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Disconnected from Obama's America: Rural areas that rejected him are wary of his urban views
MSNBC / The Washington Post ^ | January 16, 2009 | Anne Hull

Posted on 01/16/2009 1:34:00 AM PST by 2ndDivisionVet

BRINKLEY, Ark. - Wayne Loewer's truck reveals a lot about his life. A 12-gauge shotgun for duck hunting rests on the floorboard. A blue thermal lunch bag containing elk meat is shoved under the seat, left in haste that morning by his teenage son rushing to catch the school bus.

Binoculars in the console help Loewer scan his 2,900 acres of rice, soybeans and corn.

The dashboard radio is set to classic rock, playing the same Lynyrd Skynyrd tunes from Loewer's high school days, when Brinkley was still a thriving small town with stores and a movie theater.

His muddy truck is 900 miles from the kiosks crowding Pennsylvania Avenue selling "Hope Won" T-shirts. But more than miles separate Loewer from the coming celebration in Washington over Barack Obama's inauguration as president.

The 52-year-old farmer is a conservative Democrat who bet on Republican John McCain and lost, a description that would apply to many in the white South. Now Loewer wonders about his place in Obama's America.

"I'm worried that he's not gonna understand the rural way of life," he says.

On this cold January day, Loewer makes his morning rounds -- the irrigation company, the seed distributor, a well supplier -- and everywhere he goes, the same anxieties are expressed.

"That comment he made about guns and religion, it's frightening, you have to admit," says the secretary at his accountant's office.

Loewer agrees. "I don't believe in going around with a gun strapped to your hip, Wild West-style," he says. "But you ought to be able to protect yourself."

He understands the cultural chasm between him and Obama's Ivy League, biracial, global polish. He realizes he is set apart from the 53 percent majority that put Obama in the White House.

(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; News/Current Events; Politics/Elections; US: Arkansas
KEYWORDS: agenda; banglist; bho2008; black; blacks; economy; obama; racerelations; redstates; ruralvote; socializedmedicine
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To: sergeantdave
Just an old Keyboard Cowboy...gating back out, into Cyberspace and the Dreamtime

-30-

21 posted on 01/16/2009 2:52:21 AM PST by backhoe (All across America, the Lights are going out...)
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To: iopscusa

Thank you- I appreciate that.


22 posted on 01/16/2009 2:53:00 AM PST by backhoe (All across America, the Lights are going out...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
I am hearing this very thing here in Arkansas, as well as in southwest Virginia. A lot of folks are worried and they may be right to be worried. Obama carried VA thanks to the DC suburbs, but that is a different world than where I was raised.
23 posted on 01/16/2009 2:53:08 AM PST by Jubal Madison
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To: Fred Nerks

Lord, I miss Ronald Reagan...


24 posted on 01/16/2009 2:54:41 AM PST by backhoe (All across America, the Lights are going out...)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Appreciate your philosophy, but that is one butt-ugly pistol!

If I had been your "firearms advisor", I'd have recommended at least the Browning Hi-Power.. All-steel, 13 round capacity, solid combat history, accurate as a target pistol, and of course, John Moses Browning's last design. Fairly common at gun shows for $300 - $800, depending on collectibility.

When your life and your freedom depend on it, you get what you pay for..

25 posted on 01/16/2009 3:19:48 AM PST by Chinstrap61a
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To: Jubal Madison
I hear the same thing down here in the ArkLaTex. The die- hard Democrats will not defend their Fearless Leader. I take pot shots at them and they won't even rise to the bait. It's hilarious. ;0)
26 posted on 01/16/2009 3:25:00 AM PST by seemoAR
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Theres nothing wrong with Hi Point firearms. I own quite a few firearms, and found a 995 carbine when I was browsing a local pawnshop. It was so damn ugly I just had to have it. After a little shooting with it I was impressed to say the least. I decked it out in a new ATI stock, with laser system,and put a mid-priced red-dot scope on it. It’s become one of my favorites-cheap to shoot,accurate, and the warranty is unbeatable. I will be buying their .45 pistol as soon as possible.


27 posted on 01/16/2009 3:38:09 AM PST by Into the Vortex
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

We are wary because he has no idea what our lives are like. He has a TV version of a country person and has lived so “multi-culturally” all his life, that he doesn’t understand his own American culture. Except what he has seen in New York City, Chicago and an island in the South Pacific.


28 posted on 01/16/2009 3:51:11 AM PST by autumnraine
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"The 52-year-old farmer is a conservative Democrat who bet on Republican John McCain and lost,..."

Ah, so the purpose of an election is to try to figure out ahead of time, who is going to win, then vote for that guy too? Or you've bet and lost. Insanity.

29 posted on 01/16/2009 3:56:51 AM PST by Jabba the Nutt (No more Bushs.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
He understands the cultural chasm between him and Obama's Ivy League, biracial, global polish. He realizes he is set apart from the 53 percent majority that put Obama in the White House.

Unfortunately for the landowners and actual producers in "flyover" country, they are the spoils of the cultural war. They provide the revenues that are used by the winners to pay off their ever increasing army of entitlement recipients. Like Joe the plumber they are punished for being successful in order to "spread the wealth." The Marxists will increase taxes in order to have more revenue for more entitlements, and thus increase their base of voters with a vested interest in keeping the socialists in power until the economy collapses as it has before 100% of the time. How long can the country survive with the Marxists in control?

I fear "One World" government with the institution of more taxes to support the United Nations; what will they call it, past owed dues or contributions?

30 posted on 01/16/2009 4:17:08 AM PST by olezip
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

“A blue thermal lunch bag containing elk meat is shoved under the seat”

WHAT? ELK MEAT??????

Where the hell did they get elk in Arkansas? It’s very evident that the author of this trash didn’t know “shit from shineola” about what they were writing about.

If anyone believed any word of the article past that first sentence then they deserve the wondrous and great “zerO.”


31 posted on 01/16/2009 5:36:59 AM PST by DH (The government writes no bill that does not line the pockets of special interests.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Re: “I’m worried that he’s not gonna understand the rural way of life,” he says.

Don’t worry. He won’t.

Nor will he try.


32 posted on 01/16/2009 5:47:02 AM PST by Red in Blue PA (Guns don't kill people; abortion clinics do.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Anybody know someone who would leave their 12-gauge shotgun on the floorboards?

Paint us as they will, they are still know-nothing idiots who couldn’t survive for a week more than five miles from a starbucks.


33 posted on 01/16/2009 5:51:17 AM PST by CPOSharky (Coming up: Four years of Jimmuh Cartah on crack.)
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To: DH

They have elk in Arkansas. If he can afford to go red snapper fishing Florida, he can afford a elk lease in Arkansas.


34 posted on 01/16/2009 5:59:53 AM PST by Ben Ficklin
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To: DH

“Where the hell did they get elk in Arkansas?”

The author threw that in there to make sure the reader understands that this guy is a redneck of the worst kind (killer of innocent animals).

But he is so urban/metrosexual that he doesn’t know that elk aren’t found in Arkansas.


35 posted on 01/16/2009 7:06:48 AM PST by EEDUDE
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
"Rural areas that rejected him are wary of his urban views..."

It's not really the urban views he is wary of, it's more the ridiculous sense of self importance these little idiots/snobs with a pen place on themselves. In the past Rural people were concerned for these self serving, narrow minded bigots who live in filthy cities invested with roaches and gangsters. Now the little cubicle chained slave can suck on lemons waiting for rural America to save her when they take away her protections and give her over to her government slave masters to do what they will with her and her aids infested sex in the city bros. (See...two can play the look down the nose game...sister.)

36 posted on 01/16/2009 8:22:38 AM PST by Earthdweller (Socialism makes you feel better about oppressing people.....)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
The 52-year-old farmer is a conservative Democrat

What's a "conservative Democrat?"

37 posted on 01/16/2009 8:28:04 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Vayo'mer Mosheh, 'Asurah-na' ve'er'eh 'et-hamar'eh hagadol hazeh; maddu`a lo'-yiv`ar haseneh.)
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To: EEDUDE
The author threw that in there to make sure the reader understands that this guy is a redneck of the worst kind (killer of innocent animals).

I suppose that means "indigenous pipples" only kill "guilty" animals.

38 posted on 01/16/2009 8:35:58 AM PST by Zionist Conspirator (Vayo'mer Mosheh, 'Asurah-na' ve'er'eh 'et-hamar'eh hagadol hazeh; maddu`a lo'-yiv`ar haseneh.)
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To: backhoe; Calpernia; Fred Nerks; null and void; pissant; george76; PhilDragoo; Candor7; ...

Thank you, Backhoe; excellent job as usual. Thank you for the ping, Fred Nerks.

Backhoe, I’m bookmarking your thread for future reference.

Ping to #6, also check out link at #9.


39 posted on 01/16/2009 9:33:29 AM PST by LucyT ("Sleep is for people who can't handle caffeine." ...Slings and Arrows)
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To: LucyT

Yup, clinging to my gun with one hand and my bible with the other.


40 posted on 01/16/2009 9:35:03 AM PST by cripplecreek (The poor bastards have us surrounded.)
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