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Go Home What's The Matter With South Carolina?

THE PLANK JUNE 15, 2009

What's The Matter With South Carolina?

BY AUTHOR INFO NEEDED

It seems that Republican activists in the Palmetto State are having some real trouble at the intersection of modern technology and retrograde sensibilities. Earlier, as Michelle noted, it was Rusty DePass joking on Facebook that an escaped gorilla was one of Michelle Obama's "ancestors."

Now, it's GOP operative Mike Green posting the following on Twitter:

JUST HEARD OBAMA IS GOING TO IMPOSE A 40% TAX ON ASPIRIN BECAUSE IT'S WHITE AND IT WORKS.

Hilarious. Something tells me that the GOP's belief that it can social-network its way back into power may be short-lived.

--Christopher Orr

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17 comments

Please tell me this is a joke.  Please tell me that this maroon isn't that incredibly stupid.  That, or he is really a paid Democratic operative helping to destroy the Republicans from the inside.

- kgrant1054

June 15, 2009 at 5:44pm

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What the...really? Geez, the Republicans really like the idea of being a regional party, don't they?

- benjamin81

June 15, 2009 at 5:55pm

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Oh, twitter.  Is there any dumbass your social networking platform won't expose?

- jhildner

June 15, 2009 at 6:04pm

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The headline reminds me of a Gail Collins quote from several years back "Half of US history is about preventing South Carolina from acting out." The joke itself is older than Strom Thurmond, and it wasn't funny even when Strom had the wherewithal to chase his secretary around his desk.

- Geoff G

June 15, 2009 at 6:10pm

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How much do you want to bet that none of this will be reported on Fox?

- blackton

June 15, 2009 at 6:19pm

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By the way, I think we should cut him some slack, I heard he was just repeating a joke his mother/sister told him.

- blackton

June 15, 2009 at 6:24pm

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JUST HEARD CANTORS GOT A BILL TO MAKE CVS MOVE ASPIRIN TO A HIGHER SHELF BECAUSE ITS WHITE AND HAS HAD UNFAIR COMPETITION FROM ITS BROWN (ADVIL) AND YELLOW (TYLENOL) COMPETITORS

- primwallflow

June 15, 2009 at 6:31pm

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It's a very old line, but South Carolinians keep insisting on proving it true:

South Carolina:  too small to be a nation, too large to be an insane asylum.

(Sorry but if you're from SC and don't like the line, put a muzzle on your "leaders".  Sheesh.)

- cspencef

June 15, 2009 at 6:50pm

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If the currency of effective governing were one-liner quips, America would indeed be on its way out of this recession.  How's the bumper sticker industry doing these days, anyway?  

- dylanposer

June 15, 2009 at 6:53pm

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Way off topic here, but I've always thought that my first and probably only million-dollar idea was the Advil brownie. Individually wrapped chocolate brownies laced with two pills worth of ibuprofen, with a glaze of frosting flavored like Advil's candy coating. Blackton, you seem to be in with pharma; can you get the ball rolling?

- rhubarbs

June 15, 2009 at 7:05pm

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Like anybody who grew up in the South, I heard offhanded racist joshing like this all the time - the difference now is (1) with Twitter etc. this shit gets national exposure, and (2) with Obama in the White House it actually has national political impact.

Truly unbelievable.

- rriley

June 15, 2009 at 7:24pm

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Mmmmm.... advil brownies.

- dylanposer

June 15, 2009 at 7:48pm

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It does seem to give the lie to the piously reiterated Republican assurance that it's not Obama's race or name that bothers them -- no!!! -- it's just his policies.

Hah!

- ironyroad

June 15, 2009 at 8:13pm

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Is it National Take a Dump on our President Day or something?.... www.thefoldblog.com/.../not-ape-but-not-any-better.html

- yasminmagari

June 16, 2009 at 12:05am

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Speaking as a native, I find this all too typical.  SC is in many ways its own little world, having never quite surmounted its historical sense of itself as only in alliance with the Union.  It also is afflicted with a political culture that actually thinks this sort of vulgarity is appropriate political discourse [see Atwater, Lee].  And, finally, SC is a place where Republicanism really has worked overtime to define itself as "white" and identify itself with the most radical Confederate aspects of the state's heritage.  And it's *worked*; a party that was still regarded as a country-club plaything when I was still living there in the 1970s is now the dominant party in a state that's over one quarter black.  Until it stops working, they'll keep doing it.

- colablease

June 16, 2009 at 9:48am

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Go to any GOP-dominated county and you'll find plenty of whites at the health-and-services building applying for food stamps and housing, with plenty of pregnant women with 2-4 kids. In fact, the only ones I've never seen in that building are Middle Easteners and Asians -- these are the ones who come to this country and open up businesses, work hard, and ask for absolutely nothing in return. More whites and others should be a hell of a lot more like them.

- kevincollins

June 16, 2009 at 10:23am

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Nothing, evidently, that isn't wrong with Tennessee, too. Perhaps eager to keep up with the racist

- Anonymous

June 16, 2009 at 10:39am

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