The State’s endorsement generates predictable response

36 Replies

comments

The predictable response to The State‘s endorsement of Hillary Clinton began immediately. Some of the first comments on thestate.com after the endorsement was posted Saturday evening:

  • “I will not renew The State newspaper!”
  • “I refuse to do business with The State any longer. I will seek other advertising options for my businesses.”
  • “This is a complete joke. Totally false claims or twisting claims to fit your pathetic narrative. You are ‘endorsing’ a world-class liar and a crook.”
  • “Do you think I care about the state endorsement ??? No”
  • “Very disappointing to see The State justify supporting a documented liar, who destroyed evidence AFTER SUBPOENED to produce— lying to congress –and most of all —-ALL OF THIS DOCUMENTED– it is documented for all time— Hilary Clinton should be in jail and not allowed to run for office at all…. and you all know it”
  • “Article is trash”

I especially like that the last guy was so anxious to spew that he didn’t even bother TRYING to make it into a sentence, or punctuate it.

Of course, as is the usual pattern, the paper also caught hell from people who LIKED the editorial:

A surprisingly cogent and erudite endorsement from a rag that typically follows the party marching orders. While I still disagree with The State’s ultra right wing world view I must commend them for looking beyond the smoke and mirrors, ignoring the clamor from South Carolina’s neo nazi and secessionist fringe groups, and choosing to endorse someone who, while maybe was not the best candidate, is by far the best of the last two left standing. HRC was not my first choice but she has gotten my vote for 2016. 2020 may present the opportunity to cast a dfferernt ballot however.

Partisans — you can’t live with ’em, and it would be nice to have a chance of living without ’em…

36 thoughts on “The State’s endorsement generates predictable response”

  1. Mark Stewart

    The choice is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton – for President of the United States.

    Why this has befallen us is beside the point; these are the options. We vote A vs. B. It is that simple.

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    1. Kathryn Fenner

      Well, The State itself trumpets that it hasn’t endorsed a Democrat since Jimmy Carter. This includes endorsing McCain PALIN, and George W. Bush, twice.
      Not ultra right wing, but right wing, for sure.

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  3. Norm Ivey

    I shared the editorial to my FB page without comment. I received similar blowback directed at The State and at me.

    I honestly don’t grok the hatred.

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      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        Actually…

        The reason I went to look at those comments today was that the very first one I saw Saturday evening said something like “Y’all are bat crap crazy.”

        And it was from a woman. But she must have thought better of it and taken it down, because I couldn’t find it today…

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      2. Brad Warthen Post author

        Nope, wait — I take it back: She did NOT think better of it. Here’s the comment:

        bat-crap

        It wasn’t the first comment; it came later in the evening Saturday. I didn’t realize that I was looking at “most recent” when I saw it then.

        Here are some other winners I encountered while looking for it:

        • What a bunch of horse poop. Hillary CLINTON is the only hope for meaningful change in Washington? What exactly are you people smoking?
        • What change? She will follow in the foosteps of Obama, taking our country closer and closer to Socialism. If this is what you want, then vote for her.
        • This is total BS. The only place Hillary should be is in JAIL. You people at the State are libterds!
        • It’s a sure thing now, Donald Trump will WIN, The State endorsed Hillary. I remember candidates asking The State not to endorse them because The State always supported the losers. [Ummm… FYI…]
        • Have been waiting for this to cancel my subscription.
        • This was a liberal article in a liberal paper. Do you think conservatives are going to listen to this? Its absurd to tell coservatives they should vote for Clinton. Is someone else planning to write an article about why liberals should vote for Trump. No. So this is just one-sided is laughable.
        • Blah blah blah, this is why I don’t get the paper. Better check The States emails too and see if any are sent to Clinton. garbage in garbage out.
        • You Establishment scum are done! Even if Hitlery wins we real conservatives will NEVER vote for another establishment Republican so go to hell!! You have ruined our country on purpose and we are done with you.
        • Are you shitting me??? Hillary is a thief, liar, and criminal.

        Sorry about the language, folks, but hey — these are your neighbors. Oh, and this one was choice:

        comprehension

        Yes indeed. It was addressed directly, but it was hidden IN THE EDITORIAL. The old Purloined Letter ploy. Sneaky, those editors…

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        2. Mark Stewart

          I liked the “real conservatives” are done with “the establishment.

          They are entitled to their views, but not the label of Conservative. They are radicals, pure and simple. I want my conservatism back; it’s been coopted by a group that is anything but conservative.

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      3. Doug Ross

        Hillary haters on my Facebook are about 60/40 men to women. But I’d say they’re more Democrat haters than Hillary. The common theme among these women is about welfare and defense.

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    2. Bryan Caskey

      I try to keep my FaceBook account politics-free. FaceBook is my way of showing friends and family pictures of the kids, cooking stuff, and generally happy things. Politics is too negative.

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      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        Yeah… I failed to understand that when I got started on Facebook.

        I started making active use of FB at the same time I signed up for Twitter. Tim Kelly had persuaded me that I should make use of both to promote my blog.

        This is why you will seldom see me post directly on FB. All of my Tweets automatically post there — which can lead to some dissonance sometimes, because of the different audiences. (For awhile, concerned that nice friends and family members might get upset with some of the things that were automatically posting, outside the context of where I originally said them, I stopped the automatic posts. But then, concerned that I was losing too much audience because there are SO many more people on FB than Twitter, I resumed.)

        Anyway, thinking of FB as essentially the same thing as Twitter — in terms of its purpose as far as I was concerned — I just said “yes” to every “friend” request I got. And I had not a clue who hundreds of those people were.

        I finally wised up after I already had about 1,000 “friends.” I realized that FB is sorta, kinda really for FRIENDS, and family. I got really strict after that; I doubt I’ve approved five new “friends” in the past year.

        But I’m stuck with all these hundreds of strangers. I know I could deal with the situation — unfriend all those people, start a new feed that’s just for the blog and invite them all to join me there. But that just seems so, you know, unfriendly…

        By the way, when I was leaving after Cynthia Hardy’s radio show last night, I told Allen Olson — the ex-Tea Party, currently Trump-supporting guy — that it was nice to meet him, and he said he thought we were Facebook friends.

        Which, you know, we probably are. But I did not know that…

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        1. Kathryn Fenner

          I unfriended people I don’t actually know, for security reasons. I can trust my actual friends not to break into my house while I am posting photos from Germany.

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      3. bud

        I agree 100% Bryan. Other folks, not so much. Send me a friend request and you’ll be treated to my 5.75 grandkids.

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  6. Karen Pearson

    Neither side seems to have invested in any logic or even bothered to actually check out the various claims of each candidate.

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  7. Burl Burlingame

    I don’t mind when haters hate, because that’s on them. But I get annoyed when they claim the other side is far hate-ier than they are.

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  9. Doug Ross

    If Trump somehow manages to win on Tuesday, will there be as many stories written about the broken Democratic Party as there have been about the Republican Party? Republicans can overcome what looks like will be a Romeny-esque loss electorally for Trump. They’ll learn they can’t have a wide open field in 2020. Democrats though would be completely devastated. They have no backup candidate for 2020. Tim Kaine has done nothing for the campaign (one of Hillary’s tactical errors). He’s a footnote if Hillary loses. Bernie is too old. Anyone with any connection to Hillary will be toast. Who’s next? Steve Benjamin?

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    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      “If Trump somehow manages to win on Tuesday, will there be as many stories written about the broken Democratic Party as there have been about the Republican Party?”

      No. I don’t disagree much with what you say, but the problem is entirely different.

      The Republican Party was utterly unable to nominate a Republican this year. The Democratic Party functioned as advertised and nominated a Democrat.

      The GOP’s problem is existential. The Democrats’ problem is that everyone has known for 8 years that this year was Hillary’s turn, which tends to suppress the rise of other viable candidates…

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      1. Doug Ross

        If Trump loses, the 2020 candidate will likely be Rubio (unless he loses his Senate seat) or Cruz. Just need to convince the vanity candidates like Lindsey Graham to stop making fools of themselves… (well, they also do it for the campaign donations and P.R.).

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  10. Claus

    The State is read by many in the Midlands because it’s the only daily newspaper in the area. Sure there’s the Lexington newspaper which is not much better than a daily high school newspaper. If you want articles on subjects outside a 3 mile radius of the city you’re out of luck. If another newspaper were to start up in Columbia it would likely be the death of The State, but that’ll never happen because there is no money in newspaper anymore. I’m one that could care less about what the editors think, much the same way as I could care what the station manager at WIS thinks on his weekly segment. News reporters are there to report the news, I don’t need their opinion.

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  11. Bart

    The latest and last October Surprise has left me with one last wish, this election will be over at the end of the day on November 8th and we will have a new POTUS. It is my true and honest desire that the new POTUS will have a “Come to Jesus” moment and take a long hard look at what is happening in this country and will actually try to reverse course and make it a priority to bring this nation back together again or as much as it possibly can be. If either one continues down the path they are on now, the divide will grow even larger and the chasm will deepen to the point, a bridge will require a feat of engineering that will surpass all previous endeavors. If Congress doesn’t do the same and examine what is going on in the halls of our nation’s capitol, we will have nothing ahead of us but more rancor, divide, anger, and an atmosphere of negativity that will be almost impossible to improve upon.

    I am not referring to a kum-ba-ya moment, I am referring to a genuine soul searching by each one of us and to try to at least have a modicum of understanding and respect for another person’s opinions and experiences. At times I have been guilty of not trying to understand another person’s point of view and how they come to their opinions and beliefs because of how strong mine are and how much theirs conflicts with mine. Conversely, some apparently have not tried to understand my positions either.

    I don’t expect a major miracle but it would be great if we could have enough minor ones that eventually the result would be a major one.

    In closing, if the following offends anyone, please understand it is intended to be a message of peace and hope, not judgment or criticism. This is from the book of Romans, Chapter 12, verses 16 thru 18.
    16. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
    17. Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
    18. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.

    I will begin by directing this to bud. I apologize and ask forgiveness for my recent reply to your comments when I said I no longer respect you because of your comments and position on GWB among other things. And while I may disagree with what another may post, I will do so with respect and try to understand to the best of my ability the reasons for their position.

    No matter if you believe in Creation or evolution, either way, we all come from the same beginnings and therefore, we all share a common bond we cannot deny. If we cannot at least try to reconnect to each other, then by our own hands, we condemn our own humanity contribute to our losing hope for the future. We need to understand that we cannot force anyone to work together but we can do everything in our own way to try to present a reasonable effort and reason for change. We are a stubborn lot and as demonstrated by a wise individual when he or she used the illustration of getting a string up an incline. When it was pushed, all it did was fold, curl, and could not be moved without force. But when pulled along gently, the string followed without resistance. If our positions are reasonable and strong enough for the other person to follow, resistance, anger, and violence will diminish proportionately. Plus, during the process of trying to get the other person to agree, if they in turn offer reasonable and strong enough rebuttal for their position, you may change your mind.

    Please don’t interpret my comments and position as being one that does not believe in defending ourselves if faced with a potential life threatening situation or for our nation to defend against any and all aggressions by those who wish to destroy us because if we abandon any sense of defense and engage in absolute passiveness, then we invite the horrors witnessed during the Nazi horrors and the slaughter of over 25 million under Stalin in Russia.

    Thank you for taking the time to read my comments.

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    2. Brad Warthen Post author

      Thank you, Bart. We could indeed all do with a Day of Atonement, and you’ve made a good start.

      We are indeed “a stubborn lot,” or as the Old Testament would have it, a stiff-necked people.

      For my part, I ended my day yesterday feeling that I had offended Doug, and regretting it greatly — for which I am most heartily sorry….

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