Politics and BBQ

By now, we all know we're in for one extremely long political mean season. To survive it to the bitter end, I propose we look back to another time when we were all very happy to sit around listening to politicians' yammering only if there was good barbeque nearby. In the late 1930s, when the writers for the Federal Writers Projects were out gathering material for their great manuscript about our nation's cuisine that was to be called America Eats!, many towns and counties were digging trenches and slattering sides of steers and pigs and muttons with mops soaked in thick peppery sauces, while folks sat about loudly interrogating candidate after candidate on their worthiness to in public office as they waited for their vittles.

The thing that barbecue has going for it as a conduit for our democratic process is the fact that it is one of our most beloved and iconic dishes. What's more -- and perhaps of greater benefit for most political venues -- it takes a substantial amount of time to prepare, all the while emitting smells that promise a delectable outcome. That fact alone is pretty much of a guarantee that anyone within smelling distance will stay put -- and thus safely promising an audience who will at least appear to be paying any attention to the candidates.

Sadly, it's almost impossible these days to find the kind of barbecue rally such as this one described in the America Eats! manuscript:

If a Mississippi candidate for any officer of importance is in earnest about winning his campaign he knows that he not only has to give a barbecue, but it has to be done just right and according to the accepted tradition. Speeches have to be accompanied by eating, and the eating has to be what is expected.

The [cooks] labor all night and on into the morning over a 10-foot pit with wire mesh stretched over the fire, at last coaxed down to smokeless coals. As the main speaker booms forth, his sonorous voice damning taxes and the Republican party, the fourteen hours of cooking come[s] to an end, and the attention hitherto given the candidate is divided between him and eating. While the speaker is describing his opponent as a "shallow-brained, slack-jawed liar, a bull ape of Mississippi politics, a big baboon cavorting like a fat pony on high cats," teeth are already sinking into fresh bread, thick slices of beef, and (the) incomparable sauce, the ladies are seeking glasses of lemonade from Uncle Si Curtis' stand, and the men are passing out the corn liquor.

Speeches over, the speakers move over to the table themselves, and the crowd makes way a little, but just a little. Dead enemies, who were a moment ago blackening each other for all eternity on the platform, meet, help each other to the delectable, tantalizing beef, the bread, and the potato salad, sample each others' whiskey and chat as if food and drink have eradicated all differences-at least for the moment.

There are just about two community political barbecues left in the country -- the one in Fancy Farm, Kentucky which, on the first Saturday in August according to the New York Times, celebrated its 127th year; and, the week before, the Neshoba County Fair in Mississippi, celebrating its 118th year. Other than these, it's safe to say that hardly a pit is dug or a steer slaughtered anymore just for a political gathering. Time is probably the main enemy, followed closely by local zoning rules about digging mile-long trenches and filling them with smoldering wood on public properties.

And yet, think how easier the next year and a half will be if candidates will only take it upon themselves to set up some fragrant smoldering pits around the country and provide us voters with something we can really sink our teeth into. Why, we might even feel kindly toward them and listen a bit to what they have to say.

Comments

[dadw5boys]

You mean they don't have the Sheriff over turning trucks and standing guard to keep out the Blacks from New Orlean like they did in hurricane Katrina to prevent those people from escaping the disaster.
Those poor people tried o cross a PUBLIC BRIDGE on a PUBLIC HIGHWAY and reach saftey had SHOT FIRED OVER THEIR HEADS because of the color of their skin!
I for one will never forget this or Kent State.