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I was raised in western North Carolina, in one of the ten poorest counties in the country. I went in the army, served for a decade, got out, went back to school in the pacific Northwest, got a grad degree under a competitive national fellowship, got into high tech, then management, then changed careers again, went overseas and worked in some of those places you've been reading about in the news. Came back to the states last year, to north Georgia. Raised in Appalachia, now returned. Though of course, it's different: western North Carolina is not the same as north Georgia, which is also different from east Tennessee and northeastern Alabama, though we're less than a day's drive apart.
Funny thing, how I see a lot of Obama stickers around here. I see them on cars that have confederate flag license plates. Obama carried Goergia in the primary, and not only among blacks. There are a lot of people here who are interested in him, think he's smart and capable, respond to his charisma, and are thinking about voting for him in the national elections.
Know what, though? Not all of them follow politics like we wonks do. Some, it's because they work three jobs or their time is soaked up raising their families and trying to get by. Some have long ago decided that politicians are all thieves and that there's no difference (though they still vote, when the day comes around). Some have advanced degrees in things that have nothing to do with politics, and their lives are filled with things like, say, trying to save the eastern Hemlock from the wooly adelgid.
What all have in common is that they live here. Some still have strong family roots here; others are attached to the beauty of the land, and can't bear to leave or stay gone. They may make redneck jokes or ironic mentions of the 'war of northern aggression'; this is ironic self-regard, at least when there are no outsiders around.
What they are prickly about is their representation and how other people see them. The distortions, misrepresentations, and one-to-many fallacies are relentless. Inbred, dirt-eating, cousin-marrying, nigra-lynching, backwoods, shoeless, banjo-playing squeal-like-a-pig underclass stupid hillbilly rednecks. Or victims, in the most charitable formulation. And they're automatic, too.
A none-too-current example: The media shows up to follow an FBI manhunt for Eric Rudolph in WNC, starts in with their shit about the backwoods rural mountain folk, and everyone 'knows' what they're talking about. And Rudolph gets away, because people would rather cut off their left hand than help a bunch of government outsiders and condescending blowdrieds. Then, of course, the story is about how they were helping him because they, too, wanted to blow up abortion clinics. Endless loop.
That's what we're seeing here too. I don't doubt that Obama sees beyond this dynamic; he made reference to it in his famous race speech.
But among you supporters who don't know what you're talking about, who were once in Appalachia and talked to some people and now think you can speak in broad sweeps about ths area, or who somehow think your message of hope and unity is advanced by an attitude of, hey, fuck Appalachia, or the hillbillies better get with the program or they'll be left behind, or, no matter what they say it all comes down to the fact that they're a bunch of racist scumbags, so who cares about them ... you are tools of the Republican machine, and your words will be used to divide the country come November, and while you will all squeal about how the hillbillies, or the veterans, or the evangelicals who seemed to be leaning Dem, or whomever stabbed you in the back and were too stupid to elect Obama, you will have no one but yourself to blame.
Now pull your head out of your ass, stop congratulating yourselves on how cool you and your candidate are, stop demonizing everyone who doesn't agree with you or hasn't made up their mind yet, and do some real political work. Listen to people, talk to them about their lives, and persuade them. Engage respectfully, and at least for your own interests put aside all your bullshit stereotypes until the election is over.
