Dear American Friends, why do you elect these people?
 

:shock:

Jon Hubbard, Arkansas Legislator, Says Slavery May 'Have Been A Blessing' In New Book

Well, he probably wont be in office for very much longer, soooo.... You can't know everything about someone when they get elected. Some people are very good liars. Maybe some Arkansas curlies can chime in about this dude.

Sometimes their true colors don't come out till after they are elected. Occasionally idiots like this get through.

I don't.

Slavery was a blessing...? I don't even have the energy to be angry at that. Let me work through my incredulity first.

Ugh, don't rub it in! We try so hard not to :(
(elect them, that is)

The Republican party has been trending this way for quite some time. The right wing of the party has been working to expunge the centrists to purify the party, and they've pretty much succeeded. There don't seem to be any centrist Republicans anymore on a federal level, and very few on state levels. A lot of really crazy extremists got during the 2010 Tea Party takeover. Unfortunately, he's not the only one like that in office.

I don't recall voting for this guy. Oh, that's right; I didn't. It's awesome that every single Canadian elected to public office is a fine upstanding citizen but that's not the case in this country. I can own a lot of things, but some random racist elected to the Arkansas state legislature isn't one of them.

Rou, I'm sure this never occurred to you because I don't find you to be a mean person. However, threads like this one are offensive to me.

Agreed. Laying the election of people like this on all Americans is ridiculous and offensive.

rou, you act like we don't elect idiots in Canada. The Conservative party has had plenty of racists, sexists, homophobes and other clowns over the years, and there are several in office now. I point you to Jason Kenney and his war on immigrants, Vic Toews and his tough on crime crap, Jim Flaherty and his assaults on unemployed persons, all the recent abortion nonsense that's been going on.... I feel like you're so overly concerned about Republicans in the country to the south and not about the fools we have right here.

In general, there are a lot of Canadians who like to be superior about politics and politicians, but if we ever had that moral high ground, we've lost it. Yes, we have better social structures in general but this current gang of thieves and crooks has nothing to do with it and is doing their best to dismantle them and be just like the republican party.

At least this guy knows slavery existed. How many Canadians even acknowledge that we had it right here, or that we have race problems too?

oh they aren't - the party that is currently governing us is comprised of a bunch of right-wing idiots.

but our prime minister is a control freak who is pretty good at keeping his minions shut down.

and there's the side show that is the mayor of Toronto and his brother the co-mayor...

I find it odd that you can't acknowledge that others find your continual posting of threads like this to be offensive. I gave you the benefit of the doubt but now I'm not sure that was the right thing to do since you obviously read my post and basically disregarded it.

Except he's not keeping them shut down when he agrees with and authorizes what they are doing (the new immigration policy, new EI policy, revisions to the citizenship code, online spying law, tough on crime omnibus, attacking the UN...) not to mention shutting down debate in Parliament....

I do not find Rou's political posts criticizing the USA to be offensive. I think Americans should know how we look to outsiders...which is pretty damn stupid for allowing these radical religious nuts to steal our country. It's embarrassing, for sure, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't face it. Putting our heads in the sand and getting mad at citizens of other countries for holding up a mirror so we can se ourselves won't help us.

Rou, please keep holding the mirror. We obviously need it.

That's fine for you but it's not for me. I read that article well before Rou posted it and I was disgusted by it. But am I embarrassed on behalf of this loser in Arkansas? Nope. My impression is that the words Rou chooses paint all Americans with a broad brush. This isn't the first time she has done it either--it's been going on at least since I joined the board 10 years ago.

I agree that the US is not above criticism - notably on foreign policy and social infrastructure. But I also think that we in Canada have plenty of radical religious right-wing nuts of our own, and while perhaps the ones in the US are worse, the US doesn't have the market cornered. I wouldn't have a problem with rou's posts if they had more of a flavour of "listen up, US, your wignuts are influencing ours - they look up to you and want to be just like you so we both need to stamp this out", but her posts on US politics have rubbed me the wrong way for a while because they SEEM to come from a superior standpoint as if Canadian politics is all hunky-dory or has only minor problems. We need to be just as vigilant about this stuff here where we can do something about it as we do in pointing out the faults of others that we can't control.

I didn't say anything because I thought I was the only one or maybe reading into it the wrong way, plus I know rou is a nice person and I didn't want to hurt her feelings, but it is getting a bit much to see all these gleeful comments about US politicians when our own idiots are working my nerves every day. It annoys me that some Canadians are more informed about politics south of the border than here.

You say you aren't embarrassed, but you certainly seem bothered by Rou's observations. I think we (Americans) are all represented by all our politicians, and this is indeed what we look like to the outside world, and we would be wise to notice it and do something about it. The takeover of the American Republican party by religious fundamentalist right-wing extremists has been going on for over 10 years (actually more like 30 years)...so I don't see that as Rou's fault.

But the point being missed is that they're also exporting their brand of politics around the world and especially to their closest neighbours, who are sitting there too complacent to notice.

Speak for yourself. I can hold up my own mirror just fine. I don't need the superior Canadians telling me slavery is bad.

I was speaking for myself. That's why i used all the "I"s.