Eternally Hateful

by Molly Ivors

(at right: Maureen Does Morgantown)

Of all Maureen's poses, the ones where she attempts to capture The Spirit of the Heartland© are perhaps the most annoying. Face it, Maureen: you're a Feng Shui-living Manhattanite with 100 pairs of shoes and the best dye job your inexplicably large paycheck can buy, which is to say: still a dye job. You have no secret window into the souls of West Virginians to determine why they vote as they do, and should not pretend to. Your interest in Appalachia is anthropological at best, and shoehorning it into the predetermined narrative you've constructed about the Democratic primary is unfair, belittling, and snide.

Now that we've got that out of the way: today's outrage. You will recall that when I last checked in on MoDo, she was working her "Hillary is a sympathetic truck stop waitress who, like Peter Quincy Taggart, will 'never give up, never surrender'; Barack is a girly man who can't drink beer properly and disdains all this running for office shit as beneath him" angle. The skeevy "if he can't beat a girl, he can't beat a war hero" gong was being banged theatrically, and she was slipping in comments about Bill Clinton's libido at every opportunity. (If only, if only, Bill had turned his attentions to MoDo, perhaps we would have been spared all this.) All caught up? Okay.

In today's outing, we learn that Barack Obama lost West Virginia because it's a state filled with racist, stupid rednecks who must be lied to before their votes are purchased, and Obama doesn't play that way.

Charlie Peters, the legendary former editor of the liberal Washington Monthly who ran Jack Kennedy’s campaign in Kanawha County, W. Va., said Obama should study how J.F.K. managed to win there despite raging anti-Catholicism.

(My father, in West Virginia once on business, found his car had been flipped over by some locals furious about a sign on it supporting the first Catholic Democratic nominee, Al Smith.)

..........

J.F.K. bought affection in West Virginia. “The boss of Logan County said 35,” Peters recalled. “He meant $3,500, but Kennedy thought it was $35,000, so he gave him $35,000. They put out all this money and they carried the precincts.” (Hillary has been using street money more than Obama, though it is unclear how much it has helped.)

West Virginia loved F.D.R. “because the Depression had been very tough for them and F.D.R. was kind to them,” Peters said. (On my father’s trip, he was threatened by a man who asked him about “rumors” that President Roosevelt was in a wheelchair and threatened to thrash any man who said so. My dad, a detective who served on protective details for F.D.R., assured the ruffian that Roosevelt was “a fine, athletic man.”)

Much can be explained about MoDo's worldview, I think, when she mentions her Kennedy Democrat/Reagan Republican father, who I'm sure was a fine public servant and all that, but who clearly inspired Freudian issues in his little girl at which Agamemnon would cringe.  See, you have to lie to the rednecks, because  they're dumb and deserve it. Or something.

The framing here allows her to hit the trifecta: slamming Obama (he didn't try in WV!), Clinton (she lied and bought the rednecks off!) and West Virginians, in one fell swoop. From a purely technical angle, it's compelling stuff, but of course to admire it, one must close one's eyes to the pernicious effects of all this bashing.

Possibly, just possibly, West Virginians voted for Hillary because she is slightly to the left of Obama on domestic issues. Or because they like her health care plan. Or because West Virginia is a state which fought hard to establish its unions, and unions are one part of the Dem coalition generally (though of course not exclusively) behind her. Or maybe it's none of our goddamned business why people vote as they do.

I happen to think that Clinton should step out at this point, not because she's so far behind (she isn't), but because the money spent now will be needed in the fall. It's strictly economic. I'm not pleased with the way her campaign has been run, and I'd cheerfully lock Mark Penn and James Carville in a 55 gallon drum together for a good decade as punishment. She's a better candidate, and would have been a better president, than these yahoos communicated. And for that I'm sad and frustrated.

But none of this really has any impact on the sheer coastal snobbery of Maureen Dowd. Her "Obama is a girly man" schtick is of noble and ancient vintage, but it may just have turned to vinegar at this point. Use it on a salad, Maureen, not on us. We know this election is too important to be subject to your bullshit analysis.

Comments

[Ralphie]

Good post, as usual.

[DrDick]

Speaking on behalf of the world's anthropologists, please quit maligning our profession. Unlike MoDo, we generally like and care about the people we study. MoDo's interest in West Virginians, or anyone else outside the Manhattan elites, is that of an entomologist viewing a particularly noxious species of bug.

[rea]

Freudian issues in his little girl at which Agamemnon would cringe

I'm not sure I follow you--are you suggesting that MoDo would murder her mother to avenge her mother murdering MoDo's father and sleeping with her uncle? And why would Agamemnon cringe rather than approve?

[Molly Ivors]

MoDo's interest in West Virginians, or anyone else outside the Manhattan elites, is that of an entomologist viewing a particularly noxious species of bug.

I accept this as a friendly amendment.

And rea, I am referring more to the Freudian concept of the Electra Complex, though obviously Freud is misreading the Oresteia somewhat to arrive at that.

[Hogan]

If only, if only, Bill had turned his attentions to MoDo, perhaps we would have been spared all this.

But it's oddly heartening to realize that he draws the line somewhere. I'd always figured he'd fuck an alligator if someone would pull its teeth. Knowing that he has some standards makes me like him a little more.

(Reading your posts almost makes me wish Dowd wrote a column every day. Almost.)

[Gummo]

As ever, Molly, thank you for reading MoDo so I Don't Have To.

[Gummo]

As ever, Molly, thank you for reading MoDo so I Don't Have To.

[madamab]

Molly - Don't worry, HRC has $24 million banked for the GE. No reason for her to drop out.

Thanks for a great MoDo post as usual. My personal favorite part was the beginning:

In grim times, a bitter Hillary clings to bitter voters who in grim times supposedly cling to guns, religion and antipathy to people who aren’t like them.

Mining that antipathy, the New York senator has been working hard to get the hard-working white voters of hardscrabble Appalachia so she can show that a black man can’t yet be elected president.

We've got laughably poor writing in the first paragraph...and offensive, plucked-directly-from-her-ass assumptions in the second. Yes, MoDo, HRC is in the race solely to prove that Americans are racist. Awesome insight, darling!

She really is in a (lack of) class by herself.

[Molly Ivors]

madamab,
I'm actually thinking more of all those small donors, who I would not want to get tapped out now.

[madamab]

heh. I'm not - I'm saving for the GE.

I hope others are doing the same. :-)

[Soprano]

I'm confused. How can Obama be a girly-man if he's a scary Black man? Is it the half-white thing? I'm so confused.

[Bitter Scribe]

At least MoDo tried, in her patented roundabout way that passes for cleverness, to acknowledge that racial prejudice is the main reason W.Va. wasn't fertile ground for Obama.

[Captain Goto]

I'm with Bitter Scribe. As Blue a place as WV is, I can't imagine that "Hillary luvs her some unions" can explain a margin that big over another Dem. Not that I give MoDo much credit for that; it's sort of obvious.

[camelot]

It sickens me that I know people who think Maureen is a feminist and a liberal. (She writes for the liberal NYT, don't you know?)

[ThresherK]

Nailed it.

I'm someone who didn't have to look up "On The Town" (either play or movie), and MoDo is one of us.

[rea]

Freud is misreading the Oresteia somewhat to arrive at that

Well, now I've looked it up and see what you mean. But it's not Freud's fault--Jung came up with the name "Electra Complex". Freud hated it, and insisted on using the term "Feminine Oedipal Complex."

[noblejoanie]

Molly, digby joins you in taking MoDo to task in her latest post: "Minitruths" And Big Lies.
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/

I'm sure Paul Krugman has a list of subjects he hopes to cover in upcoming columns: health care, climate, peak oil--you know, matters of public interest which require some research and thought, for which his writings might actually advance the debate.

Then I try to imagine what Dowd has on her future column/ to-do list. Jeesh.

[ajay]

Speaking on behalf of the world's anthropologists, please quit maligning our profession. Unlike MoDo, we generally like and care about the people we study. MoDo's interest in West Virginians, or anyone else outside the Manhattan elites, is that of an entomologist viewing a particularly noxious species of bug.

Speaking as a former entomologist, I would like to protest about this mischaracterisation of entomology. Even the most noxious bugs have their interesting and even appealling features - otherwise we wouldn't be studying them. It's perfectly possible to spend years fascinated by the behaviour of cockroaches, for example.

[theperilouspea]

Psst ! Maureen will be very interested that her gentle waves of insane give rise to such purple prose's of her Majesty . Her Royal arthropod crows magnum

[fahey]

First thanks for smacking Modo.
Hillary would have won West Virginia without the racist vote so this is correct for some of her voters...
Possibly, just possibly, West Virginians voted for Hillary because she is slightly to the left of Obama on domestic issues

But 20% of West Virginia whites say race was an important factor in their vote. Poll result here
These were the ones that were proud enough of their racism to state it publicly. Others might be a little shy.

[Molly Ivors]

It's perfectly possible to spend years fascinated by the behaviour of cockroaches, for example.

Consider, for example, my extended study of Ms. Dowd.

fahey, go bother someone else.

[Dan]

Maybe the gong isn't what needs to be banged theatrically.

[fourlegsgood]

Yes, Modo sucks, but she lives in Washington, DC, not Manhattan.

Has for many years.

[Mo MoDo]

fourlegsgood beat me to my point. Dowd is a a Feng Shui-living Georgetowner. Not hard to fact check, she's in the phone book and her house has been featured by Oprah.

And while the liberal/scary black-guy versus All-American slghtly senile war hero battle is just beginning, Obama's past will become a bigger issue. I don't know whether it was intentional or not, but Dowd's column mentions Barry sinking an "eight ball" which could be a subliminal drug reference.