Ten points for Blue Americans to remember about Middle America
Recently, a lot of people on the coasts and in large Northern cities and environs have complained that they “do not understand” Middle America, or why we would vote to re-elect the President. A few have even lamented that they do not understand our way of life or why we think the way we do in these parts. We are not as “progressive,” they tell us.Well, in the interest of the “desperate need for unity” that John Kerry spoke of, and in the name of fostering a greater understanding between the Coasts and the Rest of America, I have made a list of ten important points that people from Blue America should remember about people from Red America.
1. Yes, a lot of us really listen to country music. This is because we can understand the words, and the music doesn’t keep our heads pounding. The emotion of that music, a music of ordinary people who work for a living, is something that we tend to identify with.
2. Just because we vote Republican does not make us all wealthy. This is some sort of myth that people in the Northeast and West Coast tend to have, and frankly, we don’t understand it. I’m not rich, and few people I know actually possess great material wealth, but a lot of them voted for George W. Bush. They didn’t do so because they are stupid, they did so because they believed it was in their best interest, and in the larger interest of the country.
3. Material wealth or its accumulation is not evil. We tend to believe in the opportunity of America, and thus, we also tend to believe that we have the right to better ourselves. Many of us may never achieve great wealth, but that is not our goal. We merely want to achieve a decent standard of living without being taxed by the government to pay for everyone else’s standard of living.
4. Most of us believe in God, and a lot of us attend church. This tends to affect how we view the world. True believers are not going to leave their beliefs behind at a schoolhouse door or a voting booth. We don’t like being told we need to compartmentalize our lives or our beliefs, and we refuse, by and large, to do so. This does not make us all fundamentalists. I happen to be a pretty devout Catholic, and am known for a fondness for beer. I don’t leave my beliefs in church, though, I practice them, and so do a lot of the other “values voters” who re-elected the President.
5. Yes, some of us actually believe abortion is wrong. Some of us believe it to be murder. Sue us. Women are not, as one New York leftist rag rightly put it after the election “ovaries with feet.” Just because a candidate thinks abortion is fine and dandy does not mean he or she is good for women.
6. We do not hate black people, Hispanics, or any other ethnic group. We believe that everyone ought to be afforded equality under the law…nothing different or special, just equality and respect, regardless of who you might be or where you came from.
7. We believe, as evidenced by several referenda in mostly “red states,” in the sanctity of the matrimonial bond. This does not mean we have hatred for gay people. Frankly, we don’t care what you do in the privacy of your own home, behind your own closed doors. The lifestyle you choose to lead is your business. However, if it is a lifestyle we believe to be morally wrong, do not expect us to accept it as normal. (And, by the way, just because we don’t agree with how you live doesn’t mean we’ll mistreat you, or refuse to have you as a friend or a neighbor.) Calling two men living together or two women living together “marriage” is an insult to us. We aren’t out to insult anyone, so in return, we’d prefer not to be insulted by having the new order of liberalism shoved down our throats.
8. Some of us drive pickup trucks, own guns, and chew tobacco, while some engage in one or two of those practices but not all three. Still others do not do any of those things, but would not disparage others the privilege. Whether we do or do not doesn’t give people like Joan Baez the right to mock us as if we were mere idiots, the way she is reported to have done after the election at a concert in a mock Southern accent. If liberals, and particularly people on the coasts, dislike Middle America so much, why do they insist on sharing the continent with us?
9. In the South, they may talk slow, but they aren’t stupid. Southern women are not all barefoot, pregnant, and in the kitchen. Many are educated, well-informed, voting American citizens. They just happen to be more conservative than people in New York City, largely because they have a high sense of tradition. It is commonly accepted by people of both genders in the South that often, the old way of doing things still works, so if it isn’t broken, they don’t attempt to fix it.
10. New York City is not the center of the universe. It is not the “capital of the world.” It is a nice place to visit. Frankly, Chicago or Atlanta are just as lovely as New York, and a bit nicer on occasion.
posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 4:37 PM
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