An open letter to Red America
We’re being told that this election result was in part about the snooty Dems’ condescending attitude toward the hillbillies in “flyover country.” I’ve heard it from a conservative friend, and I heard a double dose of it last night on Maher from Alan Simpson (who, by the way, really had his Depends in a wad for some reason – when you’re berating Bill Maher for not respecting gays, you have officially lost touch with reality) and Andrew Sullivan, (who was oscillating back and forth between crisp insight and blathering incoherence so rapidly it’s like his brain was set on “strobe”). But the general message was clear enough: snobby liberal intellectual elites apparently alienated the regular folk in Red Nation, and you’re never going to get elected if you don’t start treating them and their values with some respect.
Okay, cool, we can talk about that. I grew up working class in a conservative Southern Baptist home in North Carolina – I’d be stunned to learn that Kerry pulled a single vote out of my old neighborhood – and I am all about a good, dignified life for my people back in Wallburg. I haven’t forgotten my roots, despite my many years of overeducation. But if the conversation is going to go anywhere productive, the folks in certain parts of flyover country are going to have to stop acting like uneducated yokels. No, this story isn’t about everybody in the red states, but not all progressives are snide, arrogant, Satan-worshipping intellectuals, either.
So let’s set us up a table, sit down, and talk respectfully about America. Your America. My America. Our America. And here’s the first item I want to put on the agenda: Wisconsin district to teach creationism
Bottom line: I’m more than willing to treat people with respect, but that respect thing goes both ways. We can’t have an intelligent discussion if you don’t value intelligence and education. If you insist that I treat flat-earth theory as though it’s as valid as real science, then we can’t talk. If I do that, I’m not treating you with respect, I’m patronizing you, and in that case I really am guilty of treating you like a yokel. Treating you with genuine respect means I hold you accountable to some basic standards of education.
So, the question those of you in flyover country need to start asking, now that you’ve made your point, is this: do you want respect, or do you want to be pandered to?
I value the idea of an educated, united America. But if unity means I have to bow down to faith-based science, I’m going to choose “deeply divided.” You outvoted Blue America – narrowly – this time, but what’s going to happen when you don’t win the vote? And you won’t, not forever. History teaches us that, in spades. You might start thinking now, while you have the freedom that comes with being in power, about building a place for yourself when you again find yourself in the minority. How much respect you’re treated with then might have a lot to do with how you spend that capital President Bush says you earned over the next four years.
Your call, Red America.
lullaby pit 
May I friend you? I would like to read more about what you have to say. I am not particularly interesting so you don’t need to friend me back.
Thank you!
by all means
The more friends the better, huh? 🙂
Boomers and Unification
This hits half of what I want to say. The other half will turn up in Savoy Truffle in the next day or so. I’m finally calm enough to make some observations about the swine generation I’m such an integral part of….
BTW, thanks for speaking up for education. It does no good to negotiate with stupidity and ignorance. Our only course now can be to confront it. I have no intention of “accepting” their values, as Simpson and Sullivan suggested. And I have no intention of remaining silent. And unless the #$#@#$ Democrats get a clue, I have no intention of rejoining their party which I have left….
Re: by all means
Only if they are quality ones. I have thrown a bunch of people out of my LJ. I got pretty ticked off at people who support Bush.
I am pretty upset that HR 163 would open up selective service, but wait, under Section 7 people that are going to military school are exempt. Oh, and under Section 8, conscientious objectors will get a civil service job. Wait aren’t these the same patriotic and brave souls that support Bush because they like his values? I guess it is easy to be patriotic and brave when it is someone else’s blood that will be shed.
I have a 16 year old son that I have worked very hard to raise. He is my only child. The thought of having him sent overseas to fight a war that I don’t believe in and that has never been justified with anything more than allegation and lies, angers me to no end.
If after reading my LJ did not educate them, then there is no hope for them. Thank you for speaking up about the frightening ignorance of people.
Re: Boomers and Unification
I guess that I’m Anon, since I don’t have a LJ account, but just an FYI, I’m actually the Daedalnexus dude (see the links). Now that’s out of the way.
I’ve just found out something – the neighbors of my parents whose kids I grew up with are still tied very well into the Colorado Democratic Party. You know, that Bush state where the Democrats just took control of the state House and Senate for the first time since 1960, where the Democrats picked up a House seat, and where the only current Hispanic Senator will be sent to the Senate from the Democratic Party? Since we went for Bush (unfortunately) but gave the Democrats so much this year, maybe the Colorado Democrats are actually doing something right for a change.
Since I’m seriously considering talking to the neighbors before too long and getting politically involved, maybe you’d care to tell me what you think the Democrats need in order to have a clue, and I can pass it along.