Can Democrats Learn to Speak Redneck?

Democratic pundits can shout to the Heavens above that Republican nominee John McCain's acceptance speech was old, tired, and boring -- not unlike the candidate himself I will add -- and that it doesn't matter. That what does matter is what the American people heard in his speech last night.

Unfortunately, I didn't find it so flat myself. Not as disconnected and out of touch as I would like to have heard in the vibe he was putting out. I would like to have felt from McCain's Republican beat that Americans would pay him no mind at all. But as easily as Karl Rove got George W. Bush elected before he brought W. and his whole party down, Rove and his Dark Circle are working overtime to spin the Democrats out of control. We all know how easy that is to do. They're already spinning on one of Obama's incredible strengths -- his charismatic, inspiring, and true leadership abilities -- by making fun of it, him, and his followers (just as Hillary showed them how to do).

We cannot give up this powerful and positive ground.

We cannot let this happen. We dim Democrats have got to stay on task here. As idiotic as it seems to have named Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain has accomplished what he set out to do in some sense. This is what a long-time political watcher friend of mine said:

All this criticism of Sarah Palin is just whistling past the graveyard. And, it is solidifying her credentials with those in Middle America who were reluctant to vote for McCain.

We can take no chances. We all know that every vote is going to matter here. Not only do Democrats need to focus, they need to sound the alarm to take action. Not only do the Democrats need to register every young person they can scrape up, they must step outside their comfort zones and reach out to groups who live where they have become afraid to tread -- the gun toting speaking-in-tongues crowd. Hit Palin where she lives, in the territory she's claiming -- America's redneck frontier. Throw some barbecues, chili cook-offs, and raccoon, duck, or venison dinners. Slap in some bluegrass music and a pie-baking contest.

Let me tell you a story. A guy named Joe Bageant was plucked from the Internet by Three Rivers Press and has one of those publishing stories of which every blogger dreams. He'd developed a big readership of the very demographic that the Democrats lost a couple of decades ago and now desperately need to get back in the fold, and this publisher saw the $ potential in this segment of web mass consciousness (exactly what the Democrats ought to be going for). Bageant followed his Internet dynamic by writing a book called Deer Hunting with Jesus (Dispatches from America's Class Wars).

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Deer Hunting has done okay in the U.S., but in Australia, it's been on the bestseller list for the past six months. Why? Is it because intellectual Democrat Americans are too insular? Republicans don't want to buy the book, and Democrats are too dim to try and get their brethren back in the fold in the ways that might actually do the trick.

Bageant's buddy and webmaster Ken Smith tells me that in the past two weeks, Bageant has been very big in the UK. He did his third BBC World radio spot yesterday morning. He had a guest column in The Guardian day before yesterday. Last week, The Times Sunday Magazine did a multi-page spread--interviews and photos. Last night Swiss TV broadcast a one-hour special on Joe. A Swiss producer spent a week with him--but yesterday, the Swiss special was edited to have a ten-minute segment on Sarah Palin, explaining why she is so popular with rednecks. Then it goes into 50-minues of Joe explaining why many Americans vote against their own self-interest.

At the Southbank Centre in London:

Joe Bageant opens our series on contemporary America, with his reports from the 'heartlands' of the nation. He discusses his book Deer Hunting with Jesus in which he returns to his home state of Virginia, and to the betrayed 'have-nots' of the rural working-class. These people will ultimately decide the outcome of the election, and Bageant looks beyond the stereotypes in giving them a voice.



'Bageant's bitingly funny report can at times make Michael Moore seem tame' (Entertainment Weekly).

What the Democrats need to do is just exactly this -- make these people feel like they're getting a voice. That they will be heard.

Bageant leaves Tuesday for a two-week tour of the UK and Ireland. Several TV appearances are scheduled, and there will probably be more. Not only is his UK publisher Portobello very good at booking publicity stops but non-U.S. citizens are more interested in taking a look into our culture and who's voting against their own best interests and why than we are. This is a serious Democratic mistake.

Getting back the red staters (and I totally dislike using red and blue state terminology but will to make the point here) is what we have to do. We have to talk the talk and walk the walk of these people to whom Sarah Palin will now appeal.

Here's what Joe Bageant wrote in The Guardian--and what the Europeans are learning about us that we don't want to know or hear about ourselves:

Meanwhile McCain's popularity in the red-state heartland took another jump with his selection of the moose-shooting ex-beauty queen, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, as his vice-presidential running mate. The war hero and gun advocate "hockey mom" are obviously reaching American heartlanders: at some point the left is going to have to learn to reach the same people, especially in the swing states. And to do that they are going to have to learn to speak redneck.

Beth Arnold lives and writes in Paris. To check out more of her work, go to www.betharnold.com.

UpDate: I may live and write in Paris now, but I've lived most of my life in Arkansas where my family has been rooted for many generations.

Comments

[H215]

I'm fascinated by this newfound interest by the Dems in rednecks.
Personally, I also come from that Scots-Irish line, but what I took from it is a revulsion at the violence and non-rationalism of so much religion. What turned me around was reading the Federalist Papers. They were a cool, clear stream of calm reason.
Don't think there's time to turn the faith-based population on to rationalism, but maybe we Dems can do one thing - stop acting like its a crime to be - egad - of European descent!! There's this constant stream of "the Republican convention was horrible - it was full of WHITE people!" "Oh god, there's nothing worse than WHITE people!"
Right - send the message loud and clear that people from that planetary quadrant are not wanted in the Democratic Party - that'll teach 'em!!

[lizzylou2302]

This is a very interesting perspective on something that I feel some liberal, democrats forget from time to time and I think that you are right! The word "redneck" might be a bit harsh to some, but hey, us "rednecks" have to have some pride! haha!

[igotout]

Some of the readers of this piece might find it hard to believe, but those "bible-believing" people Joe speaks of, and Democrats have a hard time reaching, are found among the college educated, solidly middle class throughout the MidWest also. I know, since it's true of my family and all their friends. They are fundamentalist to the core in their beliefs, and get this, most of them are master's level prepared educators, science teachers, doctors and other professionals no less. Don't believe in evolution. Will never vote Democratic. They are less offended by war than by abortion. Especially since they view wars in the Middle East as evidence that Jesus will return sooner. These are intelligent, kind, loving, wonderful people in every other way, but because of their religious beliefs, they will continue to support the Republicans every time. Every time a Democrat/progressive mocks a "redneck", these higher income, more highly educated believers know they are being mocked too. If I knew how to reach them, trust me, I'd share it. Reason won't work. If it did, they'd leave behind their fundamentalist beliefs.

[Tunghoy]

Four years ago, when Howard Dean said he wanted to represent the folks who had a gun rack and Confederate flag in their pickup trucks, he got slammed for it -- from the Dems as well as the Repugs.

Dean used the same logical arguments as Baden did (below) -- that rednecks, or whatever you call them, get royally screwed by Republicrooks and that Dems are their natural allies. So this year, Obama made a similar argument, when he inelegantly said they're bitter and "cling to guns and religion". Look what happened there.

So the question is whether rednecks are congenitally stupid (I don't think so) or multi-generationally uneducated, making them easily manipulated by the fascist filth who screw us all. You know how it is -- "Forget your lack of health care. Vote Repug because we praise Jesus and hate gays and ethnics just like you." Can you make a logical argument to someone who was never trained to think critically?

[stupidforum]

Why should the Democrats worry about these "Redneck" morons anymore?

It's just an excuse by suburban white guys to be idiots 24/7, what with their NASCAR, crappy Bud Light, Harley-Davidsons and Harley-Davidson clothes (made in China BTW). These j'mokes are no more "Redneck" than the man in the moon. For the most part they're a bunch of accountants, salesmen and computer geeks putting on camouflage "outfits" and wearing their baseball caps backwards. And none of theri ol' ladies are barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen either. Just like Todd Palin, the ol' lady's making more dough and wearing the pants in the family!

So I say screw these so-called "Rednecks." If they're so proud of being stupid they can live with the consequences.

And if they're so stupid to be swayed Sarah Palin's bs the other night, and elect the McCain/Palin ticket, because she's a pitbull-hockey mom, the dumb asses get exactly what they deserve...without the Vaseline!

[Cole]

This 'election' should be like a walk in the park, after all the 'Pug failure after failure, planned incompetence, gross misspending of the 'so called Ciinton era surpluses (as far as he eye can see) before a drop of those surplus even hit the treasury--but it's not! Why not? Easy to answer. Because the Democratic opposition helped this mess along, every step of the way--the Demo failed to even try to look like it stood for something.

The excuses have been totally irrational==like "not enough votes to override a veto" so they voted for and helped awful legislation along. And now the big answer is to court the redneck. Wow, the diehard redneck is going to chuck the GOP for the party that stands for nada. Because the Demo's get a smaller cut of the corporate cash doleout?

Nope! The redneck, the relig right and so on will vote for the 'Pug because they see the 'Pug --as bad as it is--as better than the Left, Because the Left has not made, and will not make the case for the correctness of Progresive values and Social justice. Has not and will not make the case that Wars are not wonderful, that bombing populations from 20,000 ft is a form of Socialism-equal distruction spread without regard to anything but rubalization. Smart bombs is hoohey. Bombs don't think.

The Demo does not say that, they just join in and tag along with the "We have to succeed" mantra.

[CaptainStormfield]

I think one problem is that the Republicans have been very successful in labeling Unions, Worker
protection laws, fair wages, product labelling, you name it, anything that benefits the little guy as negative. Pick your label, Socialist, Un-American, Liberal. They have a masssive communications
system that beams this stuff out all the time. The people who construct this reality and work in political campaigns spend the rest of their time selling people crap they dont need and didnt know they wanted.
Your up against PR and advertising techniques that have been refined since Edward L. Bernays started the PR business. So why arent the Dem's using some of the same tactics?
Talking about "issues" and "programs" doesn't compute.

[ronpaul08]

So here comes Sarah Palin rescuer of the McCain campaign because she is just an average Joanna "hockey mom" (who may support Alaska's right to secede from America - but I digress - USA! USA! USA! - right, "Middle America") and this is reason enough to energize "Middle America" to vote for the Rep ticket. If after eight years of average joe and all of the damage it has done to "Middle America" they fall in line and vote for "W in skirt" (admittedly she is a babe, no matter how politically incorrect that may be) then there is virtually little that Dems can do about it. The best bet is to energize and register new voters and hope that the enough voters will support the Washington Generals of Presidential politicals (I dated myself just a bit) [... whew that feels better ... and I never typed redneck or PWT once ... just used Middle America... and only alluded to Obama's AA problem once - no, he is not an alcoholic - the "elephant" in the room? once the curtain is closed, no matter how much the media may convince you otherwise, there are those in "Middle America" who just won't vote for a ... you get the point.]

[ronpaul08]

Does anyone else find a scary that a Nation that is supposed to be the paragon of the entire planet is beholden to "Middle America" because Presidential elections have come down to who would be a better guest at a backyard BBQ? If you read between the lines of this article the Dems have to make sure there "uppity n-word" (Republicans just want to make sure the latest dog whistle is properly heard) tap dances and puts on a minstrel show for "Middle America" so he can convince them that he is really just as "down to earth" (read - unenlightened and in most instances as uneducated as they are). W did this buy proclaiming that he went to Harvard but made straight C's. He really need not have bothered everyone now knows that he really is an "average joe" - Daddy's money and connections just got him into the game (ahhh, nepotism the clearest path to the American dream) and now even Republicans are ashamed of his tenure.

[CaptainStormfield]

As much as I like Joes book and writing, Jim Webb's book Born Fighting is just as important in understand the Ulster-Scots culture that comprises the "Rednecks"
As Webb points out that culture has incorporated other groups in this country and spread far beyond the
Central Eastern US.

[1will]

Great column. Keep making fun of and putting down "Rednecks." This will really help the Democrats shake that "Elitism" reputation.

[WorkingClass]

I've been a Joe Bageant fan for a long time. He speaks for southern, rural and small town, working class people and by extension all working class Americans. But that ain't all. Check him out.

http://www.joebageant.com/

[gaelfire]

Right, but all the conservative criticism of Obama *ISN'T* "whistling past the graveyard"??

By picking Palin, Republicans may have energized their "base" - but based simply on what I'm hearing in on the street in the "wilds" of South Carolina, they've lost the moderates.

Guys (and girls), this is easy. Every criticism that the Gay Old Party slings at Obama can be turned even more successfully back onto Palin. Simple as that.

[gaelfire]

I'm referring to the GOP's negative comments about "experience," of course.

[gaelfire]

And btw, Republican criticism of "community organizing" is subtly racist, IMNSHO. Somebody in the independent media call them on it, please???

[CaptainStormfield]

Hey, good to find someone else here that likes Joe.
His interview on Austrailian TV was very good.

[sophiej]

Bageant is brilliant! It's a shame so many Americans have their brains washed and bleached out by the increasing idiocy and vulgarity of television.
About bumper stickers--there are directions for making your own at toastytech.com.

[beaupritchard]

Can Democrats Learn to Speak Redneck ... not sure ... think you got to kill something ... moose ... maybe a bunch of mooses ... meese maybe.

[sposton]

A very enlightening piece; I've placed Bageant's book on my reading list. While republicans slice and dice the electorate in search for a few more voters they can lie to, democrats ignore large, potentially natural constituencies. No wonder why republicans paint Obama as elitist while the true elitists like Bush and McCain are just regular folk eating pork rinds and drinking Bud.

How often can these rednecks be fooled? :-)

"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, probably in Tennessee -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again." -- Bush (2002)