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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lane3 who wrote (41526)	4/30/2004 9:39:08 AM
From: Tom Clarke	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793914

Virginia Postrel made a couple of points about those articles that hadn't occurred to me. The following two articles are profiles of families in super-red Sugarland, Texas and super-blue San Francisco. What's striking to me is how similar they in fact are, despite their political differences. Even more striking is how happy they are. Neither thinks America is going to hell in a handbasket. Neither engages in the cultural pessimism you hear from more official voices of left and right. Maybe it's the Post's selection bias, but my sense is that the selection represents something true about the vast majority of American voters right now. They think their political opponents complain too much and perhaps threaten their happiness, but they aren't the angry, fearful voices of politics past. The danger, of course, is that people will believe the stereotypes of their political opposites, because they don't actually know anyone on the opposite side of the red-blue divide. Why do both families see their political opposites as people who complain all the time, who are (my words) essentially anti-American? They aren't thinking of neighbors or family members they disagree with. They're thinking of the voices they hear on TV and radio, where conflict and explosive, extreme statements sell. dynamist.com

To: Lane3 who wrote (41526)	4/30/2004 9:49:11 AM
From: DMaA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 793914

Just thinking a story like this is necessary is condescending. Who needs to read a newspaper to find out what "real people" are like? Someone who lives on Beacon Hill or the Upper East Side I suppose.

To: Lane3 who wrote (41526)	5/1/2004 1:20:40 AM
From: D. Long	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793914

Of all the people to interview, the reporter chose to interview, and frame the city, in a manner that fit a stereotype. Namely, the "insular" white, patriarchal, grit-eating, tree hating, truck driving rural male. The "blue" family, to my eyes, was similarly framed to fit a stereotype. There's nothing new in these descriptions at all. They are both cliches. That the reporter chose Sugarland - home base for Tom DeLay (who may as well be Satan himself to many Democrats) - and framed it in an unrepresentative manner should set the scepticism alarms ringing. Derek