For years, Dave McArdle loved dressing up as Andrew Jackson, and visitors to the Hermitage delighted in McArdle’s folksy way of bringing "Old Hickory" to life. McArdle is also the spitting image of Jackson, and we cast him as Jackson in our film. But just after we finished shooting, startling news arrived: McArdle had resigned from the job he loved — the job for which he was seemingly born — because he refused to work for an organization that made Jackson look bad because he owned slaves. Soon after, we found out that McArdle held something close to the majority view in Tennessee. No more Excuses Carl Byker
This is one of the three reasons I am still holding hope for Hillary. Sure Tennessee is part of the Old South which a Democratic Presidential candidate cannot win no matter, but this racism – oops wrong word, there is no racism anymore the GOP has changed the name for it to nativism now – spills over everywhere to various degrees which leads me to sadly believe The Bradley Effect is in full swing in this election. White Americans may say they will vote for an African American, but when they hit the voting booths they won’t. My other two issues are that Hillary will do a much better job of the long overdue ass kicking the Republicans are so in need of, and my fear of some unknown issue in the past that will rear its head after the convention and knock Obama out making John W. McBush President. There is nothing new about Hillary, and NEW sells.
If you have been reading this blog over the months I hope you have taken note that I have not attacked either candidate, or any Democats for that matter. The bottom line is that I tend to believe that the so called unlikeable Hillary factor is less a problem than our historic racist nature. Please please prove me wrong come November…
Perhaps white Americans should ask themselves: "What would it have been like to work 365 days a year from sunrise to midnight, with no hope of a better life? And to see my children living exactly the same nightmare."
And perhaps black Americans ought to ask themselves: "If I were a white Southerner before the Civil War, would I have owned slaves if it meant a better life for my family? And would that have made me irredeemably evil?" No more Excuses Carl Byker
And that is the gist of our racist nature. Byker is referring to what is called empathy, or what over the years I have called the POV gene (point of view). Though no Republican possesses the genetic material to put themselves in another’s shoes and ask such questions, it too drifts beyond the GOP base.