[Claud]

The most profound clash between the South and everyone else, of course, is a cultural one. It arises from the southern tradition of putting values — particularly Christian values — at the center of politics. This is not the same as saying that the Republican Party is “too far right”; Americans consistently tell pollsters that they are conservative on values issues. It is, rather, that the Republicans have narrowly defined “values” as the folkways of one regional subculture, and have urged their imposition on the rest of the country.

I don't agree with the author's analysis here. I'm a fiercely proud northern Catholic, I guess originally "urban" though we live in the burbs now. In many ways, southern evangelical culture looks, to be honest, a little weird to me. But whatever. I certainly don't feel as if the Republicans have *defined* that as the party--especially as most of the Republicans I know are formerly urban northern Catholics like myself. You folks in the South and folks in the West and folks in the Midwest got your ways of being conservative--we got ours, and that's fine by me!

I think the media likes to make the equation Republican = Southern Evangelical because that's who the libs love to despise around here. Libs here in the NE look down their noses at them, so it serves the media's interest to portray the GOP look like that: "So you want to associate yourself with these rubes??" And my answer to that is "Frankly, yes I do."

Federalism properly applied means that conservatism in Pennsylvania and New Jersey is gonna look different than in Tennessee or Wyoming. That's part of the genius of our system.

And for the record, this Northeastern (sub)urban conservative thinks Palin was an awesome pick. It's not a problem for me that she defines a "Western" conservatism over "Eastern" conservatism. Because I recognize in her, and in Alaska culture now, those same qualities that we had in Pennsylvania and Jersey back in the 1700s when we were a howling wilderness.

[maica]

And for the record, this Northeastern (sub)urban conservative thinks Palin was an awesome pick.

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You are obviously not part of the ‘elite’ being written about in this article. You are in the category of “regular folks.”
So am I - we happen to live above the Mason-Dixon line but do not align with Olympia Snowe, Susan Collins and Christie Todd Whitman, just to name a few of my own sex.