Attention, Wal-Mart Voters: Lost Jobs and Military Funerals Haunt Bush in the Heartland

Village Voice ^ | December 3 - 9, 2003 | Rick Perlstein

[dead]

To all you “Stonys” out there in flyover country, I thought you might enjoy this. Much like taking a safari through Zimbabwe, Perlstein ventured out of Manhattan to observe your eating, mating and voting habits. I’ll just pick apart one paragraph from his condescending post-safari report:

Clinton knew there was danger to Americans from a terrorist group called Al Qaeda and did do something about it, if perhaps not all the right things, whatever those might have been

Nothing. Not a single thing. If Perlstein could think of a single thing of consequence that Clinton did, he would have cited it. He blew up a couple of tents in Afghanistan and bombed some innocent pharmaceutical factory in Sudan. That’s it.

Bush knew of the danger before the World Trade Center attacks and probably did less.

There is no evidence to back this lame dopey statement up.

Playing catch-up, he used the war on terror as pretext for an invasion of Iraq, and well-informed Democrats knew exactly what was going on: that unilateralism and lack of planning for a post-war settlement would lead us into disaster.

Twenty-five million people are free who weren’t before. But I guess they don’t count for much. One of the most ruthless tyrants the world has ever seen is dead or in hiding, his regime vanquished, his supporters dead, in prison or on the run. His proven (even bragged about, by Saddam himself) support for international terrorism is over. His ongoing (and proven) quest to obtain WMD is ended. Plus, as an added bonus, France is whimpering louder than usual. What a disaster, for Saddam and liberals.

But there's not much you can do about macho fantasies like Scott and John's; you can't force voters to critically read several newspapers a day.

Nor Village Voice reporters apparently.

This is, simply, the reality that those who would wish to see George Bush defeated have to work with.

Reality is a bitch. Howard Dean is going to run on a platform that calls for our foreign policy decisions to be subject to a veto by Russia or France. Now, he's announced his plans to "break up, on ideological grounds" media outlets that do not strictly adhere to the liberal line. That my sell in Greenwich Village, but not much further out into the hinterlands.

[Poohbah]

Good grief, what a steaming pile of...

[dead]

BTW, the author Rick Perlstein has a freeper account (screenname: Perlstein) and reads your comments.

He sometimes responds. He sometimes doesn't.

[mewzilla]

Nor Village Voice reporters apparently.

Or Village Voice readers.

Excellent critique, BTW.

[JoJo Gunn]

"Clinton knew there was danger to Americans from a terrorist group called Al Qaeda and did do something about it, if perhaps not all the right things, whatever those might have been"

I'm sure Bush will get the same kind of pass for not being perfect....

[irgbar-man]

bump for later

[timydnuc]

To paraphrase old Zell: This boy knows as much about the "heartland" as a pig knows about Sunday!

[wizardoz]

Tried to read it. Fell asleep. Sorry.

[zarf]

This is classic condescending Village Voice stuff!!

With great pain, every once in a while a Voice journalist will "lower him or herself" and dip their Gucci loafers in the "White trash sewer" of the American heartland.

You can just feel his sneering, condescending attitude in this piece.

He'll probably have to shower for a week with lye to get over his encounter with the great unwashed.

[CanisRex]

To paraphrase old Zell: This boy knows as much about the "heartland" as a pig knows about Sunday!

I wish you were right timy. But I don't think so. I'm beginning to wonder if the constant bombardment (not the last year, but the last thirty-five years!!) of the population with "GOVERNMENT; BAD... WAR; BAD...." hasn't had a pretty strong effect. Within the last week ten people whom I know intimately have told me in different ways that "We've got to bring 'em home.... NOW!" and they would vote democrat (even though to a man, they all voted GWB last time) to make it happen. Rick has a solid point and I'm worried.

[dead]

The mantra of "high tech" is unlikely to impress Rockford; one of the most wrenching recent production shutdowns was at the plant that produced a motor for the Segway scooter.

LOL! This quote’s a classic.

Like Bush should be blamed for Americans not buying enough $5,000 insta-dork scooters.

[finnman69]

Stony is the kind of guy liberals love to worry about, the kind they fret they can't win over by next year's election. He works the midnight shift as a "picker" at a nearby grocery warehouse—the very job Tom Wolfe depicts as the soul of thankless blue-collar humiliation in his latest novel. Stony talks proudly about his union and, quietly, mentions his fears that his workplace "could have a shutdown any day. You never know." Stony is not a Republican but a nitwit union card holding twerp who likely has trouble trying his shoes. Stony is a Dem through and through. Stony needs his union Dem masters to get him through life. John and Scott are dead wrong, of course John and Scott are dead on right. Clinton's pin prick foreign policy in the face of impending mass murder was criminal. The insinuation that Clinton did more to combat terrorism than Bush is laughable and pathetic. Democrats don't get it. Their universal devotion to the UN and impotent international rules and ass kissing feel good political circle jerks did nothing to improve the security of the US and the world. The histrionics of the left continue to accomplish nothing, Bush's actions lead to results. It is Bush's unilateralism that has forced change and shook up the status quo. Far from disaster, the world is a far better place. It is a testament to the Republicans' mastery at keeping people scared of all that is not Republican, then taking credit, as Republicans, for making them feel "secure." More fear mongering BS from Democrats when the most hyper partisan fear mongering these days is coming from the 9 dwarves who have blatantly called Bush a liar and are close to calling him a Nazi. And all you have to do is look at the facts. Dems want to cut military spending and rely on the same feel good kind of deals Clinton cut with North Korea where Clinton was duped, North Korea double crossed us, and a nuclear program was created in the most totalitarian nation ruled by a nut. But we went through international channels?!?! Gee, can we have more of that effective foreign policy please? The best part of the North Korea fiasco the Dems gave the world, is now they have the balls to criticize Bush for standing up to North Korea and telling them no more bullshit.

[zarf]

Rick is too busy trying to confirm his own biases than to do an real piece on the political pulse of the American heartland.

I don't know of a single Village Voice journalist that could possibly do an objective piece on middle America.

The reason they moved to Manhattan in the first place was to escape the sin of being white and middle class.

[finnman69]

lets try that again

Stony is the kind of guy liberals love to worry about, the kind they fret they can't win over by next year's election. He works the midnight shift as a "picker" at a nearby grocery warehouse—the very job Tom Wolfe depicts as the soul of thankless blue-collar humiliation in his latest novel. Stony talks proudly about his union and, quietly, mentions his fears that his workplace "could have a shutdown any day. You never know."

Stony is not a Republican but a nitwit union card holding twerp who likely has trouble trying his shoes. Stony is a Dem through and through. Stony needs his union Dem masters to get him through life.

John and Scott are dead wrong, of course John and Scott are dead on right.

Clinton's pin prick foreign policy in the face of impending mass murder was criminal. The insinuation that Clinton did more to combat terrorism than Bush is laughable and pathetic. Democrats don't get it. Their universal devotion to the UN and impotent international rules and ass kissing feel good political circle jerks did nothing to improve the security of the US and the world. The histrionics of the left continue to accomplish nothing, Bush's actions lead to results. It is Bush's unilateralism that has forced change and shook up the status quo. Far from disaster, the world is a far better place.

It is a testament to the Republicans' mastery at keeping people scared of all that is not Republican, then taking credit, as Republicans, for making them feel "secure."

More fear mongering BS from Democrats when the most hyper partisan fear mongering these days is coming from the 9 dwarves who have blatantly called Bush a liar and are close to calling him a Nazi. And all you have to do is look at the facts. Dems want to cut military spending and rely on the same feel good kind of deals Clinton cut with North Korea where Clinton was duped, North Korea double crossed us, and a nuclear program was created in the most totalitarian nation ruled by a nut. But we went through international channels?!?! Gee, can we have more of that effective foreign policy please? The best part of the North Korea fiasco the Dems gave the world, is now they have the balls to criticize Bush for standing up to North Korea and telling them no more bullshit.

[Mercat]

This guy is soooo clueless.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Like Bush should be blamed for Americans not buying enough $5,000 insta-dork scooters.

Everything bad is Bush's fault. Don't you know?

This guy is clueless. Even when he got it right, he got it wrong.

[finnman69]

Like Bush should be blamed for Americans not buying enough $5,000 insta-dork scooters.

BWAHAHAHAHA. I missed that. Perhaps socialization and government subsidies to run the Segway plant is the solution for nirvana in the US. Howard Dean thinks so.

[cyncooper]

Clinton knew there was danger to Americans from a terrorist group called Al Qaeda and did do something about it, if perhaps not all the right things, whatever those might have been; Bush knew of the danger before the World Trade Center attacks and probably did less.

That was the part I plucked out to comment on, too.

Ain't enough to say Clinton did "do something", and that Bush "probably" did less, Perlstein. Cite exactly what Clinton did. Reconstruct the context of Bush's new administration, and the roadblocks placed in its way, beginning with the election the previous fall, and how it was supposed to be running on all cylinders by your lights, by 9/11. The fact is that despite the dems' obstruction every step of the way, a plan was in the works.

Also note that Bush "doing something" regarding Iraq to, in fact, prevent more 9/11's meets with Perlstein's scorn.

[BlueNgold]

OK, I'm just amazed that the Village Voice is so arrogant as to think they have ANY clue what goes on in the heartland....

[cyncooper]

Rick Perlstein has a freeper account (screenname: Perlstein) and reads your comments.

Groovy