Win or Lose, Kerry Voters Are Smarter Than Bush Voters

[Quixote1818]

CONFESSIONS OF A CULTURAL ELITIST

Tue Nov 9, 8:03 PM ET Op/Ed - Ted Rall

Win or Lose, Kerry Voters Are Smarter Than Bush Voters

NEW YORK--Democratic hand wringing is surrealy out of hand. No one is criticizing the morally incongruous Kerry for running against a war he voted for while insisting that he would have voted for it again. Party leaders have yet to consider that NAFTA, signed into law under Clinton, may have cost them high-unemployment Ohio. No, Indiana Senator Evan Bayh, darling of the "centrist" Democratic Leadership Council, blames something else: the perception "in the heartland" that Democrats are a "bicoastal cultural elite that is condescending at best and contemptuous at worst to the values that Americans hold in their daily lives."


Firstly, living in the sticks doesn't make you more American. Rural, urban or suburban--they're irrelevant. San Francisco's predominantly gay Castro district is every bit as red, white and blue as the Texas panhandle. But if militant Christianist Republicans from inland backwaters believe that secular liberal Democrats from the big coastal cities look upon them with disdain, there's a reason. We do, and all the more so after this election.


I spent my childhood in fly-over country, in a decidedly Republican town in southwest Ohio. It was a decent place to grow up, with well-funded public schools and only the occasional marauding serial killer to worry about. The only ethnic restaurant sold something called "Mandarin Chinese," Midwestese for cold noodles slathered with sugary sauce. The county had three major employers: the Air Force, Mead Paper, and National Cash Register--and NCR was constantly laying people off. Folks were nice, but depressingly closed-minded. "Well," they'd grimace when confronted with a new musical genre or fashion trend, "that's different." My suburb was racially insular, culturally bland and intellectually unstimulating. Its people were knee-jerk conformists. Faced with the prospect of spending my life underemployed, bored and soused, I did what anyone with a bit of ambition would do. I went to college in a big city and stayed there.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ucru/20041110/cm_ucru/confessionsofaculturalelitist

[d_b]

1. kick

[ClassWarrior]

2. Yeah, let's act all superior to average Americans...

...so the Radical Rightwing has lots of excuses to slam us as intellectual elitists again.

~shakin' my head~

NGU.

[Hello_Kitty]

5. They'll slam us no matter what. Time to start slamming back. n/t

[ClassWarrior]

7. Slamming the Radical RW leadership is one thing.

Acting superior to Mom & Pop is one of the things that got us into this mess in the first place.

NGU.

[Hello_Kitty]

10. Bullshit. We never acted superior. Rush told them we did.

Why didn't they ask us?

[hollywood926]

34. Exactly...I never felt superior to anyone...

I am from West Virginia, lived in Ohio, now in L.A. I have spent the past 5 years defending those parts of the country. I'm not so sure I can do it anymore. The truth is, this guy is right. We're talking about people who are raised with a certain mentality of intolerance and once they start listening to Limbaugh and the like, it's all over. People with educations are called "college pukes."

Somehow...thinking, reading, learning, discussing...have become things only fags do. Sad.

(I say all this knowing that there are exceptions, of course. Many of those exceptions are members of my own family. They all voted for Kerry - even the registered Republicans.)

[ClassWarrior]

36. I'm saying just because it may be true...

...doesn't mean we should go around shouting it - and shooting ourselves in the foot.

NGU.

[Redleg]

15. I don't buy that conventional wisdom.

I can't think of one elected Democratic official or party honcho who condescended to the conservative morons.

[ClassWarrior]

17. Focus now - we're talking about Rall's article.

That's the condescension I'm talking about...

NGU.

[Redleg]

20. Yeah, and who the hell is Rall? Is he a well-known Democratic leader?

No he's not. Why should what he says matter? Bush doesn't seem to have a problem with Rush, Hannity, and Coulter making repugs look bad.

[ClassWarrior]

22. Rall is the subject of this thread.

He's the person to whom I was referring. Does that clear up your confusion?

NGU.

[Redleg]

24. I know who Rall is. I just wonder why we should be crucified for what

Rall writes. Actually, I know why and it doesn't make sense but it is what it is.

[ClassWarrior]

29. Who's crucifying you? You didn't even start the thread.

I'm just saying that it's not good strategy to play right into the Radical RW's script. In fact, it's kinda... hmmm... stupid.

NGU.

[Redleg]

40. Well, go tell Rall that.

EOM

[llmart]

6. Would you prefer......

we dumb ourselves down to "fit in" with them? Not me. Never. I'm an intellectual and proud of it.

[ClassWarrior]

8. I never "dumb myself down" around my right-leaning friends.

But I'd never act superior to them, either. Political agenda or not. You don't win friends and influence people by calling them morons. Or don't you care about getting back the people who should be on our side? Would you really rather just have the food fight?

NGU.

[Redleg]

18. We'll stop telling the truth about them when they stop lying about us.

Until then, I ain't going to be nice. I won't stereotype a whole group of people who voted for Bush as stupid but I do think a good number of them are very misinformed.

[ClassWarrior]

30. Ahhhh... now you're getting it.

They ARE misinformed. They're overworked, underpaid, and misinformed... by Rove, Limbo, and the rest. Doesn't necessarily mean they're idjits. Plus, the word "misinformed" has a less inflamatory connotation than "stupid" does.

NGU.

[Redleg]

41. I agree.

EOM

[Hello_Kitty]

3. Ted Rall is the man! Rate this one a 5!

It's at 3.11 right now so a lot of fundies must be indignant. "Slutty abortion vixens" is the best line I've read in a long time.

[pleiku52cab]

4. Unfortunately KKKKarl is smarter than the whole DNC

[GreenArrow]

11. Rove's not smarter,

but he is completely unprincipled, and totally without shame, which gives him that many more avenues to work from.

[Redleg]

13. Dammit- you beat me by a milisecond.

Good job.

[GreenArrow]

26. to you...

:toast:

[ClassWarrior]

14. He's smarter too.

And denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

NGU.

[Redleg]

16. Smarter? No- it's just that Bush lovers are dumber and more easy

to dupe.

[ClassWarrior]

21. Rove figured out how to manipulate huge masses of people...

...including some of my smartest, most clueless friends. He figured out they're not stupid, or insane, or delusional. They have a different worldview. And in their worldview, their opinions make infinite sense. This is KEY for our side to understand, or we'll never win an election again. You should read "Don't Think of an Elephant" by George Lakoff. He explains it much better than I can here.

Or we can just giggle to ourselves while pretending they're brain-dead and we're geniuses.

NGU.

[Redleg]

23. I am familiar with Lakoff's work as well as much of the literature

on social cognition and decision-making. I agree that if the right sees us as condescending we will be beaten about the head-and-shoulders. I think they will do it anyway. My point is that their accusation of snobbish liberals is not really based on reality. They have created a liberal boogeyman from Taxachusetts who will be the object of their scorn. They have won the war of words. We cannot easily undo what they have done. Whether we laugh about stupid red-staters is not important, they will act as though we laugh. It is already out there.

[ClassWarrior]

27. Well, I for one am not going to play right into their script.

THAT's stupid. I'd rather shift the playing field and create a frame for them - Radical RW truck-bombers in Congress, or the "Rightwing Taliban"-controlled Congress, or somesuch - rather than make myself their bitch in the language war.

NGU.

[GreenArrow]

25. evil can be

easily mistaken for intelligence. Not to say he's stupid; he's clearly not. He's simply playing by a different set of rules. He no doubt considers himself smarter. But at some point, someone is going to "fuck him like he has never been fucked before" and he isn't going to like it. And there won't be one damn thing he can do about it.

[ClassWarrior]

28. Not to say he's stupid? Then what ARE you saying?

Once we can admit our enemies' strengths, we can defeat them.

NGU.

[GreenArrow]

32. what am I saying?

I am saying that Rove is smart. I am also saying that he is not "smarter than the whole DNC". In fact, I'm pretty certain that there are a whole lot of people who are "smarter" than Karl Rove. But he's still pretty smart. I am further saying that he has absolutely no principles, therefore, he can use a variety of tactics that principled people who believe in fair play are not going to consider. Rove's strength is not solely his intelligence; it's in imaginative application of underhandedness and his utter lack of scruple. He is a very good manipulator, and the media is on his side. He plays to win, and he plays by his rules.

Dems need to figure out how to either a) make him abide by the rules, or b) develop their own rules and make him play by those or c) try to outdo him by beating him at his own game, using his rules, a tatic which I fear would essentially replace a GOP Rove with a Democratic party version or versions thereof. He is a very good manipulator, and the media is on his side.

In short, his success has as much to do with his ability and willingness to shamlessly and blatantly lie, cheat and steal without any shame, and with total impunity, as it does with his intelligence. Hell, he enjoys it.

[ClassWarrior]

35. So we're pretty much on the same page.

I'm saying that much of Rove's success has to do with kissing up to the American people, not insulting them. And we could learn from that.

NGU.

[GreenArrow]

37. oh, he does insult them

he's simply very subtle about it. He has nothing but contempt for the intelligence of the American people. But he does know how to exploit them.

[ClassWarrior]

38. Calling them stupid is SUBTLE??

LOL

NGU.

[GreenArrow]

39. he doesn't call them stupid

he simply thinks they are stupid; thus he has no problem exploiting and manipulating them. So, yes, he is very subtle, because they, the people, do not see the contempt he holds them in.

[Redleg]

12. Not smarter- Rove is just more unethical and unprincipled than the DLC.

And the DLC is not exactly a group of choirboys.

[Redleg]

9. Damn straight.

I'll try not to gloat about it.

Redleg, Ph.D.

[SorryRepublican]

19. Bush Voters I think are more selfish the dump

[Sparkly]

31. It may be wrong, and it may be politically unhelpful,

but I share many of the same thoughts and feelings Rall describes here. I am very angry at small-minded, short-sighted, uninformed people who sneer at knowledge and progress. I'm even MORE angry at the people and organizations that willfully misinform them.

[ClassWarrior]

33. I feel the same way... but it doesn't help our cause...

...to insult average Americans out loud.

NGU.