Lynn Westmoreland: Everything’s Better When it ‘Sits on a Ritz’ September 5
DOH! Everyone says something stupid sooner or later, it’s the curse of the error-prone connection between the human brain and mouth. When the average person tastes gritty shoe leather in their pie hole, they stop, apologize, and everyone moves on.
But politicians aren’t like you and me.
Take the case of Georgia Rep. Lynn Westmoreland who was quoted in The Hill as saying (ungramatically), “Just from what little I’ve seen of her (Michelle Obama) and Mr. Obama, Sen. Obama, they’re a member of an elitist-class individual that thinks that they’re uppity.”
Now pretty much everyone who has lived in this country since Reconstruction knows what the word “uppity” means in this context. But despite being a life-long resident of the racially-charged south, the good representative from Georgia seemed clueless. At this point, even David Duke would’ve had the good sense to say, “Oops, bad choice of words. Sorry.”, but Representative Westmoreland is apparently thicker than an unappolgetic Klansman. He charged on, offering no apology, and confirming he actually meant to use the word.
This isn’t the only time Westmoreland has gotten a mouthful of his size 10 wingtips. Stephen Colbert once challenged him to recite the 10 Commandments at a time when Westmoreland was pushing for The Big 10 to be posted on every flat surface in the Capitol. Let’s just say he’s apparently as clueless about his Bible as he is on the English language and racial issues.
I suppose Westmoreland could be being truthful. He could be a vacuous idiot when it comes to his word choices - God knows his main man President Mushmounth is. Or he could be an unrepentant racist who’s too chickenshit to admit it to the world. Like they say, the only thing worse than a racist is a pusillanimous racist. But let’s give him the benefit of the doubt.
I think there’s a word that describes him perfectly whether he’s a simple-minded fool or a racist. I want to be careful to select the correct word to avoid any misunderstandings. I wouldn’t want to offend him.
Let’s call Lynn Westmoreland a cracker.
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Charles Sep 6
As someone who also grew up in the segregated South, I can assure you that Westmoreland is indeed a cracker and absolutely knows what “uppity” means and meant to use the term.
Now there is a sort of “moderate” Democrat running against him with a decent background, a guy named Stephen Camp. While Camp is far to the right of what I would deem acceptable, at least he is not a racist cracker idiot like his opponent.
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Nunzio X Sep 6
What’s incredible to me is how the word “elitist” has come to mean “well educated, intelligent, well-spoken, thoughtful” and perhaps “aware of things in countries other than the US, and impressed by those things.”
It shouldn’t be only the “elite” who exhibit those qualities, it should be the majority of people in this country.
It’s also laughable that almost everyone who utters this word is, by the usual definition, elitist themselves.
greensweater Sep 8
Uppity: adj. arrogant, presumptuous. Does this word have racial connotations not obvious to non-Southern US people?
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