Non-Caucasian Country Folks....

[garybob]

Guys, guys, guys ( & gals).......Do we have to be 100% Caucasian, in order to be 100% Patriotic and Conservative? Ever been to South Texas? I lived there a short while, and found Javier the Cowhand and Dr. Padilla-Ramirez the local Family M.D. to be very staunchly Conservative. Just 'cuz somebody isn't all-white, doesn't automatically mean they're not all-right.
A lot of these people are also very supportive of their local Livestock industry, as well, and have very well-mannered, respectful children.....who Show Livestock alongside the white kids......Similar people are frequently seen in many places farther north, in states like Colorado, Wyoming, and Utah, and of course, Arizona, Nevada and New Mexico.

The same could be said about many of the rural residents of Northeast Texas, whose ancestors were slaves. Similar folks can likely be found in many rural communities in the Deep South, as well.

What are Y'all worried about? Are Y'uns still clinging to your beliefs of manifest destiny?

GB

 

[chambero]

I hate the term liberal and conservative as it is commony applied now and the lines that are drawn by it.  If you really want to talk about missing an opportunity for serious political power and change, the Republican leadership and candidates in the last election were a bunch of fools for not moderating their platform a little bit on their whole aversion to "tax the wealthy" and the definition of that to make the idea of electing them more palatable to very socially conservative but economically moderate hispanic and rural african-american voters.  The Democratic leadership did a very good job of making those groups of people choose between perceived economic benefits from the government vs. their social concerns.  You can't win an election trying to defend only the wealthiest people.

I've said it many times on here, but to me the whole immigration debate is pointless.  Make it easier for people who are already here and not involved in criminal activity to become citizens to all parties involved will quit taking advantage of one another.

To me the real political polar opposites in this country aren't liberal vs conservative, it's urban West Coast/East Coast vs. everyone else.  It's people living and trying to survive in areas with very high cost of living vs. every one else.

 

[knabe]

color of skin has nothing to do with it.

for some reason, 750,000 or more legal immigrants/year isn't enough.

nobody's clinging to anything except some people who think rules don't apply to them and the people who think rules should apply.

 

[garybob]

color of skin has nothing to do with it.

for some reason, 750,000 or more legal immigrants/year isn't enough.

nobody's clinging to anything except some people who think rules don't apply to them and the people who think rules should apply.

No, Man! I wasn't referring to the Immigration Debate, per se, but, with everyone so peeved and paranoid, since 9/11, whenever someone who identifies themselves as a "Conservative" so much as sees a Latino, or an African American, their molars grind and their eyes glare. This has gone overboard since Obama's second election.

Just wish folks wouldn't throw good people "under the bus", especially folks that are United States Citizens.

GB

 

[Bulldaddy]

I worry more about the impact of entitilments on our country than I do immigrantion.  Used to be folks wouldn't take a hand-out unless they were down on their luck.  Nowadays, folks don't mind laying around on the couch, talking on their free phone, drawing extended unemployment or, worse yet, disablity, for no good reason other than they are too lazy to get off their butts and go to work.  With 46 percent of American's receiving some form of entitlement funding, it won't be long before Atlas will do more than just shrug.

 

[RyanChandler]

I worry more about our govt wasting more money overseas.  In comparison, the money we invest in the American people in the form of entitlements is minuscule to that squandered on so called defense and policing the world.

 

[chambero]

XBAR - I dont really disagree with your point, but our entitlement programs - social security, medicare, etc - dwarf all other spending combined.  Its not lazy people that dont work that get most of it, its us and our parents which we dont like to admit.

 

[Bulldaddy]

Chambero, if you are talking about SSN and Medicare, you are correct but folks worked and contributed to those programs.  There are a lot of other folks who take advantage of the system.  for example, medicaid and food stamps have become part of the benefit package for the thousands of illegal immigrants who are living and working in our country.  Make them legal, make them pay taxes and pay for health insurance like the rest of us.  Most have excellent work ethic and would make good citizens.  XBAR, I am all for getting our troops home--more for their welfare than the cost savings.  There are so many places to cut that it seems so obvious from the outside.  I read this morning that a planned trip to Africa by the Obama family and its entourage will cost between 60 and 100 million dollars. 

 

[Gargan]

Chambero, if you are talking about SSN and Medicare, you are correct but folks worked and contributed to those programs.  There are a lot of other folks who take advantage of the system.  for example, medicaid and food stamps have become part of the benefit package for the thousands of illegal immigrants who are living and working in our country.  Make them legal, make them pay taxes and pay for health insurance like the rest of us.  Most have excellent work ethic and would make good citizens.  XBAR, I am all for getting our troops home--more for their welfare than the cost savings.  There are so many places to cut that it seems so obvious from the outside.  I read this morning that a planned trip to Africa by the Obama family and its entourage will cost between 60 and 100 million dollars.

(clapping)

 

[okiegirl]

  There are a lot of other folks who take advantage of the system.  for example, medicaid and food stamps have become part of the benefit package for the thousands of illegal immigrants who are living and working in our country.

I love the term "Benefit" package.  It implies something earned, in our area (southeast OK) it is most certainly not earned.

 

[BTDT]

There is a lot of things wrong with our country, illegal immigrants, getting involved in "conflicts", corruption in gov't, entitlements to mention a few.
But there are a lot of things right with our country also. Freedom to start with. Living in a country apparently everyone else wants to live in too! One of the most technological military in the world. WE elect the corruption. We allow the entitlements to be given.

gargybob, I am not racist, nor am I an isolationist. But, to deny human nature and say profiling is "wrong", is to deny human nature to react to, and analyze previous experience. Everyone, including you, makes decisions on how to react by previous actions. To label someone because of a reaction they have due to past experience is wrong. Manifest Destiny disappeared many generations ago.

 

[knabe]

if we were still interested in manifest destiny, japan and the philippines, vietnam, and other nations would be states.

 

[twistedhshowstock]

A friend posted the following on facebook earlier, and I think it sums it up pretty well.

"Most of the problems that we face today are because those that work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

I have said it over and over and over again, the #1 thing, in my opinion, that got Obama re-elected was that he was a safer bet for those, generally very capable, people who sit around and live off the system and have no plans to change.  But honestly, there are times that I dont blame them and think they are smarter than me.  I work a full time and respectable job, plus I pick up as many odd jobs on the side as I can just to make ends meet.  I am out of the house at daybreak every morning and dont come back in until way after dark.  I made the effort and obtained an education.  Now I have student loans and the government will take the money if I dont make a payment on time.  Even doing all that, there are times that I struggle to pay the bills and I dont have health insurance because I work for a small business that can not afford to provide and will not be required to under Obummers new health care system.  Yet all of these who live off the system and make no effort to find a job or change, they all drive better vehicles than me, eat better than me, have nicer phones, bigger tvs, more expensive clothes, etc etc. AND their health care is provided for free.  The govt expects nothing in return from them.  All the while I, the one working and paying the taxes that pay for all the other peoples assistance, I wont have one single cent of assistance offered to me by the government when I struggle to pay the bills.

 

[Doc]

A friend posted the following on facebook earlier, and I think it sums it up pretty well.

"Most of the problems that we face today are because those that work for a living are now outnumbered by those who vote for a living."

I have said it over and over and over again, the #1 thing, in my opinion, that got Obama re-elected was that he was a safer bet for those, generally very capable, people who sit around and live off the system and have no plans to change.  But honestly, there are times that I dont blame them and think they are smarter than me.  I work a full time and respectable job, plus I pick up as many odd jobs on the side as I can just to make ends meet.  I am out of the house at daybreak every morning and dont come back in until way after dark.  I made the effort and obtained an education.  Now I have student loans and the government will take the money if I dont make a payment on time.  Even doing all that, there are times that I struggle to pay the bills and I dont have health insurance because I work for a small business that can not afford to provide and will not be required to under Obummers new health care system.  Yet all of these who live off the system and make no effort to find a job or change, they all drive better vehicles than me, eat better than me, have nicer phones, bigger tvs, more expensive clothes, etc etc. AND their health care is provided for free.  The govt expects nothing in return from them.  All the while I, the one working and paying the taxes that pay for all the other peoples assistance, I wont have one single cent of assistance offered to me by the government when I struggle to pay the bills.

Very True!!!!!

 

[RyanChandler]

There is a lot of things wrong with our country, illegal immigrants, getting involved in "conflicts", corruption in gov't, entitlements to mention a few.
But there are a lot of things right with our country also. Freedom to start with. Living in a country apparently everyone else wants to live in too! One of the most technological military in the world. WE elect the corruption. We allow the entitlements to be given.

gargybob, I am not racist, nor am I an isolationist. But, to deny human nature and say profiling is "wrong", is to deny human nature to react to, and analyze previous experience. Everyone, including you, makes decisions on how to react by previous actions. To label someone because of a reaction they have due to past experience is wrong. Manifest Destiny disappeared many generations ago.

Just because its a social norm where you live doesn't make it instinctual.

 

[knabe]

Social norm is the very definition of instinct.

It's also called culture.

Doesnt mean it's right or wrong. 

It's how religion and morals get established.

If we disagree with something, we don't usually say it isn't a social norm.

Social norms get established by reward and penalty.

 

[RyanChandler]

I'd disagree. Social norms are nurtured.  I thought we were talking instinctual responses here?

 

[knabe]

Reward is nurture. Reward can also be power.

 

[garybob]

I guess, the main thing I'm saying, is that people are loudly combining racial slurs, among otherwise legitimate political discussions. Totally kills it, I think. If people would've left ethnicity out of laymen's conversations ( which are often held in stores and restaurants), things might have gone a little differently, during the past two Presidential Elections.

My inclusion of "Manifest Destiny" was because many people here, in the Ozarks always end their political "statements" with phrases like.....  : " 'Cuz White Men built this Country, not a bunch of G__D___N_____s...Tyson and Wal Mart brought them Mex-cuns in to work ,and, now our schools are overrun with them Pepper-belly SOB's"....leading a listener to believe that feelings of White Supremacy permeate the entire conversation.

GB

 

[garybob]

Another point I tried to make is, that there are many more Non-whites that are more like "us", in the United States, then one may realize. Sadly, you probably won't believe it, if your sources of information are drinking coffee at the Café, for half the friggin' day.

GB