'Talk to Someone in Cincinnati? Are You Crazy?' … and So the Democrats Blew It

The Sunday Times [UK] ^ | November 7, 2004 | Tom Wolfe with Margarette Driscoll

[quidnunc]

Tom Wolfe on the elite that got lost in middle America

Over the past few days I’ve talked to lots of journalists and literary types in New York. I’ve grown used to the sound of crushed, hushed voices on the end of the phone. The weight of George Bush’s victory seems almost too much. But what did they expect, I ask myself.

They don’t like the war and the way the war is going, they don’t like Bush and they don’t like what this election says about America. But where’s their sense of reality?

The liberal elite showed it was way out of touch even before the election. I was at a dinner party in New York and when everyone was wondering what to do about Bush I suggested they might do like me and vote for him. There was silence around the table, as if I’d said “by the way, I haven’t mentioned this before but I’m a child molester”.

Now, like Chicken Licken after an acorn fell on his head, they think the sky is falling. I have to laugh. It reminds me of Pauline Kael, the film critic, who said, “I don’t know how Reagan won — I don’t know a soul who voted for him.” That was a classic and reflects the reaction of New York intellectuals now. Note my definition of “intellectual” here is what you often find in this city: not people of intellectual attainment but more like car salesmen, who take in shipments of ideas and sell them on.

-snip-

[John Thornton]

I think the Pauline Kael quote was actually about Nixon, not Reagan.

[international american]

"I have to laugh. It reminds me of Pauline Kael, the film critic, who said, “I don’t know how Reagan won — I don’t know a soul who voted for him"



She was a lousy critic as well:-)

[2thfxr]

It was about Nixon

[Travis McGee]

So who are the people who voted for Bush? I think the most cogent person on this is James Webb...he served briefly under Reagan as secretary for the navy, but he has since become a writer. His latest book, Born Fighting, is the most important piece of ethnography in this country for a long time. It’s about that huge but invisible group, the Scots-Irish. They’re all over the Appalachian mountains and places like southern Ohio and Tennessee. Their theme song is country music and when people talk about rednecks, this is the group they’re talking about: this is the group that voted for Bush.

This James Webb novel "Born Fighting" just went to the top of my MUST READ NOW list. I loved his previous novels such as "Fields of Fire."

[joesnuffy]

One of my old friends from back home is a producer for a FOX TV station in Cinn. and a devout liberal...she also greatly admires Tom Wolfe...

Hope she is all grown up now and LISTENS UP...

Listen to Mr. Wolfe.... Tracy and you will be all better... :)

[wizardoz]

There was silence around the table, as if I’d said “by the way, I haven’t mentioned this before but I’m a child molester”.

Oh, nonsense. They'd have forgiven that immediately.

[mollynme]

Note my definition of “intellectual” here is what you often find in this city: not people of intellectual attainment but more like car salesmen, who take in shipments of ideas and sell them on.

What a great description of these self-important idiots.

[Enterprise]

"There was a bunch of boys who were always up for it and they haven’t lost that love of battle."

Must be genetic. God Bless 'em.

[international american]

I s'pose Pauline really liked that Marxist McGovern.

[ATOMIC_PUNK]

Friend of mine works for local 9 wcpo here in Cincinnati him and 2 others voted for bush he said the next day it was like walking into a Funeral Wake the faces were as long as Kerrys and the attitudes were nasty and bitter !

[wizardoz]

You know, I really learned a lot about this side of America when I read Jim Goad's "Redneck Manifesto." I don't agree with his ultimate direction at all, but his assessment of Scotch-Irish whites in this country was like a light bulb coming on in my head. Sort of "Ah Ha! THAT explains my family!!"

[Corporate Law]

Another reason I am glad don't watch that station, but then again I never watch 5 or 12 either.

[najida]

Some woman on another thread was talking about moving to the midwest so she could 'educate the conservatives, bring up the literacy rate and get them to stop watching Fox TV"

They are so stupid. Pathetically stupid.

If any idiot from New York were rude enough to try something like that, they would find themselves either slapped silly or "Bless your heart"'d to death.

[Jack Deth]

Tom Wolfe ROCKS!!!

I'm so glad I found Mr. Wolfe early on. With "Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing The Flack Catchers"! all the way through "The Right Stuff" and "Bonfires Of The Vanities".

HE GETS IT!

HE'S ALWAYS GOTTEN IT! And he lays down his sights, thoughts and opinions like no other American Writer.

P.J. O'Rourke is close. Tom Wolfe is the Master!

Enjoy your "I told you so" smiles, Mr. Wolfe.

Well done!

Jack.

[Constantine XIII]

Oh, it is. :)

There's a reason Tennessee is called the "Volunteer" state.

[Constantine XIII]

I mean, what do you expect of people descended from the Scottish, the Irish, and the Cherokee?

[KarlInOhio]

The author nailed Kerry's personality perfectly:

whereas Kerry says, “I’m a Roman Catholic so I must believe in God.” It’s as if he turns to James Carville (the Democratic strategist) and says, “Don’t I?”

[RedMonqey]

Tom Wolf rules...

Naomi Wolfe drools..

[RedMonqey]

Another one I like is

Intellectuals are people who speak several langauages but understand none of them.