Truesday: A Nation Of Self Loathing?

The issue, as I see it, is this: our more backwoodsy brethren have a-lot more social sway than many give them credit. They can sway elections, destroy what little semblance of righteous dignity our country has left, and even act as the muse for multi-million-dollar entertainment ventures.

They’re no “silent majority”. Not really.

Along the lines of the elections, I don’t have a-lot to add beyond what has already been ranted over by thousands of other pseudo-intellectuals before me, but I’ll blather a bit on it anyway.

Let’s face it: The Heartland is not NEAR as jaded as the fancy-educated city-dwelling populations. Blessed and safe from the terrors of information-overdose apathy, they still vote with stoic regularity, and aren’t afraid to dash any ideas of moral ambiguity to a rocky death in the process. What they do not understand neither impresses them, nor causes them pause to consider the devastating ramifications of moral absolutism. Their belief systems can usually be jig-saw fitted to pleasantly matching voting options.

I do not believe this is coincidence in any way. Rove made it so.
And they’ll vote the heavy-hand of their dear lord and savior if they believe they’re being honestly steered to do so. I would not be so bold as to claim this an ‘ignorant’ or ‘sheepish’ path to self-destruction through morally bankrupt political manipulation. That’s a lazy analysis. It assumes our nation's core to be a parade of drone-ish simpletons, and that’s flatly not the case, however clean and neat an explanation it would make.

Because for all I know, they’re actually RIGHT, and god IS somehow involved in politics. Taking sides or spreading hate or whatever. I honestly don’t know whether a god exists, let alone the politics it might choose to favor, so I’m keeping my dog out of that fight.

But I will say that purely faith-based or emotionally-fueled decision-making on a national level is beyond dangerous for whoever ends up in the minority. Especially when voters with tendencies to go with their faith over rational logic FAR outnumber their opposition.

It is an unfortunate, historically-traceable fact that the vast majority of western religions REQUIRE either co-optation or subjugation of any “competing” forms of religion. The best-case scenario is an oligopoly of position-jockeying faiths, working in collusion to exclude any possible dark-horse comers to the game.

And it is religion which is the strongest and longest-lasting mortar used to keep the walls surrounding America’s rural communities together. Just like in Footloose! Man, let those kids DANCE!

Somehow, it used to be seen as acceptable or even convenient for The Heartland to be chiefly comprised of relatively quiet and well-mannered fundamentalist revivalists. "Aren't they quaint? Like, Gone With The Wind!" The Bible Belt and whatnot. Prohibition was a minor scuffle in the scheme of things, and that was fine because it helped to remind us what bad decision-making at the national level looks like. Even though we seem to forget such lessons as soon as the smoke clears.

Then there’s our recent wholesale export of our rural interior’s teenagers onto overseas battlefields. Our previous rules of recruitment have been laxed-down to allow for the seedier underbelly of small town America to pick up a gun and practice some national diplomacy. This, for reasons which should be so far beyond obvious that I have immense trouble understanding why anyone is surprised by the grotesque results, is doing us no favors in our quest to appear as “benevolent saviors of the downtrodden”. We end up with knuckleheads who actually embody Spike Jonze’s FICTIONAL character from Three Kings.

That character was supposed to be a JOKE. A caricature. A poke of ridiculousness. Not a PREDICTION.

Should we feel aghast? Sure. Repulsed and livid? Of course. Ashamed and contrite? You bet your sweet crude we should.

But surprised? Well, no. Anyone else ever BEEN to Midland Odessa? I’m not picking on the place for being especially backward, but I am pointing out that it’s hardly a center for multi-cultural immigration or metropolitan curiosity. It’s your standard, run-of-the-mill middle-to-small-town with the best of intentions. But with a broad, yet appropriate stroke for this discussion, it’s a rather insulated community with a relatively small clutch of rich oil or ranching families, and then a shitload of significantly poorer folk who do their best to serve them. And that pretty much sums up the whole of north Texas, southern New Mexico, and West Oklahoma. Swap out oil for coal and you’ve got Missouri, Southern Illinois, and eastern Kansas. Keep on swapping out haves over have-nots and you’ll get the picture as you cross from sea to shining sea. And when Uncle Sam comes calling for boys to shoot guns at foreigners, the focus is on the sons of those poorer families. God-fearing, flag-waving, hard-working, apple-pie baking families.

There is an extremely good chance that none of these boys have ever met a Muslim. There’s a related probability that given the events of 9/11 and all the reports of “insurgent terrorist attacks” that kill boys just like them peppered across CNN everyday, they actually have a negative bias against Muslims, Middle Eastern peoples, Indians, anyone from any of the “istan” countries, and of course: the French. Really, anyone who appears dark and foreign-ish goes in the potential hate bucket. The Polish, Vietnamese, and those cuuuraaaaaazy Cubanos. There is very little available in the intentionally insulated rural American lifestyle to stem this negative bias against the outside world.

Especially when that outside world also holds true to a competing brand of religious philosophy. Not that small towns espouse hatred per se. But inclusion, acceptance, and respect for non-Americans or non-Christians probably isn’t a main priority. Argue against that however you’d like. But small towns tend to rally education around a cohesive community, religious morality, and team sports.

I don’t make the rules. I just sew vests on buttons.

And then to top it all off, I’m getting the idea that Ricky Bobby is totally taking rural ‘Merica for a long corn-holing at the box office. It’s as if some city-slicker writers got together and decided to write about how obnoxious and small-minded the folks are outside the Big City, packaged it as humor, and then sold it directly to the ones the script craps all over. And I love it! It seriously makes me laugh! The movie is hilarious to me! I have family like that, and I love them to death! NASCAR fans really do scare me sometimes!

USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! [Wow, I actually feel my balls getting larger as I repeatedly type that out. America, fuck yeah.]

But the movie’s not painting them in a very pleasant light. Not pleasant in the least. Combine that with Rove’s apparent manipulation of the religious voting blocks, along with some of the most public of craptastic mental-patient military diplomats, and what you have is a really shitty picture of what America’s rural center appears to be all about. And I feel pretty crappy for even considering it, but I can’t seem to help myself.

So, is the reputation of The Heartland at stake here? Does anybody else give a shit? Or am I just whistlin’ Dixie?