Posted on 01/22/2017 2:25:10 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
Politico magazine has an interesting piece up today titled What Do You Do if a Red State Moves to You? That title is actually close to being the opposite of what the piece describes. Its not about red staters moving into the cities. Its about blue staters deciding, for one reason or another, to colonize a small county in rural Wisconsin and then being horrified to find not everyone who lives there shares their political outlook. The author suggests the cultural smugness of these progressive transplants is one reason some people in this rural county voted for Donald Trump.
The piece opens with the dismay of Andrea Myklebust, a left-leaning sculptor who moved to Pepin county from the twin cities because she liked the look of it:
She described the history-twisting election of 2016 in stark, before-and-after terms, unable to fathom how anybody could have voted for Trump, much less three-fifths of the people with whom she shares her adopted home in Pepin County. There is sort of a baseline assumption of common sense and decency thats been thrown into question in a way I never expected it to be, she said. And its a struggle. You have to continue to interact with people, and you have to wonder: Do you really have hate in your heart in this way? Really? At the core, I didnt believe this about us.
The assumption that anyone who doesnt share your beliefs is indecent and a hater turns out to be one of the main motivators driving a lot of Myklebusts neighbors to vote for Trump. The locals know when theyre being looked down upon and they dont appreciate it.
Here, the urban elite isnt a faceless, distant other: Its the enclave of liberal, mostly Twin Cities newcomers who have moved here over the past few decadesnot just an abstract political imposition, but an actual physical presence. It has spawned anger and bitterness, a simmering undercurrent of alienation among many people locally born and raised. It has made Democrat mean something it didnt mean a generation ago. And it was made manifest on November 8
We have found a whole community here, said Pat Carlson, Wally Zicks wife, of very like-mindedits going to sound elitebut bookish, artsy, Id say compassionate organic foodies, the whole nine yards. Its all transplants. Its mostly liberals. As for this election, and the locals, she continued, I think they thought the liberal elite was looking down on them, and I guess, in some ways, we were. Because we couldnt believe anybody would vote for Trump.
The piece offers as an example John Andrews, a former sheriff who was also the head of the Democratic Party in Pepin county. Now hes a Republican:
When the people came inand the things that they were trying to push on the rest of usthats why I left, Andrews added. I didnt want to deal with these people. I didnt want to be a part of what they were a part of. Youre talking about people from the Cities who are very progressive. I call them tree-huggers, a bunch of tree-huggers. They referred to us, meaning the people whove lived here and worked here all our lives, as a bunch of hicks. They just think theyre a little bit better than everybody else, and that were not as smart.
Carolyn Tyra, a 50ish Wal-Mart cashier, puts it more bluntly. She tells Politico, they all think were stupid and the common blue-collar worker doesnt want to be treated like were stupid.
No doubt there are other factors involved, but author Michael Kruse makes a convincing case that the smug cultural superiority of progressives has a lot to do with Trumps unexpected win in rural Wisconsin.
Unfortunately, conservatives will never move to the cities and colonize which is why those of us here are under such stress. Imagine NYC a conservative city! We would dominate the country! But there is so much hatred among conservatives towards cities that it is worthless to pursue. Which is interesting because liberals, who we disdain as cowards, had no trouble moving into NC, SC, Georgia, FL and TX in an attempt to change it.
I used to live close to the area she’s at and know this mentality well. There’s a simple word for it: snobs.
You can find conservative snobs but it’s a lot more common to find liberal snobs, who are exactly ike this woman describes. Their basic problem is they think they are better than eveyrone else (except for fellow snobs of course, who they will grudgingly admit to be equals, more or less).
And as long as you’re willing to play the game, they will be your best buddy and pal. But once they catch you crossing the unspoken boundary, they would “unfriend” you long before that was an actual thing.
I lived there in the Reagan years so it was pretty easy to find out who your true friends were, and which ones only liked you as long as they thought you fit into their world view. Now that this mentality has gestated into a new generation, it’s going to be fun watching a lot of snowflakes melt.
Libtards... the shat-stains of the earth.
From an Oregon native friend, this is what happened in Oregon over the last few decades. The Leftists are concentrated in the Willamette Valley and the coast. The rest of Oregon hates that this formerly sane, Conservative state has turned so blue. But the Leftys don’t care and they rule the roost, for now.
-—Theres a simple word for it: snobs.-—
I don’t think that’s the right word...
more like elitist, people who think they are special because they think they have special knowledge or insight us simpletons do not have...
Snobs used to mean people of means looking down their nose at you
Assuming an air of moral superiority, and showing the “dumb hicks” that they mean nothing and less than nothing, has been the method of operation in all these “colonizations” of rural and small-town America.
But the attitudes these newcomers try to displace by their “superior” intellect, runs into a streak of cussedness and “show-me” that is legendary in places like Missouri, but by no means to be confined to that geographic area. The shrewd and well-grounded response to all these “new” forms of social graces is to say, “Gut genug fuer Unsern Herrn, Gut genug fuer uns” (Good enough for our Lord, good enough for us). The religious faith is deeply intertwined in the minds of these “hicks”, and forms an almost impenetrable wall between the “New Folks” and the natives.
Liberals are mentally warped.
They are filled with hate for those who don’t share their worldview. And can only discuss other views in the context of hatred.
Its the enclave of liberal, mostly Twin Cities newcomers <<
Translation: “Trust Fund Babies”
OK, close enough. The point I was trying to make is that they can be your best friend, accept you as “one of the crowd” as long as you fit their perception of how people should think. Once they find out you don’t, you’re like dog crap on their shoe. I just don’t see conservative people acting the same way toward them. We don’t agree with them but we don’t think they are inferior. It’s ironic when you consider what the word “liberal” is supposed to mean.
The “progressives” have a set of core beliefs about reality that clashes with most anyone outside the “progressive” bubble. They cannot allow any dissent from those beliefs. The beliefs establish who they are. Dissent from those beliefs threatens their fundamental views about existence. Some of those beliefs are:
Guns are bad except in the hands of governments they control.
Evil corporations cause all bad things in the world. Governments controlled by “progressives” only do good things.
Governments are the equivalent of God.
Man made “Climate Change” is real, because it requires much more power to be in the hands of government, thus, it is a good thing.
Economics are the basis of all motivation and action.
There is no limit on the good government can do.
If they say they believe in God, it is a god that demands that governments redistribute wealth.
Yep, I have a classmate who still lives in northern Michigan. He told me that that all the lawn signs he saw were for Hillary, and they're all transplants who are not native to the north country...
As a side note, as the liberal transplants with money moved in, the tax burden increased on the old time residents to the point they had to sell their houses in town and move out to the country.
That's how the leftist movement continues to spread.......
You know FRiends, “smug” is an adjective I learnedas a child but never needed to use all that much — even after I began writing professionally following my discharge from the military.
Now, here I am, staring down my 60th birthday in nine months, and all I can think of is “smug.”
How did so many well-educated people lose sight of the fact that not everyone might share their world view?
More to the point, why do people who have enjoyed economic and educational abundance have so little gratitude and so much arrogance?
There is sort of a baseline assumption of common sense and decency thats been thrown into question in a way I never expected it to be, she said. And its a struggle. You have to continue to interact with people, and you have to wonder: Do you really have hate in your heart in this way? Really? At the core, I didnt believe this about us.
She makes a good point for conservatives. Many conservatives look at how liberals are, protesters, etc. and we wonder, do you really have hate in your heart this way? Do you really hate anyone who isn’t on board with global warming, homosexuality, transsexual bathroom access, Obamacare, and all the rest???
I agree with her statement, but I come at it from the opposite ideological political direction...........
The liberal branding includes smart, educated, rational, tolerant, “compassionate” in her words, moral.
And it lets them smear everyone else as at best ignorant (with the built in assumption that of course all good and smart people agree with me), otherwise stupid, crazy, evil.
Dennis Prager had a video before the election “immigrants, don’t vote for what you fled”.
I’d say that to these leftists. Don’t sit there and demean the political views put into practice that created the community you chose to move to.
Very true. I appreciate that so many people want to live in big cities, all crammed together and living like pigs. It keeps the west all nice and open for normal people.
south park, season ten, episode2: smug
Interesting point. Look at Virginia. Mission accomplished. The trend doesn’t seem good in North Carolina.
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