Posted on 01/16/2009 10:03:32 AM PST by St. Louis Conservative
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."
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
My grandma died the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. She voted for McCain by absentee, and that was the first time she ever voted GOP.
Let me see if I get this straight: Opposition to Obama = Redneck living in the past, clinging to religion and guns.
Did I get that right?
As a product of rural Texas, I am on Wayne’s side for sure. Just wondering though, where he got that Elk meat? Must have made a hunting trip to Colorado. Ain’t no elk in Arkansas...
He probably told the reporter venison, and the reporter didn’t know better.
Wary?
How about “disgusted”.
He probably told the reporter venison, and the reporter didn’t know better.
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I think you nailed it. Ugh. City folk.
You said it! In this case, this educated idiot spent more time spinning a tale than giving us a factual account of anything. This 3-page "story" should've been a 1-page discussion of southerners who voted for Obama, not a diarama of "hicks who don't get it."
These Obamabots make me sick!
Au contraire Arkansas Elk
And proud of it!
I’m a Northerner, but at this point I hate the cold and am sick of it.
Yep, basically that’s the template the corrupt MSM is using.
GOD HELP US AND OUR COUNTRY
We are such a hip nation.....we elected a resident BECAUSE of his skin color........
WARY?
Anyone who cherishes his freedom should be scared CHITLESS!!
I mean president
Just because he is pigmentally challenged does not make him black.
Sniper63
Loewner sounds like the kind of Democrat I could like. He’s the kind of Democrat Ronald Reagan won.
Hicks sounds like an idiot.
Since the story showed up in the NY Slimes, the “Elk Meat” is probably from a white tailed deer. You hunt those things with a semi-automatic revolver you know.
And silly us, we’re worried about East Coast, Large City Hahhhvahhhd educated folks “not undertsanding” the rural life...
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