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NASCAR Cost Republicans the 2006 Election

By Robert Lipsyte, Tomdispatch.com. Posted November 20, 2006.


There's a curious link between the Democrats' victory on November 7 and the end of the NASCAR racing season.

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1. It's the Car, Stupid

"I hate that term, NASCAR Dads, it's narrow and patronizing, but it's about time Democrats showed some sensitivity to the stock car culture." -- David (Mudcat) Saunders, political consultant.

The Democrats won the Senate and the House because the Republicans lost the garage.

Four years ago, mad political scientists created Nascar Dad to combat Soccer Mom. The result was as epic as Beowulf versus Grendel's Mother. We know how both those battles came out. And now we also know that Nascar Dad, like the great Scandinavian mercenary, began to wonder if he was protecting the right mead hall.

Like Beowulf, Nascar Dad may be a fiction. Nascar itself denies having any stereotypical fan, while encouraging the idea that it is a political player. Larry J. Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, described Nascar Dads as "middle-to-lower-middle-class males who are family men, live in rural areas, used to vote heavily Democratic but now usually vote Republican." Most political experts more or less agree with that description, although political consultant Mudcat Saunders adds that Nascar Dads are often suburbanites who are "rural-thinking" about religion, patriotism, hunting, and fishing.

One of the sharpest thinkers in Nascar Nation, H.A. (Humpy) Wheeler, president of the leading North Carolina track, told me back in 2003, "They liked the President's Top Gun performance, but they're not so gung ho anymore on Iraq because this is the crowd that joined the National Guard."

That turned out to be a distant early warning.

Nascar Dad still voted for Bush and Republicans in 2004. Among other reasons, as many Nascar Dads told me then, they thought that Bush was more "manly" than Kerry, whom they despised as the patronizing snot who had been putting them down since grade school.

Republican attitudes toward evangelical Christianity, unashamed commercialism, guns, the environment (racing cars still use leaded gasoline), and diversity (the Nascar garage is overwhelmingly male and white) seemed a perfect fit with Nascar values. Nascar supported Bush financially and courted his attention through its ruling family, the Frances. They have owned and operated the sport since 1947 when promoter Big Bill France whipped a brawl of hot-headed former moonshiners into a confederacy called the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. His son, Bill, Jr., and now his grandson Brian, extended his vision brilliantly, signing record TV deals. They did it with racers that sort of looked like everyday street cars, but weren't, and they held onto their southern hardcore while reaching out to markets in California and the Midwest.

I remember thinking -- in the years I actively covered Nascar -- that one of the most telling differences between my subjects and me was that they knew more people on active military duty than people in same-sex relationships.

That was still true this month, and that's why the Democrats won.

2. Dale Died for Our Sins

"You might be a redneck if you think the last four words of the national anthem are 'Gentlemen, start your engines.'" -- Jeff Foxworthy

On the final turn of the last lap of the 2001 Daytona 500, the first and most celebrated race of the Nascar season, Dale Earnhardt, Sr. slammed into the wall near where I was sitting. I can still hear the frantic voice of Earnhardt's crew chief calling to him through my radio scanner: "You okay, Dale? Talk to us, talk to us."

Minutes later, a blue tarp was thrown over that famous black #3 Goodwrench Chevrolet. It was my first race and I didn't understand the full meaning of the blue tarp until I heard the air whoosh out of 200,000 chests and people around me in the press box begin to cry.

The clash of reactions to Earnhardt's death -- Oh, God vs. So What? -- was a signifier of America's cultural divide. There were millions of Americans who barely knew what Nascar was, who thought of it as numbing Sunday afternoons of gas guzzlers mindlessly snarling around a track while rednecks got hammered. But there were also millions of Americans who built their family vacations around those races and their buying patterns around the products advertised on their favorite cars. Nascar claims some 75 million fans and, by some measures of regular season TV viewership, it is second only to pro football as a national sports pastime.


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Robert Lipsyte, a former sports and city columnist of The New York Times, was a finalist for the 1992 Pulitzer Prize in commentary. He won an Emmy as host of "The Eleventh Hour," a nightly public affairs show on WNET. He is most recently author of the Young Adult novel, Raiders Night. His website is Robertlipsyte.com.

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"sport"
Posted by: rsaxto on Nov 20, 2006 1:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Car racing is the silliest and most anti-environmental "sport" in existance. Like war, it does more harm than good.

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» More than that Posted by: fifthworld
» RE: More than that Posted by: willymack
» RE: More than that Posted by: rsaxto
» RE: "sport" Posted by: Unk
Name one that isn't...
Posted by: Earthie on Nov 20, 2006 3:44 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
All sports are silly and anti-environmental.

I suppose you could make a case for kayaking and canoing (until you factor in the manufacturing process of the boats and the gas to get to the water) or backpacking (if you carry an organic backpack and also hike to the trailhead).

So all you're really talking about is degrees of silliness and anti-environmentalism, right. You may be right in your assessment of NASCAR being the "most", but your condemnation should extend to our entire American culture (and perhaps to humanity as a whole). Maybe NASCAR could develop a "Prius Cup Series".

I once heard someone explain the difference between and a "developer" and an "environmentalist" this way, "The environmentalist already owns a home by the lake".

Bottom line? We could all do more to reduce our silliness and anti-environmentalist behavior. (I used organic electrons for this message)

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» RE: Name one that isn't... Posted by: VisionQuest
» RE: Name one that isn't... Posted by: buggernaut
» RE: Name one that isn't... Posted by: gjones
» I LOL'd Posted by: buggernaut
» Sailboat Racing Posted by: Sparks56
No arguing with success
Posted by: oneyedjack on Nov 20, 2006 4:20 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
There's no arguing with success, and NASCAR is a huge success, but then, so are those "pay for view" WWF RAW things as well as a the contests between two guys locked in a cage fighting.
Christians and lions was a big success also, many centuries ago. Violence, psuedo-violence and all of the attendant atavistic ramifications of that cultural aspect of our society permeate just where we are as a nation.
I could care less about a bunch of testosterone fueled man-boys driving around in circles for a few hours and just why does AlterNet feel that this is a story?
Perhaps if we (as a country) spent more time honoring the art of peace, we might just spend less time paying misguided homage to the culture of violence.

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» RE: No arguing with success Posted by: Rungle
» No arguing with success Posted by: patvic1405
Great article
Posted by: Camin Harner on Nov 20, 2006 4:25 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Sports is serious stuff, one of the more culturally central ways in which we work through such issues as competition, teamwork, losing with dignity, ambition, pride and humility, and what it means to be a man (or woman). I'm glad to see a perceptive, sympathetic look at the values of NASCAR nation. Thanks.

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» RE: Great article Posted by: symcokid
Hillbilly Racing
Posted by: colinmeister on Nov 20, 2006 4:38 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I find Nascar to be a boring spectacle, with rules designed to dumb down automotive technology. Nascar is a strictly American sport, with little or no following anywhere else in the world.

Some motor sports are worthwhile. Formula 1 pushes engineering technology to the limits, and encourages original thinking, and as a result is the most watched sport in the world.

The hillbillies can have Nascar, since they seem to be fascinated by a pack of similar cars going round in circles, with any innovation banned by new rules every time a team makes its car faster than the others.

It comes as no supprise that Nascar hillbillies support Bush, but if they looked a little further, they would realise that support for the party which backs the unions which makes the cars bearing the names of the cars raced in Nascar might not be a bad thing for their sport.

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» Bigot misses the point entirely Posted by: fifthworld
» RE: Hillbilly Racing Posted by: Thud'nBlunder
» RE: Hillbilly Racing Posted by: Thud'nBlunder
» RE: Hillbilly Racing Posted by: Poe
» RE: Hillbilly Racing Posted by: Bibs
Timothy
Posted by: CSDS4949 on Nov 20, 2006 4:47 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Some things are just plain wrong. Associating God with sports is one of them. How can anyone think that wealthy men driving around in a circle for hours-on-end somehow glorifies God?

The South has real problems with its culture. If only they had the capacity to look these problems in the face. Nobody needs to apologize for finding Jesus = NASCAR as evidence that southern culture is contemptible in the extreme.

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» RE: Timothy Posted by: bigpeach
» RE: Timothy Posted by: edith
» RE: Timothy Posted by: Bibs
Big Waste of OIL
Posted by: psyopswatcher on Nov 20, 2006 5:14 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Glad to hear this...

Wouldn't the patriotic thing have been to put a moritorium on NASCAR until this war is over because of all the fuel wasted, fuel that we're going to war over. It's a blatant advertisement of how frivolous Americans are with fuel usage.

But no, Jr. said to 'go shopping'. Keep consuming like there's no tomorrow. Keep running around in circles while your fans get shipped off to their deaths to fight for the American Way of Life.

Completing the circle with that never-ending need to waste more oil.

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what we have here
Posted by: xenacat on Nov 20, 2006 5:24 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
is a bunch of elitist Repubs co-opting a backwater entertainment for the greater glory of keeping themselves in power. What better way to do this then claim car racing makes one more "manly"? This is Dubya's faux machoism at work, folks. Actually, who gives a damn about this outdated form of masculinity? Only the folks who are insecure about themselves and there are plenty of them around - propped up by extreme religion, phony patriotism and poor economic conditions.

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» RE: what we have here Posted by: psyopswatcher
» RE: what we have here Posted by: xenacat
» Bingo Posted by: fifthworld
» Did ya even read it? Posted by: harpy
» Listen Herpy Posted by: fifthworld
» RE: Listen Herpy Posted by: KiplingKat
thank you
Posted by: SekhmetsatRa on Nov 20, 2006 5:30 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
my grandpa was a nascar mechanic in the 60s and early 70s... thank you alternet for showing the sport in a neutral way, even if these others don't get it. for me, it is a way to remember my family.

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» RE: thank you Posted by: psyopswatcher
» RE: thank you Posted by: harpy
This is a sport? or Entertainment?
Posted by: Ellie1 on Nov 20, 2006 7:17 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
I could never figure out the attraction of watching a bunch of cars go around in circles. Sort of like a dog trying to grab its tail. But then, I have believed for the past 6 years that there is no underestimating the general intelligence of the American public. At least the 50% who vote Republican. Or is it down to 38% now? Only took the idiots 6 years to figure out they were being lied to. DUH!!!!!! Go drink your beer and watch cars go in circles, you f'in idiots.

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Wow, what a patronizing, ridiculous load of rhetorical...
Posted by: ABetterFuture on Nov 20, 2006 7:46 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
...fluff.

The author had me at Beowulf v. Grendels Mom (in the number 4 car), but lost me at:

Among other reasons, as many Nascar Dads told me then, they thought that Bush was more "manly" than Kerry, whom they despised as the patronizing snot who had been putting them down since grade school.

Perhaps alternet has become a viable place whereby folks can work through their personal trials. Hey, if it helps the author, that's great; I think the world could use a few less therapists.

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It isn't just the NASCAR folk responsible for the GOP losing
Posted by: dikaiosyne on Nov 20, 2006 8:06 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
The reason that the GOP lost this election is that they lost their bearings on what it means to be a Republican. They spent like Democrats, they acted like Democrats and they talked like Democrats. Add this to the unpopularity of the ersatz conservative President Bush and it isn't hard to know why they lost. They aren't conservative enough for the base and the independents like myself. The best thing that could happen is the shellacking they took Nov. 7. Should they realign themselves with conservatives and talk and act like conservatives they will win in 2008. Otherwise they remain the minority party at least through the 2010 cycle. At the moment it isn't looking too good for conservatives with the election of Mel Martinez to RNC chair (illegal shamnesty promoter) and Boehmer (sic) as minority leader and Trent Lott as the minority leader in the senate. As a hardcore conservative I'm not especially enthralled with the choices of party leaders. Mostly because they represent in my view more of the status quo republicanism we've experienced these last 2-4 years. Its still early though and they just might change the course to the winning strategy that got them in power in the first place. We'll see.

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Think that NASCAR's "real"?! Try Formula One!
Posted by: monkeywrench on Nov 20, 2006 8:48 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
From the article:
". . .I brimmed with admiration for Nascar drivers who drove fifty miles per hour faster, while being rubbed and bumped by forty other cars.

"I also appreciated the passion of their fans who clearly understood the realness of this sport, its danger, its demands for concentration and skill, and -- compared to the insecure faux macho of so many "stick-and-ballers" -- its…manliness."

Therein lies NASCAR's problem: its idea of "manliness." Don't get me wrong, I like auto racing. A lot. But my interest runs to another REAL form: road racing, the kind spawned not from moonshiners but on European road circuits. This form of racing accentuates driver skill at negotiating a road course, where there are 10 or 12 different corners and you actually get to turn right – not a driver's ability to bump another car and punt it off the track and into a wall. And, the skills that drivers need to succeed in much-faster Formula One racing puts NASCAR to shame. The other difference is that in Formula One and other forms of road racing, deliberately knocking another driver off the course and endangering his life is illegal, and will get the offending driver banned. In NASCAR, it's considered entertainment.

As bad as I feel for Dale's death – and I do – he died as a result of what he had been doing to every other NASCAR driver for years. It's interesting that in the testosterone-and-beer-soaked world of stock car racing, this fact has been overlooked. NASCAR has been dead last in instituting virtually all of the safety improvements now standard in other forms of racing, 'cause they ain't MACHO.

Frankly, I find it a lot more interesting to watch drivers negotiate a complicated road or street course over watching the combination circular drag race and demolition derby that is NASCAR. No wonder Europeans think Americans are mostly ill-educated, unsophisticated, cheap-beer-swilling oafs. Thanks in part to NASCAR, they have a point.

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» Try Formula One! Posted by: YogiBear
fograker
Posted by: fograker on Nov 20, 2006 8:56 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As a transplanted southerner, I remember there wasn't much more to do in the country than drive a car fast, especially if you were a testosterone-laden young boy. By the way, wasn't it the moonshiners that began the sport of car racing? I also used to think that car racing was idiotic. However, my sweet, smart son loves it and his family makes a day of watching Nascar, popping popcorn and having quality family time. When Michael Moore's film Fahrenheit 911 first came on the scene, I read where Dale Earnhardt, Jr., took his crew to see it. I decided to start watching Nascar to see for myself and to feel closer to my son and grandson. I'M HOOKED! Instead of watching news reports of all the people killed today, I can watch a competition where skill and luck combine to offer an edge-of-the-seat excitement. Are sports and competition bad? Aren't they actually outlets for testosterone? Isn't Nascar a better alternative than war? Plus, I admire the athletes. The good ones are usually courageous. Whether rock-climbing or playing bridge, games and competition are healthy in my mind.

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» Yep, Prohibition Posted by: karma_ran_over_dogma
» RE: Yep, Prohibition Posted by: Bibs
hyperbole not withstanding
Posted by: lonl1 on Nov 20, 2006 8:59 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Lipsyte makes two very valuable points for progressives: 1) Republicans lost a lot of Nascar dads because the Nascar dads knew from friends and family in the military that the war is not a valid exercise of their own interests; 2) while Republicans and right wing religionists have been very good at co-opting white working class families ("Nascar dads" for short), this is now being weakened by what I would describe as ruling class pursuit of imperial goals in the Middle East.

Anyone who is serious about progressive change in the US needs to realize that the objective interests of the "Nascar dads" are directly opposed to those of the reactionaries (Democrat and Republican) who have been successfully coopting them. It just won't do to sniff at the cultural differences (which Lipsyte alludes to quite effectively) between "us" (the progressives) and "them" (the working class).

Lipsyte, a reporter of the old school, realizes - apparently from actually spending time with them, novel idea though that may be for too many of today's "reporters" - that any number of working people are highly thoughtful and highly capable of carrying out the projects they, themselves, are concerned about.

It's precisely the thoughtful, capable working people that progressives must win to actively opposing the imperial project if we really want to have a prayer of changing anything. Let's not allow our own intolerance to be a hindrance to finding some common ground here.

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» Withstanding hyperbole. Posted by: ABetterFuture
» Wonderful Posted by: harpy
A hillbilly's viewpoint...
Posted by: Handyman on Nov 20, 2006 10:54 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
As lonl1 posted above: ''1) Republicans lost a lot of Nascar dads because the Nascar dads knew from friends and family in the military that the war is not a valid exercise of their own interests;''

Finally, a comment from someone astute enough to grasp the salient point of Lipsyte's observations!

I'm a Tennessee hillbilly myself. And though I have absolutely no interest in circle track racing (no matter how upscale it has become), I know these people, ...hell, my brothers ARE these people. Disparaging their interests, and even intelligence, as some commentators above have done, is not a smart way to to convince them that the Progressive viewpoint has validity toward their own lives. That is one of the failings of the Progressive movement in the South.
I understand the tendency of people to ridicule those who have differing interests (or cultures) from their own. In fact, my brothers find it incomprehensible that I will take a week off from work to follow the Tour de Georgia around the state on my own bicycle.
But though we have wildly divergent concepts of what constitutes ''recreation'', that doesn't mean we can't find common ground on issues that truly affect ALL of us, ...issues such as the Iraq fiasco, affordable health care, job outsourcing, environmental degradation, etc., etc. As George Lakoff notes, we Progressives just have to pay attention to how we ''frame'' those discussions.
I think Lipsyte did an excellent job of putting the ''NASCAR dads'' into perspective in this respect.

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UNITER
Posted by: larry278 on Nov 20, 2006 11:08 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
NASCAR fans like us boxing fans might come to find that this writer will make our brutal & dangerous sports understandable to the pseudo-intellectual.

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Recommended reading
Posted by: aida1200 on Nov 20, 2006 11:39 AM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
/i/St. Dale/i/, by Sharyn McCrumb

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» Sharyn is a great writer. Posted by: harpy
lack of political astuteness
Posted by: Edward Abboud on Nov 20, 2006 12:59 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
This article is about as useful as the drivel about the Dixie Chicks and Madonna having impact of the elections, and panders to the illegitimate connection between mainstream media and the 'faux' alternative media, like Alternet.

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Article hits the points
Posted by: harpy on Nov 20, 2006 1:34 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Contrary to some posters' views, the article hits several good points on the Nascar and the Southern attitude. Nascar fans are spread all over this country, and come from all over the spectrum as far as wages go. Unfortunately some posters, who would never (openly) dream of spouting hateful, inflammatory rhetoric about any other racial, religious, or regional group, seem to think it's perfectly fine to display such bigoted attitudes towards Southerners or "hillbillies" as one poster hissed. Nascar and racing are nothing new, and no more silly than most other sports. The writer of the article, who initially had the "snot-nose" attitude of some of the posters, progressed in his views when he actually took the time to get to know the people he was writing about, and found out they weren't such in-bred idiots after all. Think Andy Griffith or Dolly Parton here, just because somebody doesn't hail from Wall Street doesn't mean they don't know when they're being insulted or that they don't have a brain. (Those two "hillbillied" themselves all the way to the bank.) His major point was that the ratio of military families in this "working-class" sport is high, and when the truth of what was really happening hit home, those votes turned from red to blue. Would that so many who consider themselves liberal had such an open mind. After all, that used to be the meaning of the word, open to others ideas or actions without harsh judgment. You do your thang, I'll do mine, we'll see eye to eye some of the time.

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Uhm, I think there are a lot of assumptions...
Posted by: KiplingKat on Nov 20, 2006 4:09 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
both in this article and the comments here.

There is some condescension in the article, some assumption of the typical NASCAR fan type. Southern California is home to off-roaders and street racers, not moonshiners, and they still pack the 100,000 plus stands at Fontana twice a year when NASCAR comes to town.

There are a lot of different people coming to the races now.

And there are a couple places where the author is flat wrong or misleading. For one thing, the amount of air pollutants dumped into the environment by a weekend of NASCAR races is a minute fraction of the pollutants dumped into the air during a single morning commute in the greater Los Angeles area. To level the charge of anti-environmentalism is unfair. There are many drivers that belong to hunting clubs and support conservation efforts through those outlets. Ward Burton has created an entire charity to buy up land in Virginia to save it from development as well as educate children in conservation.

Another misleading fact that leapt out at me was the charge that NASCAR did not institute the use of restrictor plate until after Dale Sr.’s passing, which is untrue. Restrictor plates came into use in 1988, the year following Bobby Allison’s frightening leap into the stands at Talladega. Had it not been for a security fence holding on by a hairsbreadth, dozens of people, if not hundred or more, could have been injured and killed.

But in many ways, I thought he did have some valid points. For example there were many safety issues that NASCAR had been avoiding. The year before Earnhardt passed, two other drivers Adam Petty, the 19 year old fourth generation hope of the Petty family, and Kenny Irwin, Rookie of the Year and longtime friend and on-track adversary of Tony Stewart, both died in on-track incidents. It wasn’t until Earnhardt died from a wreck that looked to the observer to be survivable that NASCAR began to take action. So some of his conclusions are valid.

But is the over-all conclusion valid? That NASCAR fans lost faith in the war because their family and friends are experiencing it first hand? I don’t know. It maybe so but I don’t see the author providing any proof of that beyond Humpty’s quote. Perhaps more time should have been spent researching what NASCAR fans actually thought and voted rather than making abstract analysis of the sport itself.

One good point that one of the commentator’s makes (and you do have to wade through some ignorant crap to find it), is that the reason the Democrats took the Congress is because the Republicans have ceased to be true Conservatives. Add to that the hypocrisy of a “Moral Majority” party whose members are mired in scandal after scandal and one can see why most Conservative Americans turned from them. I think it would be useful to conduct more research into what NASCAR fans were actually thinking when they voted to see what that part of America wants from it’s government, to teat it as a microcosm of American voting, but I find this article a little rushed in it’s conclusions.

As for those that "don't understand the appeal of watching cars go in circles all day", I don't understand the appeal of the Food Network, QVC or Antiquing. To each his own, don't be judgemental. It's a fun sport that once you understand what is actually going on, can be incredibly engrossing.

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» The humility of Dale Jr. Posted by: YogiBear
» RE: The humility of Dale Jr. Posted by: KiplingKat
» RE: The humility of Dale Jr. Posted by: KiplingKat
Mah_favorite_flavor_cherry_red
Posted by: YogiBear on Nov 20, 2006 8:11 PM   
Current rating: Not yet rated    [1 = poor; 5 = excellent]
Pfizer, which sponsored the Viagra car, used to set up a tent at racetracks offering blood and urine exams by local doctors for diabetes and other disorders. I sat in one day and was amazed at the number of overweight men and women with dangerously high glucose and blood pressure levels. For many of them, this was their only medical exam of the year. Some said they had made a choice between their medicine and their grandstand tickets. "Why live if you can't go racin'?" was the way they'd put it.

Some of the Pfizer docs thought that they were making an understandable -- if regrettable -- "quality of life" decision.


There's a subtle message that the author may be missing here when he states that some fans only make it to one or two events in a season, and may never make it to the doctor.

Why is it that they can't afford to do both? Why is the visit to the doctor, and the tests (don't I know about paying for labwork without insurance!), are so cost prohibitive?

Kudos to Pfizer for helping those people out, but Pfizer of course, is part of the big pharma and health insurance monstrosity that supports legislation aimed at preventing affordable health care in the U.S. And by supporting the GOP, and to a lesser extent, values-oriented Democrats, and hating Hilary Clinton and other social welfare Democrats, all these morally-inclined good fans of NASCAR are valuing themselves right out of their rights to a longer life.

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Just had to say I LUV IT!
Posted by: liberal is good on Nov 21, 2006 8:00 AM   
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Bottom line? We could all do more to reduce our silliness and anti-environmentalist behavior. (I used organic electrons for this message)

That is very funny. I needed a good laugh.
Right back at ya with organic electrons!!
the serious answer comment to come next. Not - so - organic.

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Bush never was the 'manly' guy.
Posted by: liberal is good on Nov 21, 2006 8:29 AM   
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" they thought that Bush was more "manly" than Kerry, whom they despised as the patronizing snot who had been putting them down since grade school. "

Yea and now they know that “patronizing snot” would NOT have killed their fathers, mothers, sons and daughters in a war for oil. so they voted on some emotional 'manly thing' instead of the facts. Then Bush, Rove, Cheney, Rumsfeld did their 'manly' thing & fooled them into thinking that they would run the government on the values of their followers, yea they knew the values but it would be a cold day in hell before they ruled by them. It's just scam a giant political scam worked by a few ideologues and it was made possible by the silence of the party. Party before People always in all-ways that is the republican mantra and has been.
Bush acted like John Wayne in a bad western. Kerry he acted like a man a human being who stubbled on his words. But when the Roves and Bush's of the world get those “nascar” guys by the emotional balls.... no truth is heard... 'til it's too late

I have no problem with conservative people, some of my family is. I may even have a few similar political opinions. No not really. Its just that they insist that we all follow their belief system not embraced by most people. They take the gay issue personally. Why does someone in Tennessee give a damn what two people in San Francisco are doing in the privacy of their own home. I just ask them what would Jesus do? That puts their knickers in twist!! We love God, we love Jesus but we hate gays, women who want to use birth control. We will not allow women to make personal choices about their bodies, and we sure as hell won’t support the little bastards we force them to have.
But we love God, we love Jesus. Hallelujah.

How about we make a law about men who rape women? Cut off the D*** simple, right? Why should they have control of their bodies and not women? I think I heard an audible gasp!
According to these radical beliefs, if a women dies giving birth too bad.... they say 'save the baby', they say... the husband doesn't get to say, or the woman, or her mother.... not one family member, NO some jackass politician like Bush. Sorry these guys are nuts! It's the cars that go around and around in a circle... continuously, does something to the mind, around and around......and

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NASCAR SADs
Posted by: TruthBeTold on Nov 24, 2006 5:02 PM   
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NASCAR Dads saw George Bush, a man who was to chicken to actually fight in a war, as more manly that a man who did? And they are angry because some Kerry types put them down in grade school? They would really go ballistic if they knew what I thought of them. Try self centered, self-serving Neanderthals. And so what if a few of them joined the National Guard. This is the only job many of them could get. They sure did not do it to serve their country or because they are especially patriotic. Why are thousands and thousands of these idiots sitting on their sorry butts watching cars waste gasoline going around in circles? If they really were all that patriotic, they would be in Iraq relieving the soldiers who are on their second, third or fourth rotation.

Educationally, it is no wonder many foreign countries are so far ahead.

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Question is
Posted by: Mr. Heathen on Nov 25, 2006 1:20 AM   
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Why does every cultural activity Americans engage in have to involve such huge commercial enterprise?
Do we need companies like Ticketma$ter to give these activities legitimacy?

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Amerika, She is Over
Posted by: mn on Nov 25, 2006 10:25 PM   
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Put a Fork in Her...mandersonation.blogspot.com
M.N.

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NASCAR F.A.G.s
Posted by: ShrubtheWarcriminal on Nov 26, 2006 6:00 AM   
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So the NASCAR clan:

" ... thought that Bush was more "manly" than... (take your pick of a wimp to insert after "than")

and they formed a group called F.A.G. ("Fans Against Gordon (F.A.G.)."

and most are Repukes...

That kind of says it all...

Talk about winners and LOSERS!!!

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Confounder
Posted by: UP58 on Nov 26, 2006 7:41 PM   
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OK, all you raving ranters, stuff your stereotypes! I have a Ph.D., I was raised in the urban northeast, I am a lifelong and proud liberal, I have followed ML baseball since I was eight, I am female, and I LOVE NASCAR! I am continually amused by all you folks who think you are so emancipated and insightful but are always so ready to stereotype anybody and everybody.

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» RE: Confounder Posted by: Bibs
» RE: Confounder Posted by: BazookaTooth