Monday, February 13, 2006

Ethnicity's a construction, not an inheritance, but...

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Normally, when playing the music(s) I play, when someone asks if I'm from that music's ethnic community, I'll say "no," because I know the music demands learning and discipline, not a simple genetic inheritance. But when old-school conservative James Webb says that the Bush-lite Republicans have "lost the Scots-Irish", I might cop to that appellation:

These are the "red state" voters. They are family-oriented, take morality seriously, go to church, join the military, and listen to country music. They strongly believe that no man is obligated to obey the edicts of a government that violates his moral conscience. They once formed the bedrock of the Democratic party -- from Andrew Jackson until Vietnam -- but have been moving to the GOP ever since. In a recent Wall Street Journal article, Webb called the Scots-Irish in America the "the secret GOP weapon."
The only one of the above that even remotely fits me is "no man is obligated..." But I'll add to the above that persons of Scots-Irish character, even if not ethnicity, don't suffer chickenhawks gladly:
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Any one of my barefoot, claymore-swinging, horse-thieving MacGregor and Orr ancestors would have kicked the shit out of these cowards on general principles.

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