or a voter ID. There should be a limit on who you can donate to. If your residence is in Florida you should not be allowed to donate money to a senate campaign in Colorado. There should be a maximum that you can donate to any individual candidate and in any year.

4- Saying "God Damn America" is not similar in any way to what Michelle Obama said.

3- Good luck. No potential cabinet member would accept prior to the election.....if they are currently in any government position.

2- The party would like to end the contest. Whether or not it is foolishness is another issue. This certainly brings into focus the problems of the primaries. In some cases republicans can vote as democrats, independents can vote in some and not in others......

1- I'm sick of Hannity, Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Michael Savage, O'Reilly etc...

you know the ones. Those people who think that criticizing the administration is biting the hand that feeds them.

4-

and ignoring the cause.

Typical healthcare in the good ol' US of A.

I hope I'm seeing a disproportionate number of nutjobs and that I'm jumping the gun and the country will prove me wrong.

But I'm not holding my breath.

If you're too stupid to understand what I've written (even after I explained it to you), I'd be wasting my time to further explain. If you understood and are intentionally misrepresenting me, I'd be wasting my time to further explain.

I'm tired of wasting my time with you. Jack.

I look at these threads and see an amazing outpouring of visceral stuff signifying a national will to change. If I was Red Auerbach, I'd light up a cigar.

The more aggressively you treat a problem like this, the worse you make it. The necessary laws are in place, the politicians have cast their runes, and people are as they are. Teach your children well. That's about all you can do. I don't think Afro-Americans are looking for a public solution, which is good, because there isn't one.