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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
I grew up in small town America. I went to elementary and junior high school in a small farming town, population maybe 70. Only because of consolidation did I go to high school in the county seat that was 3 miles north. The population of the county seat is about 40,000 people. It is working class, with a few doctors and lawyers thrown in. My father was a truck driver. My family was working class.
As a kid, I liked to read. I read books and the newspaper every night. I read Time Magazine and looked at the pictures in National Geographic. As a result of this, I knew a little bit about the world. I was in no means a know-it-all. I was pretty quiet. But other students at school picked up on this. It was pretty clear to me that knowing about things outside of our county or state or country was considered odd.
There is an anti-intellectualism in working class America. I grew up with it. I'm not sure where it comes from. Probably it's a psychological response to being treated unfairly because of lack of income. The thinking goes along these lines. "They think they're better than me! I'll show them! I don't need their life! They're just a bunch of snobs anyway!" This is only a guess. But it's pretty clear to working class kids who are like I was that they have to make a choice somewhere along the way which way to go. Should they go out into the world and leave behind their background, or should they stay and stick with the working class life? I went to college and didn't go back.
I am not the smartest person in the world. But I am interested in it. And I am tired of people acting like that is some sort of character defect or flaw. I am also tired of politicians like George W Bush or John McCain pretending to be working class. I grew up working class. That's why I am a Democrat
Vote for Obama or you are a racist.
Vote for Obama or you are an idiot.
These are the arguments we use to convince Republicans to vote for Democrats? I can not believe that we are about to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory because we have not figured out that insulting others is off putting.
People live up to the expectations you have for them. If you tell them they are stupid racists, they will prove you correct. I guess it is more important to be "correct" than win an election and save the country.
Hockey has got to be the most expensive sport to participate in. (My brother played hockey when we were growing up.)
I checked and it looks to be about $1500 per kid annually. (I dont think that includes travel expenses if they are in travel.)
Fact is, hockey is not the sport of the average kid of a struggling family. The equipment is very expensive. Once upon a time, it was an outdoor sport, but (question for Northerners) when was the last time we got some good quality ice for more than a couple of days on our lakes and rivers and canals? The winters are too warm (hello, Global Warming). So you need to depend on indoor arenas. How many communities can afford an indoor rink?
I know this sounds "rinky dink" (forgive me) but it has been bothering me. Thanks.
Years ago I got in my car in my car and drove through small town America, the South, Midwest and south West. Having grown up in the cosmopolitan progressive San Francisco bay area, I felt I really needed to understand that part of the country. I met many kind and decent people. my overriding expression though is how much the ignorance, isolation, xenophobia and yes, deep rooted racism, contribute to what we know as small town America. So many of the people I met had never even left the county they were born in, let alone the state. Owning a passport and travel abroad were basically incomprehensible concepts. Very few could even point in the direction of the Atlantic or Pacific oceans, they had no idea and never saw an ocean. Naming even one world leader was indeed a foreign concept, except they hated the "damn communists" because they wanted to "invade America". When discussing Jews, I'd be often asked about the horns. Armageddon, the Anti-Christ, Jews controlling the world, the communists in Washington who want to take away their guns, all that stuff was discussed and brought up often, and they were dead serious. I remember one guy in Oklahoma saying to me :"I'm not a racist, but I hate n****s who go to college because it makes 'em think they are better that us white folk".
Not everybody in small town America is like that, and you hope that in the 30 plus years that passed since that trip, things have improved. However, the euphoria with which an ignorant redneck crazy like Palin has been greeted in small town America makes me very pessimistic and extremely concerned about the future of this nation. We seem to be regressing toward the dark ages.
Answer: You get the individual who should have been Hillary's VP running for the presidency 8 years before he could have been elected. Time and fortune are not slaves to both media hype and to the Clinton haters who shoved this contrived tenderfoot down our throats before both he and his personae were ready for "acceptance" by the general population. We can scream all we want about Middle- America ignorance and prejudice, but that will not change the course of events. The Primary electricity only worked in one room and now Obama has to figure out how to light up the whole house. Lot's of luck !
I'm a white rural American. Techically, I haven't lived in what would be considered rural American for 10 years. But that's where I was raised and that's who I am at my core.
I, as well as the majority of my white rural American family, friends and acquaintances plan to vote for Obama. It's his party and ideas - we are Democrats, many of us life-long, and when Obama became the nominee there was no doubt he would have our votes.
If you look at a county-by-county map of presidential elections, you'll see pockets dominated by Democrats. These counties are so small - entire populations of 2,000 or so - that they're not enough to impact the state.
Please understand that all rural people are not the same. The racists and ignoramuses profiled in this article and elsewhere are not representative of rural Americans as whole.
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
