Want to understand Kerry loss? Don't talk down to mid-America

Omaha World Herald ^ | 11/6 | KATHLEEN PARKER

[alydar]

As stunned Democrats scratch the dry earth for signs and glance heavenward for clues to the strange universe that re-elected George W. Bush, it seems unduly cruel to withhold what Ordinary Americans have known all along.

Herewith a few hints: Michael Moore, Bruce Springsteen, P. Diddy, Paris Hilton, Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, Brad Pitt, Jennifer Aniston, Bar- bra Streisand, Jon Bon Jovi, Uma Thurman, Kirsten Dunst, Leonardo DiCaprio, Teresa Heinz Kerry, Ron Reagan, MoveOn.org, Dan Rather, the French - and everyone else who would be speaking German today if not for the bravery and sacrifice of Ordinary Americans who today are held in such contempt by all of the above.

It's the elitism, mes freres.

Here's another clue: When courting voters in flyover states, one does not say: "I love you, stupid redneck morons." Especially not when sporting biking tights and straddling an $8,000 two-wheeler - a dollar amount, incidentally, that to many Ordinary Americans is a life's savings.

Not that John F. Kerry ever said such. But he didn't have to. Preening in luxury, surrounded by celebrity friends contemptuous of the values ordinary Americans hold dear, he might as well have waltzed down Beale Street whistling Dixie.

Never has a politician been so out of touch with the voters whose goals he purportedly shares. Nor has a party been so out of tune with the nation's defining song: "God Bless America."

The folks who re-elected Bush not only voted for the man they felt best represents their interests, but also against a culture they see as alien and hostile. The Bush vote was equally a protest against Hollywood, an increasingly untrustworthy news media and the puerile Michael Moore contingent.

What those three cultural entities have in common as viewed from America's heartland is an attitude of effete superiority that isn't just untenable but despised.

In Thursday's New York Times, cosmopolitan New Yorkers grappling with Kerry's unthinkable defeat told the story.

Beverly Camhe, a film producer, Zito Joseph, a retired psychiatrist, and Roberta Kimmel Cohn, an art dealer - elite New Yorkers all - were stunned. In Joseph's words, Bush voters are "obtuse," "short-sighted," "redneck," "shoot-from-the-hip" religious literalists.

"New Yorkers are more sophisticated and at a level of consciousness where we realize we have to think of globalization, of one mankind, that what's going to injure masses of people is not good for us," Joseph said as he shared coffee and cigarettes with Cohn at an outdoor cafe.

The two-America divide isn't fiction after all. And the division, as nearly everyone has noted, is about values.

But what the Democrats got wrong, and what the Times subjects seem to be missing, is that traditional values and sophistication are not mutually exclusive. Nor does sophistication equate to intelligence, we hasten to add.

People who believe in heterosexual marriage because the traditional family model best serves children and therefore society are not ipso facto homophobic.

Americans vexed about our casual disregard for human life are not necessarily Stepford-Neanderthals. And those people who believe in some power greater than themselves are not always rubes.

In small towns across the nation, especially in the Deep South, one can find plenty of well-traveled, multilingual, latté-loving, Ivy-educated Ph.D.s, if that's your measure of sophistication.

But they're not snobs, nor do they sneer at people who pay more than lip service to traditional values. In fact, they often share those very values in quiet, thoughtful, deliberative ways.

The Democratic Party is now entering the post-election navel-gazing stage of self-recrimination and analysis. How did it lose the very people who are supposed to be its target constituents?

The puzzle is not that the Democrats lost, but that they can't see how. It's simple:

• When Michael Moore, the unkempt, perennially juvenile propagandist, is the face of your party, you lose the grownups.

• When a gum-smacking Ben Affleck is your most articulate celebrity spokesman, you lose regular folks too busy with bills and children to (a) give a rip what Ben Affleck thinks or (b) figure out who he is.

• When the news media position, inflate or distort news to advance their political agenda, you lose fair-minded Americans who would rather go with an ordinary man who shares their values than with the pampered darling of the New York bistro set. In a nutshell.

Getting back to real America won't be an easy trip for many of those now seeking answers. As any of those evangelical Christians who voted Bush will tell you, you have to believe before you can see.

[xtinct]

[Texas_Jarhead]

good piece

[socialismisinsidious]

most excellent!

[RippleFire]

bump

[JoanneSD]

Please, some on tell the Dems to quit going to churches that are predominately Black, which they ignore the rest of the time except at election time..you can bet the farm that Kerry and Terri wont be going to one this Sunday..

[T. Buzzard Trueblood]

Zito Joseph, a retired psychiatrist...Joseph's words, Bush voters are "obtuse," "short-sighted," "redneck," "shoot-from-the-hip" religious literalists.

Physician, heal thyself. Sounds like Dr. Joseph could use some Lithium.

[jocon307]

"Preening in luxury, surrounded by celebrity friends contemptuous of the values ordinary Americans hold dear, [Kerry] might as well have waltzed down Beale Street whistling Dixie."

LOL, I love the preening, that's dead on. But I don't get the Beale St./Dixie part at all. Can anyone explain that?

[RightWingBev]

I have one word
AMEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[MKM1960]

Probably it was an illusion to wildly insensitive behavior. Beale Street is the home of the Blues in Memphis, TN and Dixie is a song associated with the Confederate.

[MKM1960]

Confederate Army

[Blood of Tyrants]

It is quite ironic that the liberals believe that the problem is that the people just don't understand liberalism when the truth is that the more they learn about liberalism, the more they reject it.

[stands2reason]

Beale Street is a famous blues street in Memphis in a predominantly black neighborhood.

[King Prout]

a VERY cogent analysis

[King Prout]

< nitpick >
allusion
< /nitpick >

:)

[codercpc]

Is anyone else sick and tired of hearing that the total meaning of "morals" is gay-marraige and abortion?

I am pro-life, and anti gay marriage, but that's not all that my vote was based on!!

It was based on the "morals" of a party that wants to take "God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance. It was based on the "morals" of patriotism. It was based on the "morals" of supporting our troops, always. It was based on the "morals" of the Hollywood elite, trying to tell me that I was stupid if I didn't believe what they wanted me to believe.

And finally it was based on the "morals" of having a President in the White House, who wasn't afraid to say that his wife is the love of his life, and you believe him, setting another great example for my child on what a good marriage looks like and feels like (not some gigolo that seemed to abhor his wife)!!!

God Bless America!!!!!!!!!!!

[Magnolia]

Beverly Camhe, a film producer, Zito Joseph, a retired psychiatrist, and Roberta Kimmel Cohn, an art dealer - elite New Yorkers all - were stunned. In Joseph's words, Bush voters are "obtuse," "short-sighted," "redneck," "shoot-from-the-hip" religious literalists.

I've thought about this since I read the NYT article quoting these elitists on Thursday. Who the HELL do they think they are and why are their opinions & vote more valid than mine? America spoke on Tuesday Beverly, Zito & Roberta and YOU are the ones out of the mainstream.

[SERKIT]

At the debate, Kerry could simply look around the room and was able to identify 3, only THREE, who made over $200,000...wow what a talent. What about a guy out of a job, and instead of whining about it, or standing on an unemployment line for 36 months, decided to start his own business and instantly become an eeevvviiiillll rich person, simply for pursuing the American dream. Kerry has America all wrong. His effeminate running mate was right though: They DID identify two Americas- The ones who GET IT, and the others who DON'T.