Changing the dynamics

I agree with Booman, if we're going to run on our hopes instead of our fears, and not accept the demands of mediocrity, we're going to have to send people like this on their way until they, not we change:

Like most people in Mingo County, West Virginia, Leonard Simpson is a lifelong Democrat. But given a choice between Barack Obama and John McCain in November, the 67-year-old retired coalminer would vote Republican.

“I heard that Obama is a Muslim and his wife’s an atheist,” said Mr Simpson, drawing on a cigarette outside the fire station in Williamson, a coalmining town of 3,400 people surrounded by lush wooded hillsides.

Mr Simpson’s remarks help explain why Mr Obama is trailing Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival, by 40 percentage points ahead of Tuesday’s primary election in the heavily white and rural state, according to recent opinion polls.

If Obama means ceding the moron vote to John McCain, well so be it. I happen to think that there are more non-morons then morons in the country, so I'll cast my lot with the former.

The Leonard Simpsons of the world and their determination to find some reason to hide racism through stupid arguments a degree of sentient thought would disabuse is both a sign of progress and a sign of how far we have to go.

But it is Leonard Simpson's duty to be less of an idiot, it is not our duty to cater to him, because he is one. From phony welfare reform to going along with military intervention to prove "I too am an badass" the Democrats need to stop being Republican-lite. In spite of the Leonard Simpsons, the nation will go nowhere by kissing their ass.

In the spirit of rugged independence, it is time for Leonard to be smarter through self-effort, rather than excusing his ignorance by saying we cannot nominate a black guy.

It's Leonard's problem, not ours. If telling ignorant bigots to go fuck themselves makes me an elitist, so be it.