21 thoughts on “Poor Chris Devaney”

  1. Pingback: TNGOP Denounces Comments By Caucus Chair Turner In Open Letter To Forrester : Post Politics: Political News and Views in Tennessee

  2. If Tennessee Republicans are so free from racism, where are the black TNGOP politicians?

    Now that’s not fair…you can’t blame a club for being all white if no black people want to join.

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  4. Has Mr. Devaney looked at precinct returns in TN lately? How well does the GOP do in precincts where whites are not the majority? That would be a very good index of the appeal of GOP ideas and policies.

    Oh yeah, if he did that, he’d have to concede that the GOP isn’t all that attractive to people of color.

  7. Nope, it’s that sore feeling in that a humorless politician get in his ass after it’s just been kicked by the truth.

  9. The standard usage is equivalent to “dont get your panties in a bunch” in response to an overreaction to something, which is the same as the common(anti-gay) usage of “don’t be gay” which is the origin of “don’t get butt hurt about it”

  10. Kris, there is no way I’m taking you at your word for that. You’ve got to bring some proof of some sort. It doesn’t even make sense. Even if all three of those statements are used as the equivalent of “don’t over-react,” that doesn’t make the three statements the same.

    “Don’t get your panties in a bunch” isn’t anti-gay, right? I mean, obviously. “Don’t get butt hurt about it” is the same thing. It means, don’t go acting like you just got spanked unjustifiably. Or like you have a seat full of hemorrhoids.

    The only way what you’re saying makes sense is if there were general consensus that anal sex were painful or that being in a state of having anal sex was somehow hurtful. Those things are not true.

    I think you’re mistaken about this, big time.

  11. Everything I read on the interwebs suggest either the gay origin or an asskicking.

    To be honest, I heard (and used) this phrase alot in college and high school and amongst everyone I knew, the implication was always “don’t be gay”, in the sort of nebulously unaware anti-gay way that boys and young adults often do when connotating weakness.

    It never occured to me that it could have had any other connotation/etymology.

  12. I have forgotten the original topic of the post, but I know a lot more about ‘butt-hurt’ than I ever wanted to know :)

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  15. Bridgett,

    You are correct that Republicans do not do well in minority districts. But that does not mean Republican ideas and policies are not in the interest of minorities. After all, how many times have liberals here argued that poor whites often vote against their interests? Isn’t the same possible for minority voters? Especially when voicing opinions that are contrary to those of the power structure. And when such opposition results in being branded as a traitors and worse.

    As for the importance of voting results, if race is not a factor for the Democratic party, why do Democrats support majority-minority districts instead of just electing minorities in majority white districts?

    For example, Nathan Vaughn was elected by white Republicans three times. Where is the Democratic equivalent? Republicans were critical in electing Howard Gentry Vice Mayor of Nashville while white liberals rallied around one of their own. And the same thing was true of the last Mayoral race. The Briley rump could have taken a major step for race relations by abandoning a sunken ship and backing Gentry but they didn’t. Meanwhile no small number of Republicans supported the very qualified Gentry.

  16. But Mark, even if we take it at face value that Republican ideas and policies could be of immense benefit — the fact would then be that the Republican Party has a race problem because it cannot effectively communicate that in a way that persuades people of color to vote for them.

    Either way, not so good for the GOP when you look at the demographic predictions for the next thirty years. It’s ok with me that they are in denial about the rising importance of black and Hispanic voters, but if I were a moderate Republican, I think I’d be freaked out by their lah-dee-dah attitude.

  17. Bridgett,

    I don’t disagree that we have a race problem and that we are being driven to the extreme. But it isn’t just our problem. The same thing is going on among the Democrats since Republican weaknesses and the decline of the parties is empowering the extremists on their side too.

    Two things though:

    1) By screaming ‘racism’ at even legitimate Republican issues and arguments, Democrats make it impossible for moderate Republicans to convince our more ideological members that there is any hope in compromise. Some denouncing of illegitimate uses of the race card would make our jobs easier.

    2) If you think that requiring so many districts must have a majority of a particular minority reflects a healthy view of race in America, then Republicans are not the only ones in denial. African Americans give 90% of their votes to Democrats but Democrats don’t seem to have the confidence to end racially imbalanced districts because they believe white Democrats will vote for African Americans.

  18. Like everything on the internet, “butt-hurt” originated with /b/, and like every tumor who strolls in there and thinks he understands what’s going on, Kris doesn’t know what the fuck he’s talking about.

  19. legitimate Republican issues and arguments

    Such as…? The GOP’s biggest issue in this context is that it has been pushing destructive policies for decades and has primarily used various permutations of racial fear and animus to sell those policies to their base. The presence of the occasional Sambo or Quimbo among the GOP ranks does not disprove this, nor does occasional GOP ‘support’ for a black Democrat (who may happen to be seen as less offensive than another Democrat; e.g., recall the 2002 Democratic primary in GA’s 4th Congressional District).

    Whenever the question of the GOP’s race problem arises, it is useful to recall the words of Lee Atwater:

    Atwater: As to the whole Southern strategy that Harry Dent and others put together in 1968, opposition to the Voting Rights Act would have been a central part of keeping the South. Now [the new Southern Strategy of Ronald Reagan] doesn’t have to do that. All you have to do to keep the South is for Reagan to run in place on the issues he’s campaigned on since 1964 and that’s fiscal conservatism, balancing the budget, cut taxes, you know, the whole cluster.

    Questioner: But the fact is, isn’t it, that Reagan does get to the Wallace voter and to the racist side of the Wallace voter by doing away with legal services, by cutting down on food stamps?

    Atwater: You start out in 1954 by saying, “Nigger, nigger, nigger.” By 1968 you can’t say “nigger”—that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. And subconsciously maybe that is part of it. I’m not saying that. But I’m saying that if it is getting that abstract, and that coded, that we are doing away with the racial problem one way or the other. You follow me—because obviously sitting around saying, “We want to cut this,” is much more abstract than even the busing thing, and a hell of a lot more abstract than “Nigger, nigger.”

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  21. To be fair, Democrats used to push progressive and constructive policies (e.g. FDR’s New Deal and LBJ’s Great Society), only to compromise and sabotage them in service to conservative ends.

    Lately, Democrats (e.g. Clinton and Obama) all too often push destructive or counterproductive policies and try to sell them as progress or benefits to the public good.

    In either case, especially the latter, it’s not like the GOP has ever offered constructive alternatives. And the Dems’ reward for repackaging conservative policies is either a massive smear campaign or an increasingly hostile and racist public tantrum.

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