One Nation, Slightly Divisible: A Report from “Red” and “Blue” America

The Atlantic Monthly | December 2001 | David Brooks

[rface]

I was passing through Coal City Illinois, its part of Red America (south of Joliet), and I stopped at a lunch joint and saw this article. It is not available on the internet (as best as I can tell), so I transcribed the first section. I did a search and saw where someone had posted part of the Atlantic Monthly Forum that discussed this long piece written by Brooks.

I encourage everyone to go to their local library and get hold of this issue. I say it is a great article.

Maybe I'll get around to transcribing the next section some other day. (This section probably amounts to 2% of the entire article)

Ashland, Missouri (Red America)

[anniegetyourgun]

Wow...you're right - it looks like a great article. Now you got me hooked by starting it. I'll have to find the whole thing. Thanks for posting.

[rface]

Atlantic Monthly Forum/FReeRepublic

[Texas_Jarhead]

Interesting. I'll have to get a copy of this. Thanks (something different for a change).

[vladog]

Sounds like where I live. Around here the 'good old boys' still have a good time on Sat. night. We still love Old Glory. We and millions like us are still Americans in the true sense of the word. Good post thanks.

[Miss Marple]

Those of us who made our livings with mining know where Coal City is, and it is VERY Red AMerica. This looks like an excellent article...I will try to find it.

Thank you for posting this, I know transcribing is hard work.

[JOHN ADAMS]

I live in Blue America and most of my friends and coworkers are like the people this article says live here. I hope the rest of the article is a lot less condescending about Red America. The part you've posted makes the people who live there sound like parochial, naive (if innocent and harmless) white trash. If you say it's a good article I'll believe you, but I'm eager to see what the rest of the piece says.

The Atlantic Monthly has a summary of the piece that might be useful to those who are curious, followed by some debate that will make you laugh between normal people who might fit in here at FreeRepublic and loonytunes who clearly come from blue regions and who have never visited a red one. Check out http://forum.theatlantic.com/WebX?.ee71cdc for amusement if you have a minute.

[anniegetyourgun]

Actually, I didn't post it - rface did. It is interesting and I probably would agree with you assessment of their assessment of Red zone folk.

[JOHN ADAMS]

Much if not all of the debate I mentioned is at the url posted by rface at #3.

[summer]

If you read the entire article, then -- what was the author's conclusion? I am quite curious. I'm trying to predict the ending, but -- I want to know where it ended up.

[anniegetyourgun]

Re #3 - I think I'll stay here, thank you.

I found this rather interesting from the exerpts they post on the Atlantic Monthly site:

"In Red America people eat meatloaf, dine at Crackerbarrel, shop at Walmart, attend Church and participate in Church-related activities regularly, live near family, obtain minimal educations, hold conservative views on issues like homosexuality and abortion, and enjoy a close-knit community life. "

While lots of this is correct, the "minimal educations" is factually incorrect. Christians (as a group in America), for example, are slightly better educated than the national average.

[Fiddlstix]

BTTT

[anniegetyourgun]

Can't tell too much from their website excerpts - looks like the author is headed toward suggesting that the two Americas are really not as far apart as one might think. One would have to work hard to convince me of that.

[rface]

I don't think this report is condescending about Red America, I do think it kind-of pokes fun a Blue America because of their "Superior" attitudes towards their Red American cousins.....but I base this assumption on parts of the rest of the report.

[XBob]

many thanks bttt

[TightSqueeze]

Everything that people in my neighborhood do… Blah, blah, blah, yada, yada, yada.
Face it you live just south of Boring, east of Dullsville, and wouldn’t know a good time if it fell on you. Why do you think cities are crowded? Do you think we are somehow forced to live here? People live here by choice, as a matter of fact there is a housing shortage. BTW when and if I ever decide to sell out and move to loathsome USA, the sale price for my house will buy three there.

Jersey City (Close-enough-to-Ground-Zero)

[madprof98]

"Although there are some real differences between Red and Blue America," he writes, "there is no fundamental conflict. There may be cracks, but there is no chasm. Rather, there is a common love for this nation--one nation in the end."

Yeah, like the 20-year-old American Taliban and his flakey bi-coastal parents who paid his way over to fight for them.

[rface]

how come people who live in Red America always talk like...yada, yada, yada. What the hell does that mean?

[Long Cut]

Book to read, on this topic and many others, be prepared to be outraged and to laugh yourself silly within four pages: The Redneck Manifesto, by Jim Goad.