Posted on 10/09/2008 10:25:09 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
WASHINGTON -- If you're a Democrat who needs help getting the votes of rural white folks, the go-to guy is David "Mudcat" Saunders, a central-casting political consultant recently made famous by a parade of magazine writers led by The Weekly Standard's Matt Labash.
But sometimes you can learn more about a people and their place through literature than by hiring consultants. So I called Ron Rash, poet, author and purebred Appalachian whose newest novel, "Serena," should be at the top of Barack Obama's reading list.
Sarah Palin might enjoy it as well. Described by one blurber as "an Appalachian retelling of Macbeth," the story features a strong woman who hunts rattlesnakes with an eagle. An Academy Award nomination awaits the woman who plays Serena, predicts novelist Pat Conroy.
I asked Rash, with whom I've visited on occasion: What does Obama need to do to win the hearts and votes of Appalachia?
Rash is a lean, wiry man who has trouble sitting in a chair with both feet on the ground, usually pulling one knee to his chest like a yogi. He speaks in quick bursts like an engine spitting in the cold -- or a man more accustomed to thinking than talking.
Though an Obama man, Rash is quick to condemn the snobbery he has observed toward Palin. He cringes when he hears a news anchor refer to his home turf as "redneck country." Or when the bad guy in movies too often has a Southern accent.
But, he says, "One thing about Appalachian people is they don't bitch and moan."
Rash's Appalachian roots run 200 years deep, and he has the tales to prove it. One that may prove helpful to Obama in understanding the character of his people tells of a Confederate soldier who dropped by Rash's family farm near Boone, N.C., to confiscate their only horse for the Confederacy.
As the soldier left whistling "Dixie," the lady of the house shouted: "Before morning, you'll be whistling 'Dixie' in hell."
Indeed, the next morning, the fellow was found face down in a creek two miles away -- and the horse was back in the barn.
Moral: Don't mess with Appalachia.
Obama has more in common with the mountain people than he may realize, says Rash, who is the Parris distinguished professor in Appalachian cultural studies at Western Carolina University in Cullowee, N.C.
African-Americans built this country and got nothing back, he says. So did Appalachians. What Obama may not know is that most mountain communities were pro-Union during the Civil War. These often-impoverished descendants of the Scots-Irish weren't slaveholders, after all. In a sense, blacks and Appalachians are natural allies.
As Virginia Sen. Jim Webb wrote in The Wall Street Journal: "The greatest realignment in modern politics would take place rather quickly if the right national leader found a way to bring the Scots-Irish and African-Americans to the same table."
Moreover, the civil rights and anti-slavery movements were long a part of Appalachia, says Rash. "Rosa Parks attended a workshop in Appalachia before she sat on that bus."
Thus, when Obama visits the region, Rash recommends that he say the following:
"I know that for well over a century, the only time people come to Appalachia is when they want something. They want your coal, your timber and they want your vote. They take what they want and they leave and they don't come back until they want some more. I'm not going to do that.
"I'll make a vow to you today that a year from now, I'll be back. And we'll discuss what I've done and whether you feel like I've honored what I've said here today. I'll come back this time of year for as long as I am president."
Obama should also say that though he is different in many ways, he is much the same. He didn't grow up with wealth, and had to work hard, as they do. On the war -- a prickly point in these parts -- Obama should recognize that Appalachia has contributed more than its fair share to America's wars. He should say:
"We may disagree about this war, but one reason I disagree is because this region more than any other has sent soldiers into battle for this country. And part of honoring that is not sending them into a war that has not been well thought-out."
Straight talk without condescension is all anyone asks. It may be all Obama needs to finish the race.
My family landed in 1690, settling Pennsylvania and moving west. My late father grew up in Northern Missouri (St. Joseph, Allendale, Grant City) and Iowa (Coon Rapids). Mrs. Roosevelt was revered by his family, but everyone is now Republican. As President Reagan said “I didn’t leave the democratic party, it left me.”
It’s hard to imagine an ethnic group less congenially disposed to Obama and the Left’s statist and morally vacant dirigism than the Scotch-Irish.
There’s no respectful way to tell the Scotch-Irish that they’re not competent to run their own lives and families without state oversight.
Parker is thin year’s Arianna Huffington.
Thanks for the link, I love reading old books.
Oh how true.
I don't have the time to backtrack completely but Parker decided a couple weeks ago to pen an appeal for McCain to drop Palin because of her media interviews, particuarly with Katie Couric. Of course McCain couldn't do such a thing, let alone Obama, although Obama could get a pass if Old Joe suddenly became "sick".
So Parker was asking McCain to drop Palin which would guarantee a loss...so that he could win. Then she gets a justifiable, angry response from conservatives that know that she not only undermined McCain by demanding he do the suicide move but because she automatically gave the MSM the latest "even strong Republicans agree..." mantra.
Since then she penned a condescending review of the VP debate which oozed with an anger towards many of us that complained about her previous logic/position/reasoning and now she has seemingly gone all the way by saying "screw you, conservatives" in this latest column.
"A little straight talk is all we ask for" couldn't possibly be a more clear jab at McCain, Palin and everyone that will vote for the Republican ticket against Obama/Biden. Hey she'll make more money than she ever did if she becomes the new David Brock/Arianna Huffington of the left.
National Review is really losing cred.
“To Appalachia With...Respect”
The definition of a “telling headline”; why not have respect for all, rather than a select few or at a particular election cycle?
WELL HE’S NOT VERY HANDSOME TO LOOK AT
AW HE’S SHAGGY AND EATS LIKE A HOG
AND HE’S ALWAYS KILLIN’ MY CHICKENS
THAT DIRTY OLD EGG-SUCKING DOG
[CHORUS]
EGG-SUCKING DOG
I’M GONNA STOMP YOUR HEAD IN THE GROUND
IF YOU DON’T STAY OUT OF MY HEN HOUSE
YOU DIRTY OLD EGG-SUCKING HOUND
NOW IF HE DON’T STOP EATIN’ MY EGGS UP
THOUGH I’M NOT A REAL BAD GUY
I’M GOIN’ TO TAKE MY RIFLE AND SEND HIM
TO THAT GREAT CHICKEN HOUSE IN THE SKY
—Jack Clement
How to help Barack Hussein Obama sway Appalachia? They can easily tell when somebody is lying so I’m not sure if he would want to drop in.
What a strange article for Parker to write.
There is also another glaring oversight in this fiction. The Appalachian people can spot a snake oil peddler a mile away. Got no truck with em. You mind yore own bizness an I’ll mind mine. Clannish and not taken to outsiders until they “prove” trustworthy.
“I often post articles from lefties, mushy moderates, RINOs, kooks, peacecreeps and other assorted creatures. We shouldn’t live in a bubble like the far-left does.”
I don’t have a problem with that. It’s worth knowing, maybe not what makes these folks tick, but where they are coming from. When faced with their faulty logic in other areas of life their philosophy can then easily be deconstructed.
I was curious about what had happened to Parker after the initial Palin attack. I thought possibly that she was being taken behind the woodshed rather quckly ~ now it all makes sense.
Kathleen who?
I love ‘em Nan, but let’s not strain that arm patting them on the back while Rockefeller and Byrd inhabit the Senate ~ and look to stay there until death they do part.
No time soon.
Can no one rid us of these meddlesome “conservative” pundits?
She's a member of the Washington Post Writers' Group, like George Will -- she's another house conservative for Ben Bradlee's smog machine.
The lefty-trendy gayish editors of the Houston Chronicle frequently run her stuff, trying to poison the Houston conservatives.
BTTT.
I’m appalcahian and this stupid woman does not know what she is talking about. I know the folks back home, and for good or ill, despite being mostly Democrats (old line New Deal, BTW), they will NOT vote for a black man, much less an out and out Communist, under any circumstances. During the Rat primary, Hillary carried SWVA by 90%!!!!! What does that say about Barry Hussein’s chances in the region?
Yep, as a proud Appalachian American with 200 yrs of ancestry in VA, WNC & ETN, Ms. Parker must have looked a long time to find a Lefty Professor to substantiate the lie that the Appalachian voter could be scammed by a Black Marxist. Ms Parker should be banished to the dustbin of journalism along with her WaPo fellow travelers.
This is some kind of bluff by Obama, or possibly it is really just Parker blowing smake at us, now that no one reads her stuff.
You’re right, Obama has no intention of trying to win in Appalachia. He doesn’t stand a chance there.
Great. My tax dollars pay the salary of an idiot who doesn't even know that Osama is the son of an AFRICAN temporary visitor to our country, not an "African-American" with any experience or history in the U.S.
But aside from that, as usual, the advice to B.H.O. is "tell people whatever lies you think will convince them to vote for you."
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