Please understand the concept of "Under the Bus"

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

I know it's fun to try to appropriate what others say and turn it around on them.

It must be fun because Republicans are all about fun and that's pretty much all they do... hence "Obama is a Nazi", etc..

But the appropriation of the "under the bus" metaphor as something to say about progressives, Kucinich fans, lefties, etc. is asinine.

The BUS is a power concept. The people in charge have someplace to go and sometimes inconvenient folks get thrown under the bus. If you are not on the bus you are probably under the bus.

The metaphor probably comes from the traditional campaign bus. When someone got inconvenient for a campaign they would be, metaphorically, thrown under the bus.

Throwing someone under the bus is ruthless, with an intimation that you have somewhere to go (like, in the bus) and to heck with all obstacles.

Barack Obama or his campaign or supporters or administration can throw someone under the bus because Barack Obama has a metaphorical bus. Big people throw little people under the bus.

When Bill Ayers said Obama is kinda lame he was not throwing Obama under the bus because Bill Ayers does not have a bus. He has no movement, no campaign, no administration, no power.

Similarly, marginalized progressives cannot throw someone under the bus because they do not have a bus.


They would have to throw someone under an old VW Mini-bus. <joke>

[alcibiades_mystery]

1. ROFL

Stings, don't it?

:rofl:

[dionysus]

2. did you roll down the windows in the bus? i feel a breeze.

:P

[last_texas_dem]

3. Don't waste your breath

You're talking to the same bunch who thinks "leftbagger" is a clever neologism.

[Zodiak]

5. They make 'em up faster than DU can ban their use

They have, in essence, taken on Karl Rove's tactics.....and are proud of themselves for doing so.

These are NOT EVER going to political allies. To them liberals are useful fools.

And DU is their playground for anti-social behavior.

[Name removed]

4. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Chulanowa]

6. Re: origins

I'm almost certain it has more to do with the days of blacks being required to sit in the back of the bus during segregation. By claiming you were "under the bus" you were saying you were even worse-off in discrimination than those folks were.

In America, Gays, Indians, and Muslims are the ones under the bus (and in that order). Everyone else is just bitching about not being the driver of said bus.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

8. I hadn't thought to look, but wikipedia has an entry on the phrase

They seem to think it's more recent than I would have expected. No use cited before the 1980s.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Under_the_bus

To throw (someone) under the bus is an idiomatic phrase meaning to sacrifice some other person, usually one who is undeserving or at least vulnerable and often a friend or ally, to make personal gain.

The phrase has been widely popularized by sports journalists since 2004 and was picked up by the mainstream media during the 2008 primary season. It has frequently been used to describe various politicians distancing themselves from unpopular or controversial figures. David Segal, a writer for the Washington Post, calls the expression "the cliché of the 2008 campaign."<1>

In a March 2008 NPR report, the linguist Geoff Nunberg noted that ‘under the bus’ "has appeared in more than 400 press stories on the campaign over the last six months."<2>

...

[chill_wind]

7. Meh. We have a few trawlers looking for tears

over Krugman today, but nobody's biting much. What they want to call it really isn't as interesting as the hope for provocation. Slow day in their news world, apparently. Disappointed trawlers :-)

[Gregorian]

9. You're either on the bus or under the bus.

:)

I couldn't help myself.

[Chulanowa]

10. Yesterday I chased the bus for a block

What do you have to say about that, huh?

[Gregorian]

11. You were behind the bus.

Perhaps you had been under the bus, and were trying to get back on.