Thomas Mitchell: Artifact of a bygone era
Sam Hart
2010-04-19 21:00:57I just read something that I couldn't quite believe. In an editorial "blog" posting, Las Vegas Review-Journal editor Thomas Mitchell wrote some of the most idiotic things I think I've ever attempted to read. What I can't quite believe about it is that he meant what he wrote to be serious....
In his post, Mr. Mitchell says it's time to repeal the 19th Amendment (you know, the one that gives women the right to vote) because he claims that women are "fickle and biased". To back up his claim, he points to some poll results in his newspaper and draws some very bizarre conclusions based upon these results.
In all honesty, I can't completely grok the nonsensical bullshit he's trying to say. Somehow, he is trying to claim that because women in one poll preferred one candidate higher than they did in another poll, and because women tend to be Democratic nationally, that means they are biased and fickle... Or something... His post makes about as much sense as the ramblings of a schizophrenic homeless person claiming that the NBA is trying to steal his brain....
Since his argument is so confusing and bizarre, I've attempted to summarize it more succinctly in this image:
What's really funny about all of this is that if you actually look at his logic it betrays his own personal biases (as well as how he perceives men's biases in general).
Men favored the attractive former beauty queen Sue Lowden over the graying Harry Reid by 22 points, while women shunned their gender mate, choosing Reid by a 2-point margin. Which proves women favor Democrats.
In the same sentence he says that Sue Lowden is an "attractive former beauty queen" and that Harry Reid is "graying". No sir... no bias there.
Before this post, I've never heard of Thomas Mitchell (well, other than the actor), and I'd never heard of his paper. But apparently, the Las Vegas Review-Journal is the largest daily newspaper in Nevada. And apparently Thomas Mitchell has a long history of blogging about crazy things filled with suspect logic on their site.
Thomas Mitchell also has a nasty habit of unintended irony. Like in the post above where he claimed women were biased and then exposed his own bias. Or when he said how useless bloggers are in reporting the news ...in his own blog post. The guy apparently is a walking talking douche-bag.
The thing is, Thomas Mitchell is a soon-to-be-extinct dinosaur... And somewhere, deep in his heart, he knows this and it scares him. In fact, every conservative knows this, and it's why they are all screaming at the rest of us.
The trend in young voters (the so called "Millenial generation") is towards a more progressive political ideology. This upcoming generation espouses many progressive ideas such as supporting gay marriage, supporting a global multilateral foreign policy as opposed to pure military strength, and promoting human rights as a part of US foreign policy.
Meanwhile, the right-wing in this country is predominately... well... old.
The average Faux News watcher is in their sixties. Forty-percent of tea-party supporters are aged 55 years and and older. Conservative radio dominates the AM band, but how many twenty-to-thirty-somethings actually listen to the AM band?
Conservatives are just getting older, and there are fewer and fewer young conservatives to replace them.
So, yes, let's deny women the right to vote, Mr. Mitchell. After all, they disagree with you politically, so they must have some sort of mental damage, no? What's next, Mr. Mitchell? How about let's deny black people the right to vote because they tend to vote Democratic? Oh, I know, how about upping the legal voting age to 55, so that you can more completely control the electorate with your myopic newspaper?
Oh, while you're at it, let's go ahead and rename "sauerkraut" to "liberty cabbage"... you know, like they used to call it in the Good Old Days.