The Redneck Vote

>Redwing finally shamed me into posting something. I've been meaning to ever since his story last month of his misadventures in rural America. The last straw was seeing Sarah Palin’s patronizing performance at the debate last week.

The past few weeks, I have been writing the great treatise on Redneck America, and how to win them over to the progressive side; establishing my redneck roots (farmers on my mother’s side, my dad’s family were railroad men, my generation was the first to attend college), explaining the role of religion, etc. I just deleted the entire manuscript. While it wasn’t a Damascus Road experience, I came to the conclusion what I was writing was bullshit. Maybe

There is a predominant theme in redneck culture, that is of the average guy who outsmarts the educated egghead; from the Simpleton who gets the princess in fairy tales, to the inmate at the mental asylum who suggests letting the air out of the truck’s tires so it fits under the bridge, we delight in the belief that we know more than the “elites” who run the world. The guy on the assembly line knows more than the manager, the grunts on the front line are better strategists than the generals, the lieutenant is a complete idiot, and those city folks in suits and ties know nothing. And we love to see them get their comeuppance. This also has its roots in Scripture: The Apostle Paul wrote:

For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called. But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;

First Corinthians 1:26-27)

This often manifests itself as a fierce pride in anti-intellectualism, and any pastime, habit, or taste that smacks of the upper crust. Real men don’t eat quiche.

Jeff Foxworthy describes redneck as “a glorious lack of sophistication.” Playing to the rubes is a time honored tradition in American politics, at least since Andrew Jackson, continued through the “log cabin and hard cider” campaign of Benjamin Harrison, perfected in Ronald Reagan, reaching its apex with George Bush, the scion of a wealthy New England family who could play the part of a plain-speaking country bumpkin. I’m hoping this has run its course in Sarah Palin. As in most endeavors, a woman has to be twice as good as a man to be accepted as qualified, and her “doggone it’s” and “you betchas” sound phony and ham handed.

This ruse also has the added benefit of causing your opponents to underestimate your candidate. I’m never sure how much of George Bush’s bumbling, ineptitude is phony, or is he really that dumb? All this leaves liberals scratching their heads, wondering how can these people be so stupid. The right has learned to mask their contempt for the redneck, and how to manipulate him. To paraphrase Mad Eye Mooney's advice to Harry Potter in The Goblet of Fire: Just because George Bush’s head may be filled with sawdust; Dick Cheney’s and Karl Rove’s are not.

The good news for liberals is this can not be sustained over the long run. As the economic and social policies of the radical right are enacted, it is the little people who suffer. There will always be some who don’t get it, and vote their xenophobia, but already the tide is turning away from the conservative agenda. Former reliably “red” states are now in play, the Democrats have made inroads into rural America, the small business community, and dare I say it…. the church.

The dirty secret is most people support the progressive agenda. Rednecks are starting to realize they have been played for chumps by the Republicans. We can win them back, if we don’t talk down to them. Perhaps we could start by channeling Will Rogers?