I don't write them, I just pass them along and bask in the afterglow.
Studies show they're dying off.
This LBJ quote came to mind.
The context of one of the most famous statements on race ever attributed to President Johnson, an off-the-cuff observation he made to a young staffer, Bill Moyers, after encountering a display of blatant racism during a political visit to the South. Moyers tells it in the first person:
We were in Tennessee. During the motorcade, he spotted some ugly racial epithets scrawled on signs. Late that night in the hotel, when the local dignitaries had finished the last bottles of bourbon and branch water and departed, he started talking about the racist signs. “I’ll tell you what’s at the bottom of it,” he said. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.”
In the blunt vernacular that he loved to use, LBJ was describing what the television pundits of today would probably call the politics of resentment and divisiveness. It is still very much with us.
I wonder why I am totally unsurprised by this finding.
Interesting. My thinking is not so much the policies of democratic regions compared to policies of republican regions but it has more to do with the lifestyles and life choices of dems vs repubs.
It's lifestyle. I was absolutely stunned when I first parked in the Midwest. Back before Hurricane Katrina. Fast forward to leaving, coming back, twice, and I'm still stunned.
It took me a year to get a dentist to tell me exactly why there are "same day denture" clinics all over this state. Mt. Dew, sweet tea and methamphetamine. His exact explanation.
Then the longer I was here, I learned he was right. Guns, God and obesity.
Given the humidity, I get that exercising outside, such as on the West Coast, is a BAD idea (we're 95° and 89%humidity today) 🥵🥵🥵 but you can pick the lifers here just by appearance, and I'm not kidding not being mean. It's just the facts. The lifestyle here is seriously frightening. And if you're not one of them, they make it known that they know. It's bizarre.
@SeaGreenEyez Born and raised christian conservative in the midwest. I know it well. At least we've got air conditioned gyms for those of us that like to stay in shape.