Why is it called the "Heartland" ?

[JI7]

does anyone know what those conservative middle america areas are called the "heartland" ? how did it first come about ? and i don't just mean in description, but the meaning of it ? how did it come to be associated with american family values and god etc ?

[flowomo]

1. center of the country....

I believe Kansas refers to itself at the Heart of America, geographic center.

[Avalux]

2. Throwback to Nazi Germany

Our leaders have learned from them and think they can do it better. Heartland is such a horrible word, meant to instill patriotism and manipulate it for their own purposes.

[unblock]

3. because "fatherland" was taken

[Lostnote03]

4. Heartland soon to be replaced by Homeland....n/t

[Maple]

5. It's a leftover

from the agricultural and industrial age...hard working farmers, miners, steel workers, factory workers...'ram tough' as the ad says, and all that crap.

Once the backbone of America...now actually left behind...but the image of the cowboy, the rancher, the farmer, the miner, the hard hats in factories etc...people who work with their backs and not their brains ....remains.

Romanticism, not reality...although goodness knows there was never anything wonderful about it.

[Glenda]

6. Buttland didn't have a good ring to it

[donco6]

8. I dunno!

I kinda like it, myself.

[Glenda]

12. heh heh! Well, it needs to be renamed anyway

After all, didn't * call it the Hinterlands?

[donco6]

17. He should know.

In the Buttland of America, Crawford is the sphincter.

[Cleita]

11. Has a nice ring to me.

Lived out there in Kansas a couple of years. You can have it as far as I'm concerned.

[donco6]

18. I grew up there.

And I'd have to agree.

[Cleita]

25. Actually, it was the extreme weather conditions that got

to me more than anything. All those flat miles between the Artic Circle and the Gulf of Mexico made daily life very interesting.

[NV Whino]

32. I was born there

Fortunately I've overcome it.

[donco6]

7. Because that's where all the fat and plaque concentrates?

Just a guess.

[BlueJazz]

9. It should be called "Heartless Land"

..as it appears to be over-run with heartless Sky Fairy believers who have IQ's in the double digits.

[Cuban_Liberal]

10. Like the heart, the nation couldn't survive without it.

If we like to eat, that is...

[Cleita]

15. Wrong.

One of my roomates was from Western Kansas. The government paid them money not to farm because the crops were limited like wheat, hay and more wheat and hay. It's the Central Valley of California that supplies most of the food in this country besides what we import.

[Cuban_Liberal]

19. WRONG!

Illinois and Iowa are #1 and #2, respectively, for corn and soybean production, and I'm sure both place in the top 10 for meat amd dairy products, as well.

[CatholicEdHead]

21. ND crops

North Dakota is one of the biggest Sugar Beet, Wheat, and Canola states in the country.

[Cuban_Liberal]

23. Yep.

The only people who would contend that the 'heartland' isn't essential are those who understand absolutely NOTHING about agricultural production.

[Cleita]

28. Someone wrote years ago, and I wish I could remember his name.

that the prairie states as a whole have low productivity and would be better turned back to the Buffalo. But he was one of those wacky environmentalists, who actually cares about diversity, top soil, clean water and air and shit like that.

[Glenda]

30. I don't eat any of those 3, so I'm good :)

[NV Whino]

34. Wrong

California supplies about 80% of the nation's food.
You get a lot of wheat from the midwest, but try other veggies and avocados and citrus... not to mention cotton.

[Maple]

16. Yeah, you could

Check out where the food in your supermarket comes from next time.

All over the world no doubt.

How much corn and wheat can you eat anyway...and believe it or not, you could have all that same stuff grown in the blue states.

[Cuban_Liberal]

Illinois IS a blue state.

And we're #1 in both corn and soybean production.

[Maple]

27. Yeah...like I said

you don't need the red states for food production.

The Blue states could cover all of it.

[toddaa]

35. Stop and think

This is the second thread I've come across on food production and red states. All this heated talk of boycotting red states is making me sick to my stomach. If you live in a red state and buy your food from somewhere else, chances are very good that you are getting it from someone like Archer Daniels Midland. We all need to take a deep breath and consider what the environmental and economic ramifications are when buying food that is not grown locally.

It's way past time that people living in urban areas learned where their food comes from and what impact buying it from the local supermarket has on their own health and the health of this planet.

Boycotting family farmers is Republican. Pass it on.

[Dancing_Dave]

13. Because it sure ain't the Headland!

I live in Kansas, so I should know!;-)

[Stephanie]

14. It's not. Never has been, never will be. It's purely a marketing device.

The term is only used in selling cereal and criminal tyrants.

[MuseRider]

20. Gee y'all are so damned kind.

Heartland, a name we have been called as long as I can remember and I am 50 so I don't think this can be attributed to Bush* and his Nazis. Heartland like the center, your heart is your center, kinda like that. I believe it refers to our location, the center. You like to eat? Come to the "heartland" and see what it really takes to feed you all. Don't like us? Then garden, LOTS.

[Cuban_Liberal]

22. "It isn't polite to cuss a farmer, with your mouth full"

I hear that every day here in Illinois.

[MuseRider]

26. Had not heard that one

I like it! Damn, we need to get our shit together around here. Gays are running scared because they think the Dems are going to leave them, the midwest (heartland) is being smeared like we are all worth about nothing, the south is being painted as needing to be left out of pur country. I am sure there is much more but thankfully I have been too busy this weekend to participate in all the fun. Sometimes I just get really pissed at all the damned hard work we do to try to make inroads here only to be defeated by our own party screaming nastiness or the party ignoring us. It is damned hard to make any headway here when we get NO news but Right Wing tainted news and hateful commentators. I probably should just go to sleep or read a book but I wanted to participate. Sometimes that is just not the right thing to do.

[leftofthedial]

24. because, apparently, none of the people have one.

[demosincebirth]

29. Why is the Mid-west, the Mid-west?

Shouldn't it be the Mid-east?

[leftofthedial]

31. it's the place where far too few people have one

apparently

[ProfessorGAC]

39. You Mean Like Blue State Illinois?

Or where 11 million people live, like Illinois, who just went for Kerry & elected Obama 71:28?
Just wondering.
The Professor

[sangh0]

33. Because the republicans work hard producing propoganda

while we uselessly point out how it's inaccurate

[Lisa]

36. originally, the "heartland" was the part of a country with the big cities

... and the factories -- most of the population and economic strength, in fact.

Geographers call this "heartland-hinterland theory" -- where the hinterland would be the rural (or less-developed) area that supplies the heartland with commodities. And you still hear geographers referring to "the northeast heartland" of the United States.

Gradually, during the 20th century, the term "heartland" was employed to mean the Midwest -- then areas to the south and west of it -- and ultimately, the area in the central part of the continent. Bush's people took this even further with his "Home to the Heartland" advertising campaign, trying to build on the connotation that "heart" has with courage, honesty, and the true essence of a thing. (Under the older definition, Arkansas and Oklahoma wouldn't have been considered true "heartland" states -- it was a technical definition and not originally intended to have anything to do with moral purity, faith, or any other Romantic-era notions.)

A good question, because this is one of the many ways in which Bush and Co. have contrived to divide up the country.

http://www.brainyencyclopedia.com/encyclopedia/m/mi/midwest.html


p.s. a lot of geographers have taken to calling it "core-periphery" theory instead, because the term "heartland" has gotten so emotionally-laden.

[JI7]

37. ok, so they have used it for political reasons

but it has a true history to it. that makes sense. we need to do something similar with the east and west coasts.

[Willy Lee]

38. DON'T BE DISSIN' MY HOME STATE OF ILLINOIS!!!

[July]

40. Because we're using Brainland. nt