The delusion of the Blue staters continues as evidenced by Ted Rall's comments in his "Confessions of a Cultural Elitist":
If militant Christianist Republicans from inland backwaters believe that secular liberal Democrats from the big coastal cities look upon them with disdain, there's a reason. We do, and all the more so after this election...
Every day in America, hundreds of our most talented young men and women flee the suburbs and rural communities for big cities, especially those on the West and East Coasts. Their youthful vigor fuels these metropolises — the cultural capitals of the blue states. These oases of liberal thinking — New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Boston — are homes to our best-educated people, most vibrant popular culture and most innovative and productive businesses. There are exceptions — some smart people move from cities to the countryside — but the best and brightest gravitate to places where liberalism rules.
Maps showing Kerry's blue states appended to the "United States of Canada" separated from Bush's red "Jesusland" are circulating by email. Though there is a religious component to the election results, the biggest red-blue divide is intellectual. "How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" asked the headline of the Daily Mirror in Great Britain, and the underlying assumption is undeniable. By any objective standard, you had to be spectacularly stupid to support Bush.
Inland Americans face a bigger challenge than coastal "cultural elitists" when it comes to finding high-quality news coverage. The best newspapers, which routinely win prizes for their in-depth local and national reporting and staffers overseas, line the coasts. So do the cable TV networks with the broadest offerings and most independent radio stations. Bush Country makes do with Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity syndicated on one cookie-cutter AM outlet after another. Citizens of the blue states read lackluster dailies stuffed with generic stories cut and pasted from wire services. Given their dismal access to high-quality media, it's a minor miracle that 40 percent of Mississippians turned out for Kerry.
So our guy lost the election. Why shouldn't those of us on the coasts feel superior? We eat better, travel more, dress better, watch cooler movies, earn better salaries, meet more interesting people, listen to better music and know more about what's going on in the world. If you voted for Bush, we accept that we have to share the country with you. We're adjusting to the possibility that there may be more of you than there are of us. But don't demand our respect. You lost it on November 2.
This would be funny if this guy were not serious. And I know, because I wrote him an e-mail about some other nonsense he had posted once and he responded in similar fashion. In that little exchange, he stated that Red staters had no legitimate say in our fight on terrorism since we were not the ones that were attacked on 9-11. Now, aside from the obvious fact that people from all over the country, and indeed the world, were murdered on 9-11, it is simply insulting to say that all of America was not affected by the attack on a part of it, no matter who was killed.
Did the attack on Pearl Harbor only kill Hawaiians? Didn't the plane diving into the Pentagon kill plenty of Red state military members? Were all the innocent passengers on those planes from New York City?
And when I mentioned that certainly the people of Oklahoma City would have a say in the war on terror, he responded that that was only "right wing" terrorism. As if the ideology of the terrorist matters to the dead? How does one argue with that twisted logic?
When I ultimately pointed out the fact that actual terrorist plots had been foiled in Red states recently, Rall first accused me of making it up and then simply believing government lies. After I directed him to news reports on the incidents, he retreated with the comment "Well, if you truly understood what we went through you would agree with us." And then he simply cut off the dicussion. And I thought conservatives were the ones who were intolerant of other people's views - go figure.
What color is the sky on this guy's planet? It certainly is not blue.
PS . . . Yes, I know I posted this right after saying I was tired of politics, but this joker really gets to me. I just don't understand how people like this get away with such tripe. But then again, if there is an audience for Al Franken, anything is possible.
