Joe Six-pack & the Brie-and-Chablis Crowd
We've talked a lot about the Western style - especially as employed by Western Democrats. Looking for something else tonight, I stumbled on this great 2003 column by B.C. Silvia at sloganeering.org:
In a country often divided up into “red states” and “blue states,” it pays to remember that we haven’t progressed very far from our conservative, agrarian roots. American literature is filled with scenes in which some bumpkin wanders into the big city to find his fortune and winds up getting taken in by some fast talking con man. ...Rural America still harbors a deep distrust of strangers. Rhetorical flourishes and New England accents put them on edge; worst of all, they don’t qualify as the “straight talk” much beloved by our agrarian lower classes. It’s not content that matters as much as style. If someone from Vermont were to show up in Texas and start giving speeches about cutting taxes, increasing military spending, and building a wall across the Mexican border, the average person’s first thought is still going to be, “He’s trying to put one over on us.”
Viewed in this light, an ineloquent southerner outranks a eloquent, eastern, establishment type with a bag of oratorical tricks. Again, it’s nothing to do with anybody being dumb: It’s just the fact that a fancy-talking Yankee is a stranger, someone who shouldn’t be trusted to look out for one’s best interests.
Still wondering why John Kerry got beat by an oratorical chimpanzee?
Kari Chisholm | June 22, 2005 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) |
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Comments
Lets not overdue the effects of "sayin' ain't". I am quite sure that if a candidate from Vermont were to give speeches in taxes calling for tax cuts, closing off the border, a strong military and law'n'order issues, he or she could do quite well (depending on the opposition and the environment).
Quick example -- the current governor of Virginia is a carpetbagger from Indiana who came to work for a big corporation, has no southern accent, has shown no great interest in Nascar or "King of the Hill," speaks in complete sentences ...and has passed tax increases to balance the budget and increase education spending! He's the most popular official in the state right now. And he's a Democrat.
The governor of Nevada is a self-described "businessman" with a PHD, lots of fake western mannerisms, says ain't and on occasion wears cowboy hats and boots, has raised taxes to balance the budget and expand education, is a Republican ...and is widely regarded as a political failure, on boh sides of the aisle.
Posted by: desmoulins | Jun 26, 2005 2:33:27 PM
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(and yes, we know that sometimes they're very, very wrong. Other times, they're right on.)
