bloggy

Yup, so politicians are pandering for votes. Which is kind of like saying firefighters are spraying water at burning buildings. Looks like we can't rely on leaders and legislators to give gay people rights. Looks like we'll have to win that battle in the court of public opinion. Which means we're going to have to learn how to -- take a deep breath -- talk to Middle America.

Because, let's face it, we really do come off as elitist snobs a lot of the time. Liberalism does tend to be concentrated in these larger cities which become ivory towers and echo chambers in which we constantly tell each other how much smarter and more sophisticated we are than those backward hicks who live in "flyover country." Many of us spent most of our lives in urban areas and may be genuinely out of touch, but I don't think that's the meat of the problem. Far more of us are people who grew up in small towns or suburban environments and then escaped to big cities. We were the black sheep of our families. The kids who got picked on in school. The ones who had different values from our classmates and different ideas about what we wanted out of life. We moved to these cities as refugees and said "fuck the rest of them. They can keep their tract homes and their porcelain knickknacks and their endless conversations about their weddings and their kids and their trips to the mall." Those of us who stayed behind (and I'm still in touch with a few of them) formed small camps of like-minded people and huddled together, lamenting the stupidity of the masses who surrounded them.

Well, I'm getting sick of it. When we ask ourselves "why don't these people realize that our economic ideas benefit them?" or "don't they have kids who might be sent to war thanks to Dubya?" we should ask ourselves "would you believe things like that if they came from the mouths of people who think of you as an idiot?" And when we accuse Middle Americans of being anti-gay bigots we need to ask ourselves where that bigotry comes from and how widespread it really is. Does everyone who voted against same-sex marriage really hate fags or are there other underlying issues? And how can we address them in a way that suburbanites and small towners will accept?

Because when you get right down to it, all of us (I mean ALL of us) really want the same things: A little comfort, a little safety, a little feeling that our existence is of some consequence. Let's start there and figure out what else we have in common with the people that most of us grew up with.

Saying "I'll cut your taxes" when you won't is pandering. Saying "fuck the homos, they don't have anywhere else to go" is quite something else.

I grew up in a small town in Arkansas, and I am thrilled to death to be gone from there. My mother has lived in the state her whole life, and has watched it gradually be taken over by Fox-watching fundamentalists who have no grasp of reality. They vote for the pro-death penalty, pro-war candidate because they think that's what Jesus wants.

Someone else can figure out how to talk to people that think it's wrong for the government to worry about how everyone could have healthcare, but it's OK for the government to pass anti-gay laws.

Every other western democracy got rid of its sodomy laws through the democratic process, without having to resort to courts declaring the laws illegal. Apparently, enough Americans want this to be a theocratic state.

You can be a better person than I and try to talk to those people, but I don't know how to negotiate with people who vote against their own economic interest and that of their children, because they think God wants someone who can keep the faggots and niggers down.

Those people still regularly use the word "nigger" in my presence, or at least they did until I stopped visiting the state in 1992. They are bigots and idiots, and I will call them that whenever I get the chance.

Oy. On second thought, let's try the opposite approach.

Let's parade Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, and Bill O'Reilly through the red states. Without any handlers. Let average Americans get up close and personal with these representative champions of the working class, and see how warmly these rich urbanites really respond to them.

Liberal elitists have already done a good job of turning off Middle America. It's high time we get some conservative elitists to do the same.

We should run ads featuring Rush Limbaugh's interview with Cigar Afficionado where he talked about his love of vintage Bordeaux.

http://www.cigaraficionado.com/Cigar/CA_Profiles/People_Profile/0,2540,18,00.html