I originally was typing this out as a comment in Willers' thread but realized I had a lot more to say. My following opinions mainly have to with my experiences living in one of the reddest areas of a red state and one of the bluest areas of a blue one.
This what pisses me off: The judgements that people on Willers' thread have been making about rural residents and red staters is soley based on politics. I know everyone here, including myself, has a passion for what's going on in our government but please, there's so much more to a person than their politics. The vast majority of my friends and family do not agree with most of my views and I DONT CARE. They are good people, people I could not do without in life and I love them.
For the people who have ever ventured to somewhere between Malibu and Manhattan, I hereby invite you to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Instead of planning your next vacation to the French Riviera, come down here to Oklahoma and see for yourself that you probably have more in common with an Okie than you ever thought possible. I made the transition from one of the bluest parts of New Jersey to Tulsa, the reddest major city in Oklahoma and I did fine. Certainly, there was some culture shock at the beginning but I've adapted. I think a lot of people's politics are truly abohorrent but I'm open minded enough to push that shit aside and I'm a happy person because of it.
There was once a time when Democrats were considered more open minded than Republicans. But when comments like this
Rural folk may be very smart when it comes to things like growing crops and fixing tractors, but when it comes to politics, they truly are dumbfucks, if they are swallowing that Fox news crap and digesting it uncritically.
Hoe can we call ourselves open minded.
Here lies one of our biggest problems as Democrats. As the right rails against their caricature of the "eliteist left" we apply the same treatment to the "rural dumbfucks." Folks, you want to know why our voter turnout sucks in this country? Its because the activists in each party have waged war on two large groups of people and ordinary Americans are tired of it.
There's eliteism on both sides. When I instructed some of you to change your vacation plans above, and invoked the ritzy French Riviera I was assuming a moral high ground that I don't have. Its downright wrong to say there's only one group of elites in this conflict. And here I see an amazing oppertunity for our party:
Let's just be less political in general! If there's one thing that unites a "latte sipping Princetonian (where im from in nj) and a "church-going dumbfuck" its the cynicism people hold towards politics. I'm fifteen years old, and I especially see it in my generation. We are the comedy central generation and we will still be when we're all seventy years old. We want to be entertained, and when we're caught in the middle of politcal bickering between the right and the left ten years from now, many of us won't go to the polls.
I doubt there will be as many people in my generation that will grow to be the type of concerned citizens that we see in the activist anti-war Vietnam generation I don't want that, and I'm sure none of you do either. I don't think this problem only exists amongst my peers, either. Its an epidemic that also exists in that 40% of people that didn't vote in 2004 as well.
So my plan in a nutshell: Less eliteism (the type I've tried to outline above, not the Rovian caricature), and more politicans that are principled Democrats, yet at the same time do not alienate a large group of voters. Perhaps the ideal candidate for us would be a combination of John Stewart and Bill Clinton: Someone who can speak American and someone who can entertain the entire country.