Old Virginia
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In Defense of White Americans
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 25, 2008
*****
Frank Rich's complaint about Republican appeal to "real Virginia", is simultaneously A. not sharp enough; B. not sensitive enough.
A. In logical terms, the charge should bring a counter-charge, in kind. Official political application of a common term to only a preferred fraction of those it rightfully designates, on the basis of considerations opposite to the common ground of reference -- real Virginian citizenship -- is a self-condemning misuse. It is a text-token reversal; the meaning contradicts the name. (Pivoting off an inserted approbative, like "real", "true" "patriotic".)
This condensation is useful, because text-token reversals illustrate a self-contradiction in their users; guilt for dishonoring the approbative. In other words, Anti-Virgian; Anti-American; anti-Patriotic applies to their linguistic hijackery. Rich needs to face that. There can be no unity and no bipartisanship with self-haters. They have made reconciliation logically impossible by their sign use.
Second: What of old Virginia? One can see F. Rich's soul sweating not to show blackness, defending us old White pot bellied geezers from all that. But no thanks, yankee. "I'm not fighting for the Confederacy," Lee said. "I'm fighting for Virginia." I don't think a lot of the Time's readers can understand what that might still mean, and I don't mean "macaca", but it can mean "not Obama" without being racist. Frank Rich seems to have little grounding in what it is to be American. I wonder what he did during the Vietnam war.
And with McCain/Palin demonstrably anti-American, that leaves the text x token Square, American's America, vacant.
— Sid Thomas, Binghamton
http://community.nytimes.com/article/comments/2008/10/26/opinion/26rich.html?oref=login#postComment
In Defense of White Americans
By FRANK RICH
Published: October 25, 2008
*****
Frank Rich's complaint about Republican appeal to "real Virginia", is simultaneously A. not sharp enough; B. not sensitive enough.
A. In logical terms, the charge should bring a counter-charge, in kind. Official political application of a common term to only a preferred fraction of those it rightfully designates, on the basis of considerations opposite to the common ground of reference -- real Virginian citizenship -- is a self-condemning misuse. It is a text-token reversal; the meaning contradicts the name. (Pivoting off an inserted approbative, like "real", "true" "patriotic".)
This condensation is useful, because text-token reversals illustrate a self-contradiction in their users; guilt for dishonoring the approbative. In other words, Anti-Virgian; Anti-American; anti-Patriotic applies to their linguistic hijackery. Rich needs to face that. There can be no unity and no bipartisanship with self-haters. They have made reconciliation logically impossible by their sign use.
Second: What of old Virginia? One can see F. Rich's soul sweating not to show blackness, defending us old White pot bellied geezers from all that. But no thanks, yankee. "I'm not fighting for the Confederacy," Lee said. "I'm fighting for Virginia." I don't think a lot of the Time's readers can understand what that might still mean, and I don't mean "macaca", but it can mean "not Obama" without being racist. Frank Rich seems to have little grounding in what it is to be American. I wonder what he did during the Vietnam war.
And with McCain/Palin demonstrably anti-American, that leaves the text x token Square, American's America, vacant.
— Sid Thomas, Binghamton
posted by Sid Thomas | 5:55 PM
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