You First

Kevin Drum has a great post mocking the silly contention that the Democrats are doomed because they can’t win in the south, while one never hears that the Republicans are doomed because they can’t win in the northeast or the west coast. Which makes it all the more strange that he would fall hook, line and sinker for one of the stupidest and most shameless themes in the Republican playbook:

Too often, though, a visceral loathing of being lectured at by city folks wins out and they end up marking their ballots for people like George Bush.

So maybe we should knock it off. I know it’s fun, but most of the time it’s pointless and misguided and it costs us elections and prevents even modest progress on issues we care about. That’s a high price to pay for a bit of fun.

Here’s a question for Kevin: how many times during the debates did Kerry mock Bush for being a “Texas conservative”? How many ads are run during primaries attacking people for being “NASCAR-watching, black-disenfranchising, Faith Hill-listening hicks”? These things, of course don’t happen, although you can slander the citizens of New England as much as you want. The fact is, in modern American political discourse you are vastly more likely to hear condescending moralizing about the failure of blue state humanists to adopt reactionary cultural values than vice versa. Most people who resent “cultural elitism” don’t read Atrios or the New York Times; they believe urbanites look down on them because conservatives tell them so, and they will continue to tell them so no matter how liberals frame their debates. And, again, why doesn’t Kevin turn that around? How many blue state moderates who vote for Republican governors would vote for Republican Presidential candidates if they would stop the relentless bible-thumping and attacks on the northeast as an immoral wasteland? It’s just amazing how many liberals repeat this nonsense.

Of course, I’m not likely to be persuaded by an argument that starts from the premise that a pretentious fop repeating stale Republican talking points about “cultural elitism” from his massive Upper East Side apartment represents astute cultural analysis…