[lbo-talk] Oberlin College: Hell on Earth

[Dennis Perrin]

> I'm inclined to agree with Brian. Traditional Americans are far wilder
than
> FrontPage thinks. Travelling in Arkansas recently, I went drinking with a
> travelling salesman, who tried to get me to accept Jesus as my personal
> savior. When I politely declined, he tried equally persistently to
persuade
> me to come back to Missouri and have a threesome with him and his wife. No
> thanks, I said, I'm married. "That don't mean nothin!" he objected. My
> sense is he's not unusual, and that "traditional America" is a pretty
crazy
> place, not so different from Oberlin College as its demogogues would like
to
> think.
>
> Liza

Agreed. Growing up in Republican Indianapolis I knew that my parents
(divorced, in two different worlds) were involved in some pretty wild
scenes, some sexual, some booze and/or drug fueled. Their friends were, on
the surface, straight-laced conservative folk, but after a few drinks . . .
whew! They had The Flag in the front yard, weekend cookouts, voted for
Repubs and all the rest, and yet I'd find porno under the guestroom sink,
overhear drunken sex-charged exchanges, etc. These are your "average
Americans," more or less, the ones who voted for Reagan & W. The FrontPage
ideologues are so far out in Scaife-funded territory that they actually
believe that their political lives are somehow representative of those loyal
Repubs who've never heard of them.

DP