Sigh. And we’re on the national stage again.
“So anybody here today who has not accepted Jesus Christ as their savior…” I don’t even have to finish it, do I? We all know how that one usually ends up. In the Dexter Avenue Memorial Baptist Church—how stunningly, ironically appropriate—Governor Doctor Doctor Bentley informed all us non-believers that while he may be our governor, he does not consider us his brothers or sisters.
My brothers and sisters over at Political Wire are all stirred up by this report. Predictable comments, the kind that make you cringe, about “why didn’t we just let the South go,” etc. It hardly seems worth it to protest “Hey, I live here. We’re not all like that!”
So what’s the course for Alabamians like me, who find this kind of speech quaint at best, and abhorrent when it comes from the lips of an elected public official? Do we continue to stay here, feeling like Margaret Mead documenting the behaviors and social customs of an alien tribe? Assemble our tiny crowd of liberal friends and hope that perhaps our grandchildren will see a different Alabama (although that’s not likely since our children have all fled the state)? Or do we upturn our lives to make the difficult move to some state where a man like this couldn’t make the primary even as the dark horse that Bentley was?
This is just flat depressing. And all the outside opprobrium will just cause the “good Christians” to come together to support one of their own. If you want to feel a little worse, check out this comment at Left in Alabama.
Does it make you feel any better to read the stories about mine? (He suggested the NAACP kiss his “butt.”)
I didn’t realize you were in Maine! (Or, I didn’t remember.) My husband and I were just talking about your colorful character of a governor.
Good luck with the decision and the situation. I can only imagine what it must be like to be stuck in the rising tide of idiocy and have to persevere day in and day out.
I believe one of Governor Doctor Doctor Bentley’s campaign slogans was “Alabama needs a doctor”.
Alabama’s problems are more than skin deep so I don’t think it needs a skin doctor. Neither does it need a Doctor of Divinity in the governor’s office. We may have a Doctor of Political Dumbness. Bentley needs a podiatrist to help him keep his foot out of his mouth. Words have meanings and perception often outweighs performance in the eyes of the world.
Those who disagree can thank another doctor, Dr. Paul Hubbert, for helping Bentley get elected.
I didn’t agree across the board with Artur Davis or Bradley Byrne, but I believe either of them would have been far better than what we have now. While the AEA bears a great deal of the blame for sticking this state with Robert Bentley, it had a lot of help from the religious right (to whom Byrne pandered without result) and the Democratic Party Old Guard (to whom Davis refused to pander).
So we have four years of
Guy HuntRobert Bentley. Good thing time seems to go faster as I get older.Kathy, I think either Davis or Byrne would have been a better governor than Bentley will be, but we will only know “in the fullness of time”.
My reading of the tea leaves is that Bentley is a political naif who will be eaten alive by the usual powers that be on Goat Hill. The only thing that can possibly save him is going to be wise choices in staffing and letting his department heads and staff have an extraordinary amount of freedom in doing their jobs correctly.
I agree, Andy, but I doubt it will happen. I think he is too arrogant to even imagine that he can’t handle it.
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