Reply #8: Excellent Post!

[Mrs. Overall]

Such clear and articulate writing!

I agree with everything you say. I have family members who are "red" and I attribute much of it to lack of education and just simple ignorance of things outside their small community. I am the only one in my family to go to college and whenever I used to visit them on semester breaks, they would deride education and call me "uppity" and "fancy." I began to realize how limited the conversations were--they mostly talked or rather gossiped about other people in the community, no conversations about ideas, beliefs, the arts, etc... And when I would talk about ideas, especially political ideologies, they would become defensive and not want to know the information (ignorance is bliss syndrome). I think lack of education, lack of curiosity, and fear of the unknown and "foreign" creates much of the "red" mindset.