My weekly observation of the View from Left of Center thread turned up this interesting string of posts. Can it be a Dallas-area suburbanite is amazed at finding out there are Texans in TX?
To: Mme Sybarite who wrote (50156)
2/23/2008 11:17:45 AM
From: Rambi
Read Replies (3) 50224of 50435
Having just gotten back from a few days in Houston, and having driven the delightful Hwy 45 from Dallas on down through the most boring scenery ever, past Huntsville where you can see a sign advertising the Texas Prison Museum and a billboard with Old Sparky on it, past the enormous white statue of Sam Houston (67 feet tall!), well, it kinda makes you a little less certain about these elections.
Saw a billboard:
"No more porn!
Get reborn"
Jesus
-John3:16
(I swear, I have read the New Testament through several times and NEVER seen that verse, but maybe Jesus had certain poetic, Jesse Jackson capabilities I was unaware of.)
I do think that we elitist, educated, sophisticated people sometimes forget just how truly different certain demographics can be. And how strong they still are.
[ Nicely worded. ]
At a McD's on the way down (not a lot of culinary choices on this route), there were farmers in bib overalls- not the chic California ones, no, these are the real thing
[ Bib overalls!!! Real ones!!!
Personal reflection - you mean there is such a thing as "chic California" bib overalls? What the hell is that? .... Maybe when Californians wear 'em they think they're being chic. ]
- there were cowboy hats and boots,
[ Cowboy hats and boots in rural TX??? Wow! ]
there were stunningly huge butts on the women.
[ And I can tell you right now these were white women, otherwise this would never be commented on. Can you imagine a View from Left of Center post commenting on a drive through a ghetto area writing about the "stunningly huge butts on the women"? ]
This is a different world. These are people who have permanent flags decals on their trucks- not the cool small cotton ones we all had flying from our car windows after 9-11
[ Like the truck I saw the other day at the grandkids daycare with the flag and an eagle painted on the back window. Oh, how amazing. Is this really worth remarking on from someone from the Dallas suburbs? Its not unusual in Spring even though we don't wear overalls and cowboy hats too much. ]
, and then replaced with our favorite sports team flag when they made it to the finals. These people have a different sense of America, I think. They love it passionately, they trust its symbols, they are disgusted by horrifying liberal moral and ethical decadence.
[ Yeah. Thank God in heaven. They REALLY love America. Not just the ideal it could be if it were disarmed and socialized. And they really think America's traditional morals and ethics are good things. Not like ..... well, let's not say who. ]
Global anything is anathema.
These people love Huckabee. Heck, they still love George Bush. I;m not sure intelligence and education play into it very much. Except as a negative (damn Ivy league wimps).
--------------
To: Rambi who wrote (50224)
2/23/2008 11:23:03 AM
From: Mme Sybarite
Read Replies (1) | Respond to 50226of 50437
I know what you are saying, but because their politics are based on emotion
[ Unlike liberal's politics. This is the biggest laugh in the whole string of posts. The folks who are rejecting the beloved William Jefferson Clinton's wife to swoon for Obama, nah, they're not emotional at all. ]
, when things start to go wrong, they swing fast. An intellectual swing is often a slow measured swing- after all, it's dependent on logic, but when you think about emotional swings, they happen VERY quickly, and they don't need to be based on logic, but sometimes just on critical mass- so this actually bodes well for Obama, who apparently appeals to the emotional.
These big butted overall wearing folks have lost sons and daughters. Emotionally they were sold a war that had some connection with 9/11, and a war they thought would be quick, and positive- remember, we are not dealing with logic here, but emotion. The disenchantment these folks feel must be huge. Obama is religious, and he is inspirational. He doesn't need to get all these emotional people to follow him, just enough- and the emotional momentum is all on his side.
[ Get that?? She's fantasizing they've become radicalized lefties and are gonna vote for Barack Hussein Obama! ]
--------------------
To: Rambi who wrote (50224)
2/23/2008 11:28:09 AM
From: Katelew
Read Replies (2) | Respond to 50227of 50437
We had a little discussion about the movie Idiocracy, while you were gone.
Sounds like you had a little taste of it down there. <gg>
Welcome back......
[ Whoops, a little open with the condecension there, girl. ]
---------------------
To: Katelew who wrote (50227)
2/23/2008 12:03:39 PM
From: Rambi
Respond to 50233of 50437
Thank you!
I don't mean to make fun (too much) of this piece of America. It has often seemed to me that the coasts and cities don't quite get it, though- Just how different it is.
[ Just a little, not too much. But after all, we're talking bib overalls here. ]
I'm still trying to catch up with all the posts! Yikes.
-------------------
To: Mme Sybarite who wrote (50226)
2/23/2008 12:11:17 PM
From: Rambi
Read Replies (1) | Respond to 50237of 50437
I am not sure that the segment of Texas I observed is emotional at all. I think their beliefs are deeply ingrained and not easily questioned- either with emotion or logic. I bet they still buy into the idea that we are in danger and the left doesn't get it. They are also deeply pro-life and anti-gay. It will take more than a silver-tongued liberal to sway them.
I am talking a pretty narrow demographic here, but one that exists throughout the Bible Belt.
[ Well, thank you, ma'am. Yeah, even though they may never have been to NYC, these bumpkins think destroying the two biggest buildings there and killing 3000 New Yorkers is a serious attack on THEIR country. Ditto flying a plane into the nation's military HQ. And the attempted flight of another plane into the Capital building (thwarted by the brave passengers who forced the plane down). Not to mention the previous decade of attacks against our foreign embassies, ships, and military bases. Yeah, those hicks think people killing Americans and wanting to kill more is a danger, not like us sophisticates who know "America does not face a terrorist threat", as Michael Moore has assured us.
She has a point, some demographic groups in this country are really "different". |
