Dave “Mudcat” Saunders Is An Idiot And No Democrat Should Hire Him
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In an interview with the London Times, political consultant and apparent snake oil salesman Dave “Mudcat” Saunders says the following:
“The Democrats talk of tolerance, but in reality the only tolerance they ever exhibit is for their own intellectual arrogance — and they don’t have tolerance for my culture,” says Mudcat. “They think we’re a bunch of hillbilly heathens who go out and burn crosses and do crazy bullshit. “
The article is accompanied by this picture:
Do you see, perhaps, why some of us may see folks like Saunders as knuckle-dragging dumbass hillbillies? The confederate flag is a flag flown in support of slavery. There’s not really any way around that. You can go on at length about horsepuckey “southern pride” or whatever the b.s. du jour is, but at its core that flag stands for fond memories of keeping black people subhuman and in chains.
And Dave “Mudcat” Saunders sleeps under it. That should tell you pretty much all you need to know about where his stupid heart is.
I’m not privy to the details but Saunders worked on the campaigns of Mark Warner and Jim Webb in Virginia. We continue to live in the era of the big name political consultant who reaps the lion’s share of the credit for victories, and maybe Saunders was the catalyst for those wins. But it may also be likely that demographic trends are what has been turning Virginia into a blue state — and perhaps the wins of Warner and Webb were not confederate-loving Mudcat Saunders’ doing, but the skill of the candidates and demographics. His supposed brilliance sure didn’t seem to deliver for John Edwards in Iowa.
But frankly, Dave Mudcat Saunders could be the greatest political operative since Machiavelli, no Democrat should be working with a guy who sleeps with the confederate flag on his bed.
>> My run-in with Dave “Mudcat” Saunders, the Democrats’ Dixie huckster.
23 Responses to “Dave “Mudcat” Saunders Is An Idiot And No Democrat Should Hire Him”
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I am a native white Southerner. Grew up on well water, next to a tobacco farm. “Mudcat” Saunders is a Southern-grievance douchebag, perpetually worried that someone, somewhere, ain’t “appreciatin’” him and his fetishization of his “culture” enough. And don’t get me started on the pathetic “Confederate” horse sh*t.
The best thing that could possibly happen for the South right now would be for its electoral weight to be drastically out-hefted by the rest of the country, so that the revanchist Republicans who have dominated much of our politics for the last 40 years are made truly isolated.
The “South” as a regional unit of political power needs to be listened to less, not more. And the sooner “the South” is broken apart into its more relevant actual subgroups than a right wing dominated unit of retrenchment.
F*** Saunders’ grievance mongering. I’m every damn bit a Southerner as he, less stereotypically, and he made a career out of being a professional Southerner — most of us can’t. And it was that pseudo-anthropological sales job to the Democratic party elites he condemns (and which I would for different reasons) which funded his living, so maybe he should shut up.
While Mudcat is indeed a grievance douchebag, he’s not entirely wrong. Democrats, and most Liberals for that matter, are no more tolerant than the Conservatives are. They only show intolerance towards different groups of people.
…but yeah, that picture really speaks for itself.
A small correction, which actually backs up your point: that’s not the Confederate flag (the “Stars & Bars”) but the Confederate BATTLE flag.
Meaning, that’s the flag that was carried into battle against American soldiers.
I like the shirt, though.
“One nation, under surveillance.”
Who can forget Hillary Clinton’s many attempts to criminalise pickup trucks, NASCAR, and country-and-western music, with the Defense of Eardrums Amendment?
Truly, the Democrats are intolerant bastards.
I’m going to have to agree with Aw. Give me a fucking break, Mudcat.
I agree with El Cid. I too grew up in the South, and I’m old enough to remember “Colored Only” and “We Reserve the Right to Refuse Service to Anyone” signs. It was shameful, and the Rebel flag was then, and is now, no more about “heritage” than a swastika is about “heritage” to a German.
There were two things that led the South out of the freaking Dark Ages of the 1950s. One was widespread air-conditioning (believe me, you don’t want to live down here without it.) The other was the Civil Rights Movement. There is no way the South, and therefore the country, could have boomed without it.
Rebel flagwavers need to realize that “Gone With The Wind” was a work of fiction. Idiots.
Why does he hate America?
The confederate flag is the symbol of treason against the United States.
I repeat – Why does he hate America.
I’m with Bruce and Cid.
I was more of a “city boy”, but I grew up a southerner. I heard plenty of people ask, “If you don’t like the South, why don’t you leave?”
So I did.
Know what’s good about the South? Lots of stuff. Most people are polite here. The literature is great, and the cooking is awesome. It hardly ever snows.
But the “heritage” embodied by the Rebel flag? Not so good.
I’m sick of Saunders and his stupid “bubba” references in his interviews. He’s like an even dumber Bob Shrum
Glad you put Thomas Schaller article up as the link at the end of your column, Oliver.
Mudcat’s rural strategy didn’t deliver the votes to Mark Warner and Tim Kaine–improved voting in suburbs and ex-urbs did it. Mudcat is a swindler–in the grand tradition of Huck Finn’s two “royal” traveling companions.
“The confederate flag is a flag flown in support of slavery.”
Let’s be more exact here. It is a flag designed for and exhibited by people who believe they had a right to engage in armed rebellion against the federal government because they were intent on spreading slavery into new states and territories including Central America.
ALl of this said, I still think that the General Lee was one of the most fun cars ever. Not as cool as KITT or Bond’s Aston Martin, but definitely up there.
[...] Oliver Willis has a good catch about a new profile of Mudcat. Really, it’s not so much Mudcat’s regurgitated pablum, [...]
[...] Oliver Willis has a good catch about a new profile of Mudcat. Really, it’s not so much Mudcat’s regurgitated pablum, [...]
He’s like an even dumber Bob Shrum
Quoted for truth. But I’m curious to be a fly on Saunder’s wall these days, or any of the other “friends of Clinton” like Begala, Shrum, etc. Is anyone on Team Obama returning their calls? I certainly hope not.
Mudcat Saunders can kiss my Yankee ass.
He can kiss my southern one too, Tom. I hope Saunders has destroyed his ability to get a national job with this. I’ll tell you this much–I won’t give money to a campaign that hires him, and I’ll actively discourage everyone I can from doing the same.
Saunders isn’t arguing for treason in the defense of slavery and white supremacy in sporting the Confederate flag, he’s trying (probably futilely) to reclaim the Southern heritage from precisely those evils. I agree with you guys that the effort is historically dubious and politically not very practical. But he’s on our side, really, so I’m not sure why we need to make a litmus test out of this.
There are probably no worse-served constituencies in America than the black folks who live in the deep South (not really Saunders’ Appalachian stomping ground, but still). Saunders has ideas about how to change this. Those ideas may be terrible, but all I’m hearing from his opponents among Dems is, “fuck the South, we don’t need them”. And maybe we don’t, but they sure need us.
Saunders isn’t arguing for treason in the defense of slavery and white supremacy in sporting the Confederate flag, he’s trying (probably futilely) to reclaim the Southern heritage from precisely those evils.
kth,
You may be well meaning in that statement, and I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt since I’m not a regular commenter here and you may well be, but here’s the problem. There’s nothing to reclaim as far as that symbol is concerned. The Southern Heritage that that flag represents is one of the defense of slavery, white supremacy, and treason–period, full stop. If you want to celebrate southern heritage, there’s plenty of ways to do it–celebrate the food, the literature, the music, etc. There’s plenty of richness to go around in those areas, as well as in many others. But the Confederate Battle Flag represents exactly none of that. The Confederate Battle Flag represents treason, slavery, and the notion that black people don’t deserve to be treated like humans–that’s it. This is the proper way to treat the Confederate Battle Flag.
I’m sorry, but you can’t even be an AMERICAN and a confederate at the same time, let alone a democrat!
The flag is first about treason. It was created to wave of troops who were actively engaging in murderous treason. I think it’s racist too, but there is no question that the flag is a symbol of treason.
[...] Oliver Willis has a good catch about a new profile of Mudcat. Really, it’s not so much Mudcat’s regurgitated pablum, which is [...]