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Read other letters about this article
Good article, Dan Hoyle, but most people here at Salon are going to dismiss the nuances that you offered and just say these people who won't support Obama are racists.
Not only that, these educated folks here are going to insist that Islam has more to do with race that religion. Wait for it.
As to my own thoughts, I think the reason rural and small town working people liked George Bush is that they believed that, despite two Ivy League degrees, his education didn't *take*. They knew his education didn't really take because "Jesus Christ changed his heart" -- or something like that.
One of the things some of these people fear most if their children go off to college is that they will become intellectuals and heathens.
Part of the reason that they don't like Barack Obama is that they believe his education *took*. Barack Obama talks like an elegant and intellectual man. He is everything that they find threatening.
Plus, he probably doesn't believe in hell. There are few things more important than hell for small town religious folks. That is because they know folks that they want to make sure go there.
