“Blue Ice” is a term for the frozen effluvia from lavatories that sometimes drops from airliners. Often onto red flyover states. States like Texas. It’s also dropping from the comments on some diaries here on Kos and, maybe, just maybe, there’s some correlation between the gleeful flushing of the lavs in the Kos comments and the abysmal lack of Democratic traction in these “Red” states. For example, a diary from November 30th, “Texas Republican Wants Secession Resolution on Texas GOP Ballot” www.dailykos.com/... elicited a blue feeding frenzy, making it quite clear that Texans, well, just aren’t quite the thing, darling:
Walls on the north, south, east, and west. They can wall off their conservative paradise like a giant Branch Davidian complex.
Can’t we just ship them to Somalia and be done with it? The climate is similar, as is some of the government… I can’t stand Texas government as it gives Wisconsin’s current goobers something to aspire to…
STOP THREATENING AND GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY COUNTRY
“first, put them through an 18-24 month immigration vetting process because we don’t want any of those domestic terrorists crossing the border and threatening our way of life.”
“But! But! There are a lot of Democrats in Texas and they’ll turn the state blue any day now!”
**(sometime around 2095 at the rate they’re going but that’s just my guess)
There are some sane and good people in Russia, too. That doesn’t mean I want it to be part of the United States.
Go ahead and secede — you’ve been a drain on the nation’s pocketbook for too long anyway. I’m glad I got out when I did.
Good riddance! That gets rid of Cruz, a lot more crazy tea baggers, lots of nut case Republican/tea bagger Congressional members and a real drain on this country. We should never have made them a state in the first place. It will be interesting to see the immigration of Texans to the U.S. Should we let them in???
Side note—this diary was drafted on November 30th, but it wasn’t until the next feeding frenzy occurred, 4 days later, that I abandoned my better judgement and posted. I don’t have the energy to list a representative sample of the new comments, which are basically the same old comments.
In fairness, there were some kind, supportive and well-reasoned comments. Several. But…let’s continue:
In the 2012 presidential election 41.35% of Texans voted Democratic. There are approximately 13 million registered voters in Texas. That gives us approximately 5.3 million potential Democratic voters here. I’d flirt with hyperbole and say that these Democratic voters are being treated somewhat like Syrian refugees here on Kos, but we’ve apparently already been consigned to Somalia. I hear the climates are similar.
One of the commenters from Texas used the term “blue paradise” (which I promptly stole in the first paragraph of my diatribe—thanks!). Dems in Texas don’t live in that blue paradise, we live on the front lines. We’re dealing with HERO, and gay bashing in Dallas, and Big Earl’s in East Texas. We’re dealing with the Debbie “terror-tots / no-piddle” Riddles, the Gregg Abbotts and the Ted Cruzes. We’re dealing with open carry nitwits loitering around mosques and a Who-Does-Jesus-Hate megachurch in every square mile. But this is our home. We’re not leaving. They’re not driving us away. Come and take it, mofos. We’re fighting. Some wins, some losses, but we’ll continue to fight. And we’re winning. We have blue lillypads of sanity here now, and they’re growing. You want a good job, you want to live in a nice area: you live in a blue lillypad and the law says you learn to play nice in the sandbox. Even the great white republican north of Dallas, Plano, is reluctantly joining the new millennium and is even showing a bit of rainbow. HERO isn’t dead. Go to Transgriot to see the new ads. Dallas doubled down on equality and won’t be a pushover for the same douches that lied to the voters in Houston.
I’m used to getting hit with the spittle from some republican mouths as they limbloviate about what an idiot, traitor, dupe, heathen, pervert and probable communist I am. What sucks is the disdain from people who should know better. Our people. My people. The same people who exhibit empathy and compassion in the comments of one diary become Transylvanian villagers with torches in a diary about one of the battles we’re fighting in Texas.
So, this local yokel from a flyover state has a probably ignorant, or at least coastally-unsophisticated rhetorical question: why so much anguish, perplexity, bafflement and angst about why Dems don’t have traction in the flyover states? One cause is obvious. Even to me: Contempt. For the 5.3 million of us here in Texas. Contempt for the Dems in Alabama, in Arkansas, in Oklahoma. And it’s not just the Dems, it’s the people who voted Dem, the independents, the crossovers. There are real people with real issues in the predominantly republican, predominantly rural areas. The folks there are getting squeezed. Badly. They’re in trouble and they’re looking for a way out. They’re not all dupes and many, even by blue paradise standards, are intelligent, educated and even sophisticated. Some, even though they know they’re outnumbered, go to the polls and vote Dem. Some vote republican—yes, some probably because they’ve got their hate on, but others because the republicans have a message. Sometimes wrong, sometimes abhorrent, but it’s something. The Dems have written them off. Clearly. They’re simpletons. Nothing more than targets for blue ice.
I submit that a little nuance wouldn’t be a bad thing here: All Syrian refugees aren’t stealth terrorists. All Texans aren’t sociopathic dolts. All flyover state inhabitants aren’t ignorant rubes. All rural voters aren’t racist dupes. Even those that vote republican. The Dems will continue to write off the flyover red states, and voters, at their peril. And, meanwhile, Kossaks of the Texan persuasion will continue to dodge the Kosian blue ice.
