I'm not referring to technology such as indoor plumbing; I'm referring to social makeup and cultural influences. If Alabama does go in this direction of "speak English or leave"—and making policy changes to reflect that—do you think it won't have an impact? Do you not see how it would make the state more isolated than others?

One need only look to Arizona to see an example of this. Remember, they're not just racially profiling immigrants to turn it into a police state, they've also banned accents from the classroom (after specifically courting multilingual teachers too!). There are plenty of people in Arizona who are outraged at this, but that doesn't change the impression many people outside of Arizona now have of the state. This is the same state, by the way, that refused to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. day until 1992 - and only because of the massive backlash the state received after voting against honoring it in 1990 (including the NFL moving the location of the super bowl).

Alabama is distinctly different in the sense that they haven't passed laws like this - yet. That doesn't mean it's entirely unreasonable for people to pass judgement on Alabama due to these political ads though. After all, there are many other places in the country where a politician wouldn't even contemplate such an ad. While there may not be enough James sympathizers to win him the election, there are enough that he felt comfortable making the ad in the first place, and that does say something.

This is, after all, the same state and same election that has produced this anti-evolution/pro-bible ad:

Careful, warrrrreagl. We all know that you don't own any shoes. We don't want you to stub your toe on a rock.

Hell, we're too backwater to even have rocks. But in Birmingham we love the governor. Boo, boo, boo. (we all did what we could do)

Alabama and the rest of the southern states are in the bible belt. There are a lot of christian voters. "A Good Christian Man" is just viable in the minds of votes as a solid economic stimulus plan, sometimes more. It's the Religion Card, it's easy to play and it reaches more voters than anything else. I don't get why people don't realize this, it's the south, you HAVE to be Christian here to get anywhere in politics and it wins you more votes to say "Liberals hate God, but I love him with all my heart. My Grandpappy loved him, my daddy loved him, I love him and by god if I get elected I'll make sure my son and YOUR kids will love him too".

Again I'll say it, there are some great people in the south (I know, I live in the belt buckle of the bible belt), but the rest of them are dumbass 'hicks that hate anything that FOX news says they should hate.

Eden: we all realize it, doesn't mean we should accept it or not mock it.

i think president obama was right on one thing and that is that we should learn more spanish.you get a different perspective when you have to work side by side with illegals.how many juan valdez's do you think there are anyway?

According to facebook 265, but that's just the ones that the search indexes.

Was this actually played on the TV?

Ahaha, I love American TV, he would be laughed at so hard in NZ that he would never live it down and probably have to go live in AU.

0.25 is my favorite bit, the deep reflecting look, with the emotional music playing like he's talking about the day he tried to save some drowning kittens and failed. Bwahahaha, what an insulting joke to anyone with an IQ above room temperature.

There are quite a few gems coming out of Alabama this political cycle...

***UPDATE***

My fellow Alabamians came through. I may have had to disappear for a while if James had won.

Bentley secures GOP runoff spot, James raising money to pay for recount | Opelika-Auburn News

Um, I have to ask... are Alabama ads always this crazy? It seems like they just keep coming and coming...

WTF?

embarrassing indeed