> While many trends start in California, as Frank correctly points out,
> political trends start in Midwestern states like Kansas. Michael Moore
> understands this, which is why his PR folks clearly stated in the days
> after Fahrenheit 9/11's release that is had "played well in Peoria." I
> think that we need to devote more resources to reaching out to folks
> in the red states of middle America. We tedn to get too comfortable in
> our coastal lefty politics.
When I grew up in the late '40s and early '50s, during the McCarthy period, in Indiana, a premier example of what today we call the "red" states, my parents were further left than those any of my friends, as far as I knew (and this was in Indianapolis, the largest city) -- that is, they were Democrats -- think of that! Folks to the left of McCarthy laid pretty low, including my parents, but there were at least a few.
It wasn't until my senior year in high school, when I took a trip to DC sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee to meet with various Congressional staff people, State Dept. employees, etc., to see how they were dealing with the Middle East in the aftermath of the Suez Crisis, that I began to see that the right-wing propaganda which had saturated my environment all of my life might perhaps have a few holes in it. Of course, I had learned from my parents to question a lot of it, but I had still been so thoroughly infected unconsciously by the talk about the "Communists in Washington" which I heard over and over in the outside environment that it was quite a shock for me to discover that the government folks we met on that trip were not Commies at all -- just ordinary civil servants. (Of course, in later years, especially the '60s, I learned quite a bit more about how the world works.)
That experience showed me how much the constant buzz in the political background influences how we all think, even when we believe that we are immune to it. I certainly agree that the "red" states (whenever I hear that term the irony of calling conservative areas "Red" hits me) need the kind of "evangelizing" Chuck is talking about, and that there are a lot of people living in them who will respond. Good luck in your efforts, Chuck.
I also marvel at how different many things are now from those days -- what we wouldn't have given for the Internet and Michael Moore! Then, about the only source of alternative information you had was the local library, and you had to be lucky enough that the local patriots hadn't gone through it and "cleansed" it.
Jon Johanning // jjohanning at igc.org __________________________________ When I was a little boy, I had but a little wit, 'Tis a long time ago, and I have no more yet; Nor ever ever shall, until that I die, For the longer I live the more fool am I. -- Wit and Mirth, an Antidote against Melancholy (1684)