Why rednecks may rule the world

BBC Radio4 - Today ^ | September 6th, 2008 | By Joe Bageant

[KarenMarie]

During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters."

What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck.

[6ppc]

They may not have gone to Ivy League schools

Or they may have gone to Ivy League schools and prefer the southern lifestyle.

[Finalapproach29er]

Is that the sheriff in BLAZING SADDLES? lol

[Kozak]

"I'm a Redneck!"

[Mugwump]

Jeez, am I really that old? The default insult from a Brit is (or used to be):

“You think life’s a John Wayne movie!”

No mention of it in the article. Even if tongue in cheek, I would have thought the Duke would have been mentioned.

Man, I’m feelin’ more and more like a dinosaur every day...

[aberaussie]

I must be a redneck...I did not find it all that offensive. And I saw myself a little and my relatives a lot in that article, but they are all from small town SC and GA. Redneck, yes, but good people.

[myprecious]

There are no rednecks in my Texas village. These are the winners of the Commode Race.

[vpintheak]

Who cares what these people say. It’s the “rednecks” and country boys who will survive in any circumstance. Those of us who know how to handle a gun, hunt, fish, build things with our hands. We are the ones America was built on, and keep America running. We are the ones who can make it through anything. We don’t need anyone to hold our hand. We don’t need anyone to tell us to do things. We take the initiative to get ‘er done. While the city folk will be dying off in droves, we will be waiting it out in relative comfort.

[Bahama Mama]

I read the whole article and I found it a great read. Maybe you’re upset because you’re not a true ‘redneck’. A true ‘redneck’ isn’t upset when someone makes fun of them...they just consider the source and move on.
Maybe I’m missing something, but I don’t think the article was meant to be a put down to rednecks...but hey, I’m simple...I’m a redneck :-)
Cheers!

[Little Bill]

Years ago when I worked for Boston Edison, a new Black Guard, not a bad kid, asked one of my coworkers who that Cracker Looking MF was when I walked through the Gate House after the morning meeting.

I guess that we of the Scots-Irish, English, Irish genotype have acquired distinguishing features. I can't wait to see how my Grandson turns out. His mother is half North Alabama Ridge runner and has an Uncle Bubba, Rufus.

[KarenMarie]

You are correct, I am not a redneck. Born and raised in NY, I lived on the North Yorkshire Moors UK and then 5 years in Nashville, TN before moving to Northern NJ. Blue collar, manual labor all my life.

I am offended because the author says that anyone who is educated is a dem and anyone who is not a dem is a redneck. And the pic they paint of rednecks is really negative.

Rednecks are not bad, stupid, boorish or the embarrassment that I think he wants the rest of the world to think they are. And not everyone who is not a dem is this definition he claims ‘rednecks’ to be.

I might just be a bit touchy when ppl try to make us look bad.

:)

[DuncanWaring]

I'm trying to figure out what he meant by his closing comments-

All this has become so deeply instilled as to now be reflexive. It represents many of the worst traits in American culture and a few of the best.

And that has every thinking person here in the US, except perhaps John McCain and Sarah Palin, worried.

[1COUNTER-MORTER-68]

We Aw`Ready Played "Rednecks-n-Redcoats." ...;0)

[Right Wing Assault]

Yeah, here's the part where he takes back anything good he said:

All this has become so deeply instilled as to now be reflexive. It represents many of the worst traits in American culture and a few of the best.

And that has every thinking person here in the US, except perhaps John McCain and Sarah Palin, worried.

Very worried.

[MWestMom]

I agree. According to the last bullet points in the article, I guess I’m a redneck.

[TexasRepublic]

I see the BS, but where’s the cattle?

[word_warrior_bob]

I grew up less than an hour from NYC in Hopatcong, Lake Hopatcong. New Yorkers think it’s the country, another 30-45 minutes west they think they have hit “Deliverance”. Look at the county maps. Plenty o’ rednecks here in NJ, I bet plenty of other rednecks don’t even know that.

That being said, ATTENTION REDNECKS:

Put down the pork rinds, stop the VCR and register all your friends to vote, because Obama wants to take away your PORK RINDS.....and your guns.

[DuncanWaring]

Particularly well-demonstrated at the Battle of Kings Mountain.

[marsh2]

A great book on the Scots-Irish is “Born Fighting - How the Scots-Irish Shaped America” by James Webb. The “Scots-Irish” were Protestant and settled in Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Annapolis, Charleston and the Appalacians. Ever-spreading westward on the frontiers, they came as an early wave of immigrants to America before the Revolutionary War, then again during the potato famine and as late as the 1920s. They are notable in literature, (Jacksonian) politics, the military and fundamentalist Christianity (Calvinism.) According to Webb, the Scots-Irish leave a legacy of beliefs in personal honor, equality, individualism, patriotism. They also have a strong distrust of the nation’s elite and include much of blue-collar America. They are one of America’s largest cultural groups.

They comprised 40% of the Revolutionary War army, included pioneers such as Daniel Boone, Davy Crockett, Lewis and Clark and Sam Houston. Mark Twain and Edgar Alan Poe were writers of Scots-Irish descent. Military leaders included Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy and George Patton. Presidents included Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronal Reagan and Bill Clinton.

I think the article is spot on. The Republican party is an triangle of Religious fundamentalists; (for want of a better word) the country-club or Burger class; and the libertarian conservatives, (who pretty much fit the description of the Scots-Irish.) Sarah Palin has tapped into 2 out of three of the base.

I think people will be suprised at how much she resonates with the last group and how large that group actually is.

[Toki]

I couldn’t make heads or tails of the article till the end, then I might find it offensive, but I really don’t care anymore.

But I have to say I love fried pickles..... /drool... Has anyone tried fried recese (I forgot how to spell it) cup? It’s supposed to be amazing....

[Zionist Conspirator]

The writer is on target about the impact of the Scots-Irish in American culture... but the British have always sneered at the Scots and the Irish as pale barbarians at the northern gates, ready to pollute the English homeland. This writer has just transferred the traditional English bigotry about the Scots and Irish and placed it in an American context.

I think you mean the English have always sneered at the Scots, since English, Scots, Welsh, and Ulstermen are all British. Saying that the "British" are prejudiced against the Scots is like saying the Americans are prejudiced against people from Colorado.

And btw, Scotland is not a monoethnic country. The Lowland Scots are of Anglo-Saxon and Brythonic descent rather than actual Gaelic Scots, and non-Gaelic Scots are quite capable of being as anti-Irish as any Englishman.

I'm sorry if I seem to be overstressing a minor point but as a redneck of English rather than Scots-Irish extraction the identification of "British" with "English" (and the assumption that Welsh, Scots, and Ulstermen are not British) drives me absolutely bonkers.

And it is England, not Scotland, that has paid the highest price for the Union. Scotland retains its unique identity; England is merely "Britain."