T.A. Barnhart of the BlueOregon blog made the daring voyage over the hill to Bend with The Bus Project last weekend to ring doorbells for state legislative candidate Judy Stiegler, and says he saw signs of encouragement for the Democrats: Tibetan prayer flags.
“Bend in 2008 is a whole new country,” Barnhart writes. “It’s not Bend 2004: The Democrats now have a slight edge in registration, but more importantly, the issues that seem to be driving voter preferences and choices are not any different than what we find in uber-blue Portland: the economy, health care, the environment, Iraq.”
The evidence?
“Here’s what I found in the two different neighborhoods I walked this past weekend: Tibetan prayer flags and 1-in-6 voters having moved since the last election. The prayer flags were noticed by other Bus people: from tiny strings at the front door to large displays in their living rooms or on their patio, there seem to be a lot of people in Bend with a view of the world much in variance with liberal Oregon’s preconceptions [of Bend] – which, I confess, I share(d).”
The Wandering Eye has wandered around Bend a lot more than Barnhart, and we are somewhat skeptical that the Tibetan-prayer-flag vote will be enough to put Stiegler over the top against incumbent Rep. Chuck Burley.
However, we do seem to be seeing an awful lot of Obama bumper stickers this summer. And so far we have seen just one – count it, one – McCain sticker. At this point in 2004 Bush/Cheney stickers were all over the place and a Kerry/Edwards sticker was hardly to be found.
This article appears in Aug 14-20, 2008.
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Chuck has done a very good job of representing Central Oregon. He deserves to be returned to office.
Odd that Democrats, who are prone by their political orientation to embrace socialism and secularism, would have a lick of concern for Tibetans. After all, Tibet is ruled by China, which is communistic. Communism and Socialism are at the very least fraternal twins. Buddhism, though technically not a religion, has at it’s core, the quest for Enlightenment, which is reality made manifest on an individual basis. Traditionally, Democrats avoid reality like it was Ebola.
So, I don’t see what a gob of Tibetan prayer flags has to do with Democrats…
“Liberal” and “liberty” both stem from the Latin root “liber,” meaning “free.” Liberals support freedom, whether in Tibet or in America.
“Socialism” is defined as “1: any of various economic and political theories advocating collective or governmental ownership and administration of the means of production and distribution of goods
2 a : a system of society or group living in which there is no private property b : a system or condition of society in which the means of production are owned and controlled by the state.” In Marxist theory, socialism (“the dictatorship of the proletariat”) is a transition stage between capitalism and the ideal condition of communism, the stateless, classless society. The former Soviet Union (Union of Soviet Socialistic Republics) was socialist, not communist. China today is a mix of socialism and capitalism, not communism.
Democrats do not advocate socialism. No politician of any stature in America advocates socialism. But the American right wing perverts the term “socialist” to mean “any policy or program that benefits working people, especially if it does so at the expense of wealthy individuals and big corporations,” including Social Security, Medicare, the Oregon Health Plan, etc.
Thus endeth the lesson.
HBM: It is clear from your demented perversion of the truth, particularly your farcical definition of the supposed right wing version of socialism, that you lack the intellectual capacity to articulate anything remotely resembling reality. When the cup of your argument contains no intellectual water that you are capable of articulating, that inherent lack of gravitas requires you to spin and prevaricate, literally making up ridiculous propaganda as you go. If your position is righteous, reveal it. But, it isn’t, so you can’t. Do you really think people don’t see right through your wobbling rhetorical top?
Your party would benefit from a reality check. Working class whites favor McCain handily because of the elitist, socialist views of your candidate and of the Democrats in general. Blacks, the most bigoted group in our society, would vote for a statue running for office if it was painted black.
American socialism, as promulgated by the Democrats, sees our ‘salvation’ as a function of the redistribution of wealth. Take everything away from those that have righteously earned it, and give it to those that have not earned it, after extracting 50% or so for governmental waste and other inefficiencies. Democrats have failed to learn from history, including the Carter administration, that stepping on the productive does not raise the non-productive; it lowers everyone. That is not supporting freedom, as you claim, but diminishing it, a fact that many working class are picking up on. Leftist elitists, like Obama, look down their elevated noses at the working class; those “clinging to their guns and religion.”
So, cut the bullshit that Democrats are for the working class. Democrats despise the working class. The Democratic Party has been long since hijacked by extreme left wing elitists and Obama is their Chosen One.
If pure, unadulterated, poorly thought out bullshit was what it took to become President…you’d be President…for life.
I will not encourage the trolls. I will not encourage the trolls. I will not encourage the trolls. I will not …
Then why are you a troll? Then why are you a troll? Then why are you a troll?
Usually one is encouraging towards their own kind…
CT, get a frickin life already.
Yep. Obama seems to be doing well, even in far-right regions. Oregon Dems? Perhaps well enough. Bend Dems? Ha! Judy Stiegler is nice enough, but will be lucky to get 40 percent in November from an entrenched incumbent whom she’s already lost to once. Meanwhile, the Deschutes party has managed to somehow concede Ben Westlund’s seat to the Republicans without so much as a whimper. Campaign anyone? Competent candidate?
HBM: Thank you, but I already have one. It includes living a philosophy that I can articulate eruditely without resorting to lies, spin and smear. You?
CT: “Blacks, the most bigoted group in our society, would vote for a statue running for office if it was painted black.” Now, how is this comment based in truth, the opposite of “lies, spin and smear”? It’s not a rhetorical question, by the way. I’m really just confused as to how and where you get your facts? One more question, how do you define “leftist elitist”?