We have so many insightful and powerful diaries written here at Daily Kos. Within these passionate, informative and entertaining diaries are many strong voices and an even stronger will to promote progress in this country.
It's these voices, their knowledge and perspective, their personalities and humor, that we seek to share with you every night in Top Comments. Some comments the diarists pick. Other posts are nominated by your fellow Kossacks at topcomments at gmail dot com.
And we always welcome your participation - as a reader, as a nominator, or simply as a new and valued voice in our conversations.
On September 21, 2007, comedian Harry Anderson (of Night Court fame) opened the world premier of his one man show, ‘Drowned and Quartered” at the Playhouse of Furman University, in Greenville, S.C. We were fortunate to be in the audience on that occasion, to witness his remarkable show about the tragedy of New Orleans during and following Hurricane Katrina. He stayed in the City for that event, and in the weeks and months following that, he hosted town hall meetings in his nightclub, trying to help the citizens cope and deal with their experiences.
During the show he told us that he would usually begin the meetings by telling a joke. One of those jokes stuck with me, and I want to share it with you, tonight.
As a comedian, Harry Anderson loves jokes of all kinds, but one kind of joke, the ‘ethnic’ joke, always seemed to offend at least some people. Never one to accept that that’s the way it HAD to be, he decided to make a joke about a minority absolutely no one belonged to, a group of people he called Kleathans. (He did not spell it, that is my phonetic rendition of the name, which I googled first to make sure there was no such ethnic group.) He asked his fellow town hall participants if any of them might actually be Kleathans, and when they all answered in the negative, he smiled triumphantly, since he could tell his ‘ethnic’ joke without offending anyone of that ethnicity, and said, as best I can recall: “Well, great!”
And then he commenced with his new Kleathan joke.
“Okay, two black Kleathans walked into a bar ... “
Upon hearing that I had an experience I’ve never had before or since, of the feeling of my drink spewing out my nose when I hadn’t been drinking anything at all. I was that taken in by his deft misdirection. Harry Anderson is a magician, alright. ;)
So, why was I thinking about Kleathans tonight? Because I was thinking about differences between Republican political campaigns and ours. Almost invariably their campaigns include options to ‘kick’ a minority. They kick citizens of color, they kick women, they kick the poor and destitute. They kick gays, lesbians and the transgendered. They kick citizens wishing to exercise their right to reproductive choice. They LIKE kicking people, and they like even more playing on the desires of others to kick others. They play on fears to get people less inclined to kick others to overcome those inhibitions. They almost always positively reinforce kicking behaviors (unless it is a Republican paying a price for an error or an indiscretion or a terrible decision).
Of course, conservatives have not cornered the market on Schadenfreude (German, for the human tendency to find joy at someone else’s misfortune). We see it in liberal circles as well. What we don’t (usually) see is Democratic campaigns or policies or platforms which consciously seek to exploit the electorate’s desire to kick someone. So tonight, to illuminate how conservatives do this, I was thinking we could create a campaign targeting Kleathans, and their rights.
But now I would just ask you to think about the politics of ‘kicking’ others, about the cowardice which underlies it, the political dishonesty. Conservatives are handicapped, in voting terms, by the fact that no more than 5% of the people can be among the top 5% of the most wealthy citizens in the country. That isn’t enough to win elections. They need voters who will ignore their self-interest long enough and consistently enough to vote for Republicans. Where can the necessary voters come from? Clearly, from the ranks of those who like the idea of kicking others, of having that activity enabled and reinforced by political power.
For many, it seems, it is less important how little control you have over your own life, as long as you're given disproportionate control over at least one aspect of someone else's. As when, for example, you can see to it that they have fewer rights than you do when it comes to insignificant things like marriage, reproductive choice and rights like those. Schadenfreude is good, but far better if you can yourself be a factor in the 'other's' misfortune. This is one 'opportunity' Republicans give.
On to tonight’s comments! :)
From roses:
fedupcitizens' response to cynic's comment announcing a new child diary for the Sotomayor confirmation hearings concisely expresses the frustration anyone watching has been feeling.
(And thanks for all you do, TC team!)
From
jtb583:
I want to submit this hilarious comment from pdrap. Double entendres get me every time. It is from electronicmaji's diary on how the British campaign to encourage teens to masturbate is being criticized.
From
willb48:
In comments on A Siegel's diary, the3Cs brings up a problem with offshore drilling. Then, Gooserock's reply offers reassurance.
My picks:
Guppy points out one of the many problems with Session's unique brand of hypocrisy.
This fine comment by BardoOne epitomizes the heart-filled support one can find at the Grieving Room, in last night's diary from Randomfactor.
Dump Terry McAuliffe provides tonight's baseball update.
Top Mojo, excluding the tip jars and usual high mojo comments:
1 Whitehouse continues to be a leader... by curtisgrahamduff - 190
2 Dear friends, nothing in my life has . . . by nyceve - 190
3 Yeah, well, that's your problem: by RickMassimo - 171
4 A wet smelly mop would be an improvement by on board 47 - 169
5 Senate Majority leader? by Wary - 168
6 The Sooner the Better by JekyllnHyde - 138
7 To paraphrase Dean Wormer of "Animal House"... by Vtdblue - 131
8 "Post-Racial America" by JekyllnHyde - 127
9 But the best line has to go to Sen. Durbin (D-IL) by dmhlt 66 - 118
10 Session's office hung up on me by bob zimway - 111
11 COMMUNITY TRAFFIC by ezdidit - 107
12 The "Gentleman" from Alabama by JekyllnHyde - 97
13 I'm with the mop! by Mikey - 91
14 Jeebus H. Christ on a bike by Dallasdoc - 88
15 Just when you thought it was over... by Troutfishing - 85
16 Huge new endorsement for SINGLE PAYER! by Andiamo - 83
17 So sorry I can't be there, Eve by Dallasdoc - 79
18 Eve, I only wish that I was near DC. I would be by Cassandra77 - 79
19 No- Court Martial; the only way to deal with this by patriot spear - 79
20 Oh. snap. by cskendrick - 79
21 Fabulous catch! by glower - 79
22 I'm your handy man by Debbie in ME - 77
23 Talking Points Memo Has The Vid by Nulwee - 76
24 Willie Mays on Obama's election by John Campanelli - 76
25 dishonorably. by gooners - 74
26 Daily Doll - Chantilly Kitteh's Growing by funluvn1 - 72
27 All the Outrage In the World Won't Matter by bink - 65
28 This one's been busy by mlharges - 65
29 love the spelling and grammar errors by terrypinder - 64
30 I wish Don Siegelman would get by pattisigh - 64
31 It takes so long to get humiliated via youtube by Minerva - 64
Top Mojo, everything included (of 24861 comments in the past 24 hours)!
1 Tip Jar by Upper West - 701
2 Tip Jar by Old Redneck - 657
3 Tip Jar by nyceve - 459
4 Tip Jar by buhdydharma - 358
5 smie-automatic tip jar by teacherken - 284
6 Tip Jar by bobswern - 282
7 Please rec this up by Adam B - 269
8 Tip Jar by RogerShuler - 247
9 Tip Jar by slinkerwink - 242
10 Tip Jar by Troutfishing - 225
11 Tip Jar by billmon - 193
12 Whitehouse continues to be a leader... by curtisgrahamduff - 190
13 Dear friends, nothing in my life has . . . by nyceve - 190
14 Yeah, well, that's your problem: by RickMassimo - 171
15 A wet smelly mop would be an improvement by on board 47 - 169
16 Senate Majority leader? by Wary - 168
17 The Sooner the Better by JekyllnHyde - 138
18 Tip Jar by dday - 137
19 Tip Jar by St Louis Woman - 133
20 To paraphrase Dean Wormer of "Animal House"... by Vtdblue - 131
21 "Post-Racial America" by JekyllnHyde - 127
22 Tip Jar by it really is that important - 125
23 But the best line has to go to Sen. Durbin (D-IL) by dmhlt 66 - 118
24 Session's office hung up on me by bob zimway - 111
25 COMMUNITY TRAFFIC by ezdidit - 107
26 The "Gentleman" from Alabama by JekyllnHyde - 97
27 Tip Jar by FleetAdmiralJ - 94
28 1 by Al Rodgers - 92
29 I'm with the mop! by Mikey - 91
30 Thank you for being here to honor by blue jersey mom - 90
Please add your own choices, below! :)