Edwards debate line translated to good ole boy.

[quaker bill]

Ever met a good ole boy with a law degree? I work with them 5 days a week. As they are fond of saying down here "You can take the boy out of the country but you can't take the country out of the boy"


To Howard Dean:

"We do not need people like you comming down south telling us how to run things"

Stunning, but I believe George Wallace said the exact same words when Kennedy enforcing Brown V Board of Education wanted to put black kids in white schools.

translates roughly as follows

We (the south) do not need (don't need no) people like you (damn yankee carpetbaggers) comming down south telling us how to run things (we like the social order just the way it is).

Politicians born and bred down south like the social order created by right-to work laws, low taxes, low services, low wages, and government largess to business. It has similarity to the pre-war plantation south.

It is why we down south win the rush to the bottom with any kind of tax incentive for business. Disneyworld, for instance, was exempt from State taxes for 20 years, is it's own government, and competes with local cities and counties for federal block grant monies and municipal tax exempt bonding authority.

[Snellius]

1. A lot of Democrats are in denial about the South

Yes, the South has changed. But it's also a lot the same.

[QC]

2. When was Edwards ever a supporter of the low-service model?

He's the one candidate in this race who has explicitly argued that Bush's goal is to exalt capital over labor and place the burden of financing government on the working class.

I think you're barking up the wrong tree here.

[AP]

4. agreed.

Somebody has been working over time to spin a little gold out of the mess Dean made.

However, the work is not being rewarded with wealth.

Back to the drawing board for some new spin.

[QC]

5. Did you catch the nasty condescension in the header?

Edwards can get a fine education, climb to the top of his field, get elected to the Senate, speak up for the interests of the working class, but in the end he's still just a redneck.

It reminds me a lot of the not-so-subtle class agenda of the Clinton-haters.

[quaker bill]

9. Wrong

I liked Clinton just fine. Voted for him twice and worked for the Gore campaign. I have also lived down south for about 40 years. I work with good ole boys. I also work directly with good ole boys with law degrees, some of whom are elected officials.

The words he used stand on their own. "people like you comming down here to tell us how to run things" is classic 'damn yankee' if I ever heard it. And I have heard it often.

[Classical_Liberal]

17. He used the rhetoric of the segregationists?

What do you expect. Furthermore, he claimes a right to run in the North, which is hypocritical.

[Classical_Liberal]

16. Is Edward's running for President of the US or the the South

why is he campaigning in Iowa? Why shouldn't Iowans feel the same way about him? That is the rhetoric of the of segregationists.

[quaker bill]

6. I disagree

The 'enterprise zone' style business tax incentives he advocates are classic to southern polity. It comes right out of the Chamber of Commerce handbook.

Having listened and worked directly with southern politicians, I can assure you this stuff is mothers milk down here.

One city will bid against another with tax incentives that will do no more than change the length of the workers commute. Literally moving existing jobs 5 miles down the road.

It is simply a means to give tax dollars away to corporations.

[AP]

7. Actually, it serves a long term progressive trend --

As places get more populated, they tend to become more democratic. By encoraging rural development (ie, populating rural areas with bigger tows, small cities, etc) you change the demographics. Rural poverty results in a bunch of conservatives.

Also, these rural areas NEED money.

[quaker bill]

15. Agreed on a couple of concepts

The area has become increasingly democratic as the population has grown.

Rural poverty does seem to spawn conservatives.

Where I fall off the cart is on the concept that we get anywhere by giving tax incentives to move existing jobs around the country. It sounds like plain and simple corporate welfare to me.

Seeing it in action only convinces me further in this regard.

[JI7]

10. there needs to be more attention on this

i agree. it's very important. but the big corp media doesn't want this exposed so it's very hard to get the message out. bill clinton learned how to deal with a media that hates him and edwards will have to depend on ways other than the big media to get his message out. clinton showed it was possible, though still very tough.

[NoMoreRedInk]

3. Are you saying Disneyworld is a blight on the Orlando/FL economy?****

nm

[quaker bill]

11. Perhaps

When they use their leverage to grab public funds that would otherwise have gone to construct affordable housing.

It has been a boom to the Orlando economy, we now have many more low wage service sector jobs.

Of course, the shortage of affordable housing is a bit of a concern in this regard.

We are about 2 billion dollars behind in school construction. Could their property tax exempt status have had a role in this?

[leftofthedial]

8. most of all, we don't want no

carpetbaggers coming down here if they can't spell "comming" while spouting anti-Southern bigotry.

[quaker bill]

12. Sorry for the spelling

I am a southerner. So I guess I really don't like myself much.

[leftofthedial]

13. no worries

I'm not a southerner.

But granny and grandpa were.

Cheer up. We DUers like you!

[quaker bill]

14. Thanks

My point was I can hardly be bigoted against southerners, unless I include myself.

That being aside, I actually like Edwards just fine. I worked for Gore in the law offices of a southern personal injury lawyer who sounded just like him. A real nice guy. He has my vote and my time if he gets the nomination.

I just detected a bit of good ole boy bigotry in that line, and his plan for jobs and economic recovery is not my favorite.

[RummyTheDummy]

18. Sigh..............

NT

[QC]

19. The know-it-all Yankee is an archetypal figure in the South.

And this is what I think Edwards was getting at with the business about coming in and telling us what to do.

From time to time I see a bumper sticker that says "We don't care how you did it in New York," and that's a reflection of the perception many people have here than Northerners condescend to us.

Back when Dean first made this remark, last winter, I said then that I agreed with him but feared that it could very easily be spun as that stereotypical Yankee coming south to lecture the rubes. That seems to be what has happened.

But for the record, I think it's a bum rap on Dean.

[mmonk]

20. You've got it wrong about Edwards

he's no George Wallace standing in front of the courthouse. But what do I know, I'm from the south, right?

[quaker bill]

23. I agree he isn't and I am from the south as well.

I only state that he used language to evoke that sentiment.

You have to admit, you can see just exactly those words falling out of Wallace's mouth.

[mmonk]

21. You can't win people over if you spit in their face.

[quaker bill]

24. Agreed

Allusions to good ole boys with confederate flags on their pickups will not do it.

Niether will telling damn yankees to mind their own business.

[MartinAmbroseForan]

22. Reminds me of that Lynrd Skynrd song

Their response to Neil Young's "Southern Man"

"I heard ol' Neil put her down..."

"A southern man don't need him around anyhow"

[PurityOfEssence]

25. The very essence of this thread is ignorant and despicable.

Edwards is vehemently pro-union, for progressive taxation and for the building of a strong middle class.

Whoever you are, you are shockingly wrong. Please do ANY amount of research on John Edwards, scrape up a shred of decency and apologize to us all for your irresponsible calumny. This is a very decent human being who is the antithesis of what you claim.

For shame.

[Pastiche423]

26. Edwards decent?

Ha!

That may be his public face, but it's the exact opposite when he does business from a hidey hole.

He is the epitome of the good old southern boys I grew up with.