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News & ArtsMonday, July 6, 2009
Politics Unreal America
Posted by Dan Savage on Mon, Jul 6, 2009 at 5:09 PM
Most Americans live in cities. But you won't find what's "representative of America" in big American cities. Because "real Americans" live in small towns and agree with Sarah Palin on "key issues."
MSNBC is the liberal cable news outfit, right?
1
This is a battle that we Urbanites must not cede to small towns. It's a myth that their values somehow trump our values, and it's a talking point that "Media" (who else does she think she is?) love to parrot.
I'm for big city values. Equality. Efficiency. Effectiveness.
I'm for big city values. Equality. Efficiency. Effectiveness.
2
Wow. The first time I've ever found myself on Joe Scarborough's side. And also the only time I've ever seen her disagree with him. Granted, my system can't stomach even a moderate amount of Morning Joe, so my experience with their shenanigans is limited. And I find it really hard to believe that more Americans are pro-life than pro-choice. I've spoken to so many self-proclaimed pro-life people who say that they would never have an abortion, but think other women should be able to (at least under certain circumstances). That makes them pro-choice- they're just too short-sighted or something to make the logical jump.
3
Look where people stand on nationalized health care (70% support). Look where people stand on abortion (most people want it legal). Look where people stand on Iraq, gay marriage, the war on drugs. Look especially at where the next generation is.
The Republicans have been using this line of attack since Nixon's "silent majority" because it worked for them because it was true. They don't realize that it is no longer true in 2009.
The Republicans have been using this line of attack since Nixon's "silent majority" because it worked for them because it was true. They don't realize that it is no longer true in 2009.
4
"real americans" agree with sarah palin. and what defines a real american? someone who agree with sarah palin...
fuck you, lady-who's-not-morning-joe
fuck you, lady-who's-not-morning-joe
6
Let's please remind these people that Real America took a big poll on Sarah Palin's views last November, and most Real Americans ran screaming from them.
7
What a snide, condescending bitch. Her tone of voice when she was explaining herself was like a verbal eye roll. Like, oh, this is so stupid that I have to apologize and explain my comment, why are you people getting your panties in a bunch?
But, you know, thanks for letting me know that Real Americans = Conservative Americans, lady.
But, you know, thanks for letting me know that Real Americans = Conservative Americans, lady.
8
One of my favorite sequences on The Daily Show was their tour of Wasilla, AK, featuring an interview of the mayor (one of Palin's prior jobs) revealing that it had no education board, no fire department, no public works to speak of...and yet the mayor truly believed that position prepared Palin for the governorship, and the presidency.
13
Mika is an eastern elite (not that that is a bad thing), and as much as I think Joe is a douche, he called her out on it. She's extremely condescending. My Hoosier state is as "real" as it gets and we voted for Obama.
14
That's been her attitude regarding Palin from the start, she will shout down any guest or correspondent on the show who dare suggest that perhaps the root of Sarah Palin's problems is Sarah Palin. It's nice to see her finally get called out for it.
15
In fact, about 80 percent of Americans live in *urban areas* but not necessarily in cities. In fact, only about 30 percent live in central cities (2000 census figures).
Apparently you want to claim those hated suburbs as part of the city when it suits your purposes.
Apparently you want to claim those hated suburbs as part of the city when it suits your purposes.
16
For a minute, I thought "maybe she's trying to drive home the point that these are also 'real people' too; and not real people / real Americans as opposed to the rest of us".
Then she kept on talking. Eww.
Also, realjounalist, I'm not flat-out disagreeing with you. I am questioning whether or not the "real Americans" they were talking about were in fact "suburban" or from small-towns not connected to a larger city. There's a major difference between metropolitan areas and rural small towns.
Then she kept on talking. Eww.
Also, realjounalist, I'm not flat-out disagreeing with you. I am questioning whether or not the "real Americans" they were talking about were in fact "suburban" or from small-towns not connected to a larger city. There's a major difference between metropolitan areas and rural small towns.
17
To add to DragCub's comment, the cities are seeing more people move into the urban areas proper because the current economic situation does not make it cheap to live in the suburbs and commute. Moreover, that data is 9 years out of date.
18
I'd say that "real" Americans means anyone who lives and works in the US. If you want to stretch it, you can reduce it to people who legally live and work in the US (though I'd argue that the difference is more theoretical than practical). Which means that we're back to square one: "real" Americans have all sorts of different viewpoints.
Of course, conservatives hate this definition of "real" Americans, because it means that we have to include the hippies and The Brown People. So they just childishly simplify things to "agrees with me personally = real american."
And, yet again, people wonder why the GOP is failing. It's like a party full of spoiled rich 4th graders.
Of course, conservatives hate this definition of "real" Americans, because it means that we have to include the hippies and The Brown People. So they just childishly simplify things to "agrees with me personally = real american."
And, yet again, people wonder why the GOP is failing. It's like a party full of spoiled rich 4th graders.
20
Media Matters is a far left smear site. Notice how a chunk of that segment was taken out. Probably that which puts Mika's comments in context.
The fact is that there are real Americans, and then people who voted for Barack Hussein "Where's the birth certificate" Obama.
The fact is that there are real Americans, and then people who voted for Barack Hussein "Where's the birth certificate" Obama.
21
"Real Americans" shop at WalMart.
Don't know why you West Coast urban hipsters care, however-
it's really a moot point.
All your progressive central cities are in North Korea's crosshairs and you are 'living' on borrowed time.
Wonder how the new Electoral College map will look after the Koreans take out 30 liberal West Coast Congressional Districts...
decidedly more Red, I'll wager.
Oh, don't despair-
maybe Obama is right;
maybe the UN will save you from N Korea after all.
maybe.
Don't know why you West Coast urban hipsters care, however-
it's really a moot point.
All your progressive central cities are in North Korea's crosshairs and you are 'living' on borrowed time.
Wonder how the new Electoral College map will look after the Koreans take out 30 liberal West Coast Congressional Districts...
decidedly more Red, I'll wager.
Oh, don't despair-
maybe Obama is right;
maybe the UN will save you from N Korea after all.
maybe.
22
Does anyone else find it odd that a bunch of main stream media "elites" from the city are bashing main stream media "elites" from the city?
23
@20, 21: Tucks Pads are on sale at Walgreens. Might want to stock up for your next poutrage session.
24
Well, I guess every single person I know and even strangers I meet at the grocery store must be real Americans because out here Sarah Palin is very popular and Mr. O is not. She may not have phrased her point very well, but that doesn't make it any less true. There are a lot of people out there who like and agree with Palin, she just stuck her foot in her mouth trying to articulate it. And don't slam me, I never said I was a Palin lover but rural VA is. Only 5 counties in the entire state voted for O and they are all heavily populated by transplanted northerners.
25
I don't think anyone's complaining about her acknowledging that Yes: some people like Palin. People are having problems with her calling these people (and implicitly ONLY these people) "real Americans".
26
@24 - I think your comment is significant because, when one looks at the results of "white flight" from the urban areas, the areas where whites end up resettling are often bastions of GOP-loving, white-bread provincialism.
27
I find it odd how the anonymous posters so often like to threaten us with someone else's nukes. If not Korea's than God's.
29
I was born and raised in small towns and ran away to the city as soon as I damn well could.
Didn't realize I was renouncing my citizenship in the process...
Didn't realize I was renouncing my citizenship in the process...
30
Reminds me of the numerous arguments I had with friends when I was 16: "You are not a REAL metalhead" "No, you aren't!" Geez.
31
I was born and raised in a small town also. I spent my springs planting vegetables, my summers bailing hay, and my falls and winters chopping firewood. All that stereotype farm-boy shit that fake suburban cowboys like to get all misty-eyed about while listening to Toby Keith on the way to the office. The type of upbringing that fake shitheads like "Joe the Plumber" try and co-opt in order to force some fake association between "quaint country folk" and sociopathic, corrupt, and just downright stupid political beliefs.
Yet, apparently, the fact that I left that upbringing with more than half a brain means that I'm not a "real" American. As well as the fact that I didn't let a little bit of melanin scare me into voting for a paranoid, war-mongering old man with indefensible economic policies. Or the fact that I don't get all preoccupied with what gender someone else wants to have sex with (or identify as, for that matter).
I didn't realize that one's thoughts could dictate their citizenship; what sort of orwellian bullshit is this? Especially since it's intelligence that apparently negates one's citizenship, instead of lack thereof.
Yet, apparently, the fact that I left that upbringing with more than half a brain means that I'm not a "real" American. As well as the fact that I didn't let a little bit of melanin scare me into voting for a paranoid, war-mongering old man with indefensible economic policies. Or the fact that I don't get all preoccupied with what gender someone else wants to have sex with (or identify as, for that matter).
I didn't realize that one's thoughts could dictate their citizenship; what sort of orwellian bullshit is this? Especially since it's intelligence that apparently negates one's citizenship, instead of lack thereof.
32
"Yeah, screw all those people in th' big city where you're actually exposed to a variety of issues and are unable to bury your head in the sand and end up learning more about the complexity of the world. What knowledge could THEY have to offer? Clearly, people gain useful insight on political matters by milking cows and baking pies and going to church picnics with the same 20 families over and over."
33
Somebody please make this bullshit stop! I'm so sick of being called a fake American, I could scream. We live in a country where education, progressiveism, and freedom were held on high as our founding principles, and now people who believe in these things are supposedly the antithesis of what the country stands for. The lies kill me, but the fact that no one stands up and challenges them intelligibly is even more unbearable. It's like we're ASHAMED of being educated and principled, lest we be branded "elites." Well, fuck all of you...I AM AN ELITE AND I'M DAMN PROUD OF IT!!! I got my ass out of that shitty little suburb by working 2 jobs through college and grad school and if you don't like that tough shit. It's a continuation of how my grandfather (a rural Pennsylvanian) dropped out of school at 13 to work on a trash truck to support his family, and worked double shifts in a factory as an adult to build a better life for his daughter, and how my father willingly joined the Navy during the Vietnam War to gain expertise in engineering and have money to go to college when he was done. How my mom, once she got her head on straight and left my father, worked as many odds-and-ends jobs as necessary to keep us fed and herself in school. My family story is the same as yours, but with a happier ending. Rather than stopping that march towards better education and better lives and a better world at the Boomer generation (maybe before) my family kept marching. We kept moving up the ladder. So fuck you...who's the REAL AMERICAN??!!??
34
I live in "Real America." Obama lost 3-to-1 in my county. Only one Democrat has served in my congressional district, that was for just two years and that was 55 years ago. So, I speak from experience.
I live in town where, until about that same time of 55 years ago, black people could not stay in the town after dark, fearing lynch mobs. Today, black men are welcome to play basketball at the local college, but not date our daughters.
I live in a town where the Rotary club allows only Christian prayer, telling Muslims, Jews, and Bahai's they aren't welcome.
I live in a town where the three-term mayor was voted out of office after he came out of the closet. He never lied about his sexuality but finally said who he was.
I live in a town where right-to-lifers picket the local Planned Parenthood clinic every Friday at 3 p.m. the time Christ died, to recall the "babies killed by Plan B."
The right-to-lifers also have tried (and failed) to ban books from our library, music from our radio, and sitcoms from TV.
This town, in the name of Jesus, has a lot of hate. I live here to try to right wrongs where and when I can. It will take several generations to lay down and die to remedy this hate, which is why I pray and hope for better days.
This is "Real America," Dan and friends. It exists. It really does.
I live in town where, until about that same time of 55 years ago, black people could not stay in the town after dark, fearing lynch mobs. Today, black men are welcome to play basketball at the local college, but not date our daughters.
I live in a town where the Rotary club allows only Christian prayer, telling Muslims, Jews, and Bahai's they aren't welcome.
I live in a town where the three-term mayor was voted out of office after he came out of the closet. He never lied about his sexuality but finally said who he was.
I live in a town where right-to-lifers picket the local Planned Parenthood clinic every Friday at 3 p.m. the time Christ died, to recall the "babies killed by Plan B."
The right-to-lifers also have tried (and failed) to ban books from our library, music from our radio, and sitcoms from TV.
This town, in the name of Jesus, has a lot of hate. I live here to try to right wrongs where and when I can. It will take several generations to lay down and die to remedy this hate, which is why I pray and hope for better days.
This is "Real America," Dan and friends. It exists. It really does.
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