Beyond the Satire

[grantcart]

Just returned from El Centro, California (as dusty a rural backwash as you could find anywhere) which followed a week where relatives from rural Washington had visited.

Yesterday had a long conversation with a young Democrat who was absolutely delighted to find out that Obama was not a Muslim with terrorist ties.


Just saw the New Yorker cover.


The New Yorker cover isn't a problem because the people that might be influenced because they have no idea what "The New Yorker" is and will never look in that direction in a book store, and they are not in airports walking past newsstands. What is on the cover is a problem because there are tens of millions of Americans who either believe it to be a fact or think there might be some truth in it.


In this country there is a great divide between urban and rural, educated and uninformed, and people who watch Fox News and think that it is in fact News. Even my relatives in rural Washington State who are well educated are still influenced by living in a rural area where the people they talk to think Hannity is smart as a tack and Colmes a tough debater.

I am not talking about suburban areas a few miles from the cities but towns with a few hundred in counties with a few thousand. They don't watch the news much and the most educated person they listen to on non sporting subjects is their minister, priest or bartender.


If you take the 30% of the voting population out who will never vote for Senator Obama because he is African American, has a funny name and don't like his pastor you are left, obviously with 70%. For us to win we need to persuade 75% of the population that is indeed reasonable and not racist. Seventy five percent of any general population group is huge.


This is a huge mountain to climb and people who think that this election is a lock don't understand the vast unsophisticated back areas where rumors are exchanged in morning breakfast groups that meet in the local taverns in small towns across the country where the latest brilliant Rush Limbaugh pearl of wisdom is treated as gospel.


People who think that this election is going to be easy haven't been talking to the same people I have and you haven't been to places like El Centro.


If we are going to win we have a great deal of work to do.

[NattPang]

1. This should be a letter addressed to

The New Yorker editor, David Remnick.

Here is his direct email address: [email protected]

[grantcart]

4. I think you missed entirely my point

There are tens of millions of Americans that have no access to book stores that would sell The New Yorker and if they walked into such an establishment wouldn't look in that direction.


These are people who share the economic interests of the Democratic Party but they get their information from Fox News and the really well read ones will pick up a USA Today and think that it is an indepth thoughtful news source.


If we are going to win this election we are going to have to engage a lot of people who are experts in their local HS football/basketball team but are completely uninformed about real events.

[cliffordu]

9. Exactly.

[Neshanic]

5. "Hi, Dave here. I am back at the beach for my surfing lesson. Leave a message"

Having to go on Morning Joe was traumatic enough. Mixing with...well, non-hip people. You see my life is one big literary inside joke. Being around others unlike me is repulsive.

[cliffordu]

2. I've been waiting for you to weigh in, GC, and as usual you do not disappoint.

I rode my bicycle through El Centro a couple of years ago while on a long tour and understood EXACTLY where I was when I saw a pit bull that had been shot to death on a sidewalk near downtown. Nice place.

What part of Eastern Wa.?

My ma lives in Yakima.

Oh, yeah, K and R

[grantcart]

6. Places that think Yakima and Wenatchee are sophisticed places

There is another America out there and they are good people living on perspectives that the country has moved away from decades ago.


They are tired and dirty and work long hours and are getting poorer each year.


They should be enthusiastic Democrats but they are nervous and easily scarred.


They also think that Democrats look down on them.

[cliffordu]

8. WAPATO?????

:rofl:

I'm not laughing at you.....my mother was born there......

[tekisui]

23. The most important idea that needs to be communicated with

the working poor, is to empower them to vote for their OWN self-interest. The message doesn't have to be dumbed-down, just expressed clearly. Progressive Values are Working Class Values.

[Eyes_wide_ open]

24. They also think that Democrats look down on them.

From the sounds of things around here lately I couldn't argue with them.

Spot on

[Mz Pip]

3. I agree completely

I listened to an interview last week with Rick Shenkman on his book, "Just How Stupid Are We, Facing the Truth About ther American Voter."

http://www.amazon.com/Just-How-Stupid-Are-We/dp/0465077714/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1216057331&sr=1-1

People aren't necessarily stupid, the just don't take the time to seriously inform themselves. They vote based on soundbites, misinformation or little information.

A successful democracy requires its participants to be well informed. When you still, after all these years, have people who believe Saddam Hussein was behind 9/11 it's pretty obvious about how well informed we are.

[madeline_con]

7. Yes, and K&R

:kick:

[Cant trust em]

10. There's a reason that even California, the blue lock, has a lot of red in it.

Places like El Centro, Modesto, Fresno, Visalia might not be reading the New Yorker, but they are seeing the cover.

[1Hippiechick]

11. Everybody posting in here needs to become ACTIVE in registering voters any way , anytime they can!

Voter registration is critical!

Great post! Thanks.

:yourock:

:headbang:

:woohoo:

edited to add K&R!

[Cant trust em]

12. Voter registration is my favorite thing to work on.

Even if a particular candidate or platform doesn't get people excited, more people elligible for voting helps us all.

[1Hippiechick]

19. We've got to convince people to register AND to vote - everybody IMHO needs to be involved in this!

[wvbygod]

13. vast unsophisticated back areas

I have found most of these areas to reside within any large city limits.

[grantcart]

15. while that is true it there is also a completely different level

of "information sophistication".

And of course there are some rural areas that have active libraries and have churches that have active study groups and so on.


I just don't think there are many young democrats in urban areas who, like the guy I talked to yesterday, would have still believed the Muslim slur about Obama.


It is simply a matter of coming into contact with more diverse populations and sources of information. Again I think of visiting my brother and the towns daily ritual of meeting for breakfast in the local tavern that converts to a breakfast cafe for a few hours. The community's have become more homogeneous and farther apart.

By coincidence I have found Bill Clinton just spoke on this today


edited to add the link http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080713/ap_on_re_us/governors_bill_clinton


Clinton developed his 44-minute speech from themes he said he drew from a new book, "The Big Sort," by Bill Bishop.

He cited statistics compiled by Bishop that found that in the 1976 presidential election, only 20 percent of the nation's counties voted for Jimmy Carter or President Ford by more than a 20 percent margin.

By contrast, 48 percent of the nation's counties in 2004 voted for John Kerry or President Bush by more than 20 points, Clinton said.

"We were sorting ourselves out by choosing to live with people that we agree with," Clinton said.

Clinton has often meshed big picture admonitions with new books whose ideas he admires. He drew similar conclusions in 2000 following the publication of Robert Putnam's "Bowling Alone," on the decline of civic engagement in the United States.

[wvbygod]

17. President Clinton is right on

We miss him.

[1Hippiechick]

20. The problem I have with the voting statistics is that I believe that electronic voting fraud has

been occuring for years, and those "percentages" are the numbers that the corrupt corporate machine would have you believe. Same thing with polls. Control the masses. Divide and conquer....

[John Q. Citizen]

14. DFA Activist Night School Has George Lakoff by conference call. Free Thurs Night

George Lakoff is a linguist and a cognitive psychologist.

Get your chops together to hit the streets and convert conservatives (and others) into Obama voters.

*******

Ever wonder why simply stating our positions on the hot button issues isn't enough to win votes? Or why Democrats who try and adopt conservative stances on issues usually lose their elections even in conservative districts?

Professor George Lakoff has the answers and will show us how to frame the solutions during the next Night School. Thursday, Professor Lakoff will be our special guest trainer; highlighting specific thinking points from his new book "The Political Mind" and teaching the framing progressives need to know to win. Join us "Live from Netroots Nation" at a special time: 5:30pm Eastern.

The Political Mind with George Lakoff
Thursday 5:30pm Eastern Time


Howard Dean called Professor Lakoff "One of the most influential thinkers of the progressive movement." Lakoff's 2004 book "Don't Think of an Elephant" taught progressives how to take back the message and expose Republican framing. He changed the way people speak about the issues and now he's taken it to the next level with his new book.

We'll be spending an hour with Professor Lakoff as part of this special Netroots Nation edition of DFA Night School.

Night School is DFA's interactive online training program. Every month Night School brings top campaign experts right to your home at absolutely no cost to you. Simply visit www.democracyforamerica.com/lakoff to sign up and get the info you'll need to listen to the program live Thursday afternoon or listen to the recording on your own time. As always, Night School training will be accompanied by a slideshow that you can view from your computer.

Join Professor Lakoff and me at Netroots Nation and learn the secrets of the Political Mind.

[grantcart]

16. sounds interesting please post a reminder on thursday

[John Q. Citizen]

18. If you follow the link you can sign up and DFA will send you a reminder. I thought

this could be an applied solution to the problem cited in your OP.

If you miss the live event, I believe they tape them and you can download and listen later.

[1Hippiechick]

21. Psychology webinar? Check out Happiness Machines iin the meantime.

The webinar info needs to be gotten out! Have you posted this as its own topic? Or, would that be considered by DU an advertisng?

And, talk about psychology, go to the 6-part movie about Happiness Machines that chronicles how psychology has been used to control the crowds in a mass democracy, beginning in the 1920s in this country. Fascinating!

Here is the link to the first movie in the series.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeEXDQNsJtU

[JuniperLea]

22. One of my aunts now lives in Cashmere...

And she used to live in El Centro... weird, huh?

She claims Fox News is the only place to get the real truth. I know exactly what you are talking about.

Even when a lie or a misunderstanding is corrected, and those of us who keep ourselves informed understand completely, there will be those sitting in diners continuing to spread the lie or misunderstanding. The correction is heard once; the lie lives on and on and on...