[Numbers Guy]

This is a reasonably fair-minded cultural piece for the Times (far better than that awful review of "South Park Republicans").

Of course the main reason it's a fair piece is because they talk to a Democratic politician who says libs and Dems should pay heed to the show. So it's supposed to be advice on how to trick small town people into voting for Democrats. In reality, the purpose of this article is to serve as an answer to the plaintive cry "What's The Matter with Kansas?" [i.e. "these dumb bunny voters get fooled by those religious types and don't vote for people who want to raise taxes on everything, so how can we fool them into voting *our* way?"].

As for Mike Judge, anybody who's watched his work, including "Beavis and Butt-head", can tell that he can't stand pious liberals. He's not as blatant about it as Stone/Parker. But you can bet he'll read this piece by some intellectual in the Times and chuckle to himself as, in the end, the author comes close but still doesn't get the point.

Those people don't vote against Democrats because Democrats haven't sold their policies well enough. They vote reflexively against people whose leaders clearly hate their religion and their lifestyle.

[SShultz460]

Well f'ing said

[okie01]

You might expect that a spoof of a small-town propane salesman and his beer-drinking buddies would attract mostly urban intellectuals, with their highly developed sense of irony.

The most telling line in the article.

Said another way: "Most Democrats would expect that the redneck buffoons out there wouldn't appreciate such a highly developed sense of irony, especially as it regards their own miserable, uneducated lives."

Matt Bai knows his audience. But he doesn't know us...

[Southack]

The Heartland doesn't "... vote against Democrats because Democrats haven't sold their policies well enough. They vote reflexively against people whose leaders clearly hate their religion and their lifestyle."

Precisely.

Think about it; Democrats want to raise our taxes. That's harsh, and that works against Joe Everyman who is working to get by.

Democrats don't want children to have to tell their parents that they are about to get an abortion.

Democrats don't want religion displayed in public (unless its the "religion" of secularism, athieism, or socialism).

Democrats want everyone to resolve their problems by suing each other...dragging all of us into courts and running up countless legal bills.

Democrats want gay marriage, though they keep denying it whenever they run for national office.

Democrats want to ban law-abiding citizens from owning guns, so that only criminals are packing heat.

Democrats want to limit home-building permits so that home prices keep escalating (i.e. supply and demand).

Democrats don't want new oil drilling because they want high oil prices so that they can limit how much we drive...ditto for Democrats not wanting new highways (they've banned new highway construction in California already).

New taxes, high oil, high home prices, guns only for criminals, abortions on demand for our children, gay marriage, sue everyone, crappy roads (due to not enough new highways being built), and no religious displays in public.

That's the Democratic Party.

Walk into *any* bar in America and start demanding all of the above and you'll get your face smashed and your butt tossed out.

So Democrats *don't* openly advocate all of the above. They take baby steps, nipping and tucking and hoping to get it all in over time...denying anything in the above list whenever the Public gets wind of the Dems' hidden desire for any particular aspect.

Democrats win elections, at least, outside our nearly gay, Greek city-states of the day, when they say conservative things during campaigns (e.g. former Senator Daschle), no matter how liberal or leftist they actually *vote*. Look at the new Senator from Colorado for example. He promised to vote against judicial filibusters during the 2004 election campaign (never for a moment meaning a word of it).

But when word finally gets through the Corrupt Old Media's filter...word that the local "conservative" Democratic Party politician is actually a flaming socialist (e.g. Daschle), these guys get voted right out of office.

And since the Corrupt Old Media isn't gaining new ground (but rather, is shrinking), I see this trend accelerating in our favor. Their ability to cover for their favorite leftists is declining.

Consider that the LA Times put 28 more reporters on the trail of so-called "Arnold groping" prospects than they did on Kofi Annon's war-inducing oil-for-food scandal, Michael Jackson's trial in Santa Barbara, the bogus "sexed up" charges against Blair, or French President Chirac's corruption.

Likewise, what a shame that for *decades* Dakota newspapers refused to print the liberal votes of Senator Daschle, instead only mentioning his conservative rhetoric.

But this sort of double-standard has an ever-declining power to influence national politics. It also points out that Democrats can't win in the Heartland with a level playing field. They have to have aid from a corrupt news media to even be competitive...because the Dems' ideas/policies aren't the least bit popular with most Americans.

[George Smiley]

And Judge's "Office Space" is simply classic.

[johnb838]

The way I would read the trends is for there to be KOTH Republicans and Southpark Republicans. KOTH Republicans are traditional, flag-waving, pro-military types. Southpark Republicans are young, rebellious, anti-establishment, anti-authoritarians who find the high pious hypocrisy of the demrats disgusting and infuriating, as it does all of us.

Counter-intuitively, a lot of these are probably boots on the ground in Iraq because they see that projecting American military power rather than kissing tail and talking and talking and talking is the only way to defeat those who would destroy us.

[KC_Conspirator]

Those people don't vote against Democrats because Democrats haven't sold their policies well enough. They vote reflexively against people whose leaders clearly hate their religion and their lifestyle.

That is very well put. Your remarks about the ignorant and haughty book "What's a Matter with Kansas" is correct too.

[weegee]

BUMP