Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I used the word "seems" intentionally. When economic forces prompt young people to leave rural areas for better prospects elsewhere, and deter others from coming in, those who are left will be older, less diverse, less innovative, and less dynamic than people in other places. But they will be really authentic.

Hey, square dancing wasn't authentic. It was pushed by Henry Ford so that white people wouldn't dance to black and Jewish music. But it hung around for a while and now it is authentic, right?

eta: And why stop at the 19th century? Turn it back another 100+ years -- read Pynchon's Mason & Dixon, which I'm reasonably sure is 100% authentic.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

My authentic rural America is a lively diverse place where Herman Melville tells stories out of the Mahabharata to escaped slaves on their way to Canada in a pub run by a Scandanavian immigrant Deist.

Modern rural America isn't authentic, it's a living dystopia to the authentic.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

While I think that's true, here we have Somalis who live in our "rural" cities where there are meatpacking jobs and of course there are latinx agricultural workers everywhere.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

True, I'm probably describing the American rural I'm most family with (upstate NY). Which is probably among the least diverse rural areas in the country (on par with Pennsylvania). And I'm being a bit hyperbolic in doing so.

But I wasn't talking about rural cities, whatever they are. Even Birmingham Alabama doesn't fit the model I was talking about.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

This is well put.

The implication either is that swing voters are fools with no memory or principles, willing to respond to the latest GOP talking points even when they contradict prior talking points, or that there are no swing voters, only partisans to mobilize. If the former, Democrats are suckers to adhere to principles when they get in the way of persuading swing voters. If the latter, there's got to be a way to make the GOP pay for its cynicism. But which is it?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

How did you get to attacking swing voters? I voted for W. I voted for Obama. I voted against Trump in large part because of the very issues this article addresses. I am a swing voter. By "swing voter" do you mean the legendary Obama to Trump voters?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Actually, kind of stupid.

The fact is swing voters are pretty diverse. Just as dems are and even the Rs show diversity of sorts (e.g., the Nazis, the misogynists, the Klan, etc.).

Any group that includes women leaving the Republican party out of disgust and white boys upset over Obama's election can't easily be lumped together.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I'm attacking Republicans, not swing voters. My point is that when -- as described in the piece -- Republicans change their message to whatever works in the moment, picking up and abandoning principles as they go, they're working on an implicit cost-benefit analysis, that it gets them more votes than it costs them. Setting aside the effects on Democrats, it gets them votes by energizing the base and persuading swing voters. It costs them votes by turning off either group with hypocrisy and mendacity. Either voters (including swing voters, who are the ones likelier to notice) don't notice or care about the mendacity, or there aren't enough of them (apart from you) to matter. Or it doesn't work and Republicans have fooled (or just can't help) themselves. Which of these is the answer matters lots for how Dems should respond.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Why "doesn't matter?" When did it not matter?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Why do you think Republicans behave the way described in that article? Does it get them votes? Is it rational for some other reason?

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Well the specific behavior has occurred before any election other the child creeper. Just not sure why it is assumed it doesn't matter. It might. Plus, the election was the result of third party voters, not people saying they love Trump anyway.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

I can think of many other alternatives, all likely to apply to some people.

Two of the big swings going to Democrats these days are young people and college educated people. I think both come to us because they see the party as more rational and sane as much as serving their interest. The fact that we've lost people attracted to the batshit crazy shouldn't make us forget that we get people by not being batshit crazy.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Jack Edwards, stupid Bruins homer fucking announcer blocked me. When Marchand speared someone I sent him a gif of Negan bashing Glen's skull in and asked him if it was a legal hit.

Re: Is it bad
 

Much too kind. I agree with "fucktard" as closer but we are talking about a situation where someone goes and argues a garden variety motion (in my absence doing other work) and comes out with an unrelated decision saying the equivalent of Icky has to go back to High School, College and Law School. Really that the defendant gets a do over on a month of discovery.

Re: Mother, mother, mother - there's too many of you crying.
 

Sure, but do they get more by saying whatever works in the moment?