"King of the Hill" Democrats Regionalism

Here at Western Democrat, we're gonna keep talkin' 'bout culture until the DNC, the DLC, the DCCC - and all the other D-somethin'-C groups back in D.C. - actually get it.

Today, we get a little help from the New York Times magazine. They're talking about the show "King of the Hill" - an animated show on Fox that's in its ninth year. Don't know it? Time to buy some DVDs and pay attention.

Governor Mike Easley - a Democrat in one of the bluest states, North Carolina - likes to, well, just listen to this...

North Carolina's two-term Democratic governor, Mike Easley, is so obsessed with the show that he instructs his pollster to separate the state's voters into those who watch ''King of the Hill'' and those who don't so he can find out whether his arguments on social and economic issues are making sense to the sitcom's fans. ...

Easley polls surprisingly well for a Democrat among these voters, and he says he thinks that understanding the show's viewers might resolve some of the mysteries confronting his party about the vast swaths of red on the electoral map. Easley is reasonably progressive -- he raised taxes during his first term to protect education spending -- but he's also known as a guy who cracked up a race car during a spin on a Nascar course. When the governor, a former prosecutor, prepares to make his case on a partisan issue, he likes to imagine that he's explaining his position to Hank -- an exercise that might be useful for his colleagues in Washington too.

Check it out. Good stuff.

Kari Chisholm | June 26, 2005 | Comment on This Post (1 so far) Permalink: "King of the Hill" Democrats Regionalism

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