Rall: Confessions of a Cultural Elitist

[MountainLaurel]

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.

Mine is a common story. Every day in America, hundreds of our most talented young men and women flee the suburbs and rural communities for big cities, especially those on the West and East Coasts. Their youthful vigor fuels these metropolises--the cultural capitals of the blue states. These oases of liberal thinking--New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston--are homes to our best-educated people, most vibrant popular culture and most innovative and productive businesses. There are exceptions--some smart people move from cities to the countryside--but the best and brightest gravitate to places where liberalism rules.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&ncid=748&e=1&u=/ucru/20041110/cm_ucru/confessionsofaculturalelitist

[Bill McBlueState]

1. education level

You are 25 percent more likely to hold a college degree if you live in the Democratic northeast than in the red state south. Blue state voters are 25 percent more likely, therefore, to understand the historical and cultural ramifications of Bush's brand of bull-in-a-china-shop foreign policy.

I don't think the conclusion follows in this case. Of all the Bush supporters I know, most of them have college degrees. I don't think most college students learn about things like "historical and cultural ramifications" anymore.

A higher level of education may lead to a better understanding of world issues, but it's no guarantee of that.

[gnofg]

4. forgot

You forgot the other motivator of the repubs-greed

[TolstoyAndy]

2. Ted rocks

He so often says what's on my mind. I'm sooo :puke: of being told by conservative acquaintances (and now even by Democratic Senators) that I'm an arrogant elitist for pointing out that Bush lies, that he let 9-11 happen bc he didn't try to stop it, that Bush can't speak English correctly. These things are all true, but if I point them out, I'm an arrogant elitist. Riiight.

Rock on Ted! Fuck Red!

[bloom]

3. Frontline exposed one of the Republican's main emotional manipulators

last night. (Will be available online).

Luntz was very proud of how he sees people as being 80% emotional 20% rational - and so if you just change the words of some things like "estate tax" to "death tax" (he uses focus groups to figure this out) then you don't have convince people with reason.
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I live in a red state - and I have felt a strong pull to move to a liberal city for awhile. Still debating.

[Bossy Monkey]

5. kicking for dot75, who asked me to post it n/t