Originally Posted By ecdc <a href="http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=188638&title=understanding-real-america-in" target="_blank">http://www.thedailyshow.com/vi...erica-in</a> What would we do without Jon Stewart and the Daily Show?
Originally Posted By mele HAHAHA! Yeah, those people in the bar...that's the Alaska I was lucky enough to see. Most of it is like that. Oh, the Mayor. That was friggin' hilarious. Wow, a staff meeting on one day and signing checks on another?! Busy week!
Originally Posted By mele Oops, I mean the "small towns" in Alaska are like that. Wasilla is small but it's a damn metropolis compared to most of the towns in Alaska.
Originally Posted By Mr X It's so awesome that before that she said "YES, it does prepare ME to be the vice-president of America". How awesome is that!?
Originally Posted By mawnck Meh. The times I *don't* like Jon Stewart is when he goes all Michael Moore on us. And that's pretty much what this was. Content created in the editing room. And with people who are not public figures. Not cool.
Originally Posted By mele He's really pissed off at Palin for her comments about small towns being more American. I don't blame him.
Originally Posted By gadzuux The current Wasilla mayor is a public figure. And she pretty much confirmed what I suspected all along - that the job of being Wasilla mayor isn't all that demanding and doesn't exactly require a blazing intelltect. Sure, it's being played for comedic effect, but highlighting the differences between a podunk mayor and vice president of the united states is valid and relevant. As for the chuckheads in the bar - they don't seem any different from what you'd find in pretty much any roadhouse saloon.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>And she pretty much confirmed what I suspected all along - that the job of being Wasilla mayor isn't all that demanding and doesn't exactly require a blazing intelltect.<< Missed my point. That interview with the mayor, for instance, was so heavily edited that you can't trust any of it. The cutaways didn't match. There were numerous edits in the audio - increases in the length of the pauses, sentences apparently rearranged, etc. I'm sure the mayor listed quite a few more duties that didn't make it on the air. This is a classic example of a deliberately partisan program making a deliberately partisan hatchet piece. If you accept it at face value, you're being a liberal version of a dittohead.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<He's really pissed off at Palin for her comments about small towns being more American. I don't blame him.>> Small towns are not more American, but they more closely represent the quintessentially American experience. Small towns are the America of Norman Rockwell and Walt Disney. They are the America that best illustrates the individualism and self-reliance that built this country. Small Towns are the America that forms the backbone of those wide-open spaces you fly over between New York and Los Angeles. Small towns and rural areas have only about 20% of the United States population. On the other hand, there are approximately 15,800 small towns in America as opposed to only 363 Metropolitan areas. More Americans experience metropolitan life but the small town experience is replicated in far greater numbers. In many respects small towns ARE the norm, not the major cities. But small towns are not the norm when it comes to making government policy or setting government priorities. Government policy is frequently in opposition to their beliefs and provides ‘benefits’ they would rather do without. The Democratic Party has clearly become the champion of the needs and desires of the large metropolitan areas. Is it so terrible that the Republican Party has become the champion of the needs and desires of those in small towns? I’ve lived my whole life in a metropolitan area. But I spent many summers during my youth with my grandparents in Worthington, MN (pop 10,919) or my grandparents in Niwot, CO (pop 4,160). I far prefer the small town experience. Niwot had not become a Boulder suburb when I spent my summers there. At that time I would estimate the population at about 800. There was not a paved street in the entire town. It was heavenly.
Originally Posted By mele <<the Republican Party has become the champion of the needs and desires of those in small towns?>> No, that's what they want rural small towns to believe but it's simply not true. That's the whole point.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>Government policy is frequently in opposition to their beliefs and provides ‘benefits’ they would rather do without.<< Such as?
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Is it so terrible that the Republican Party has become the champion of the needs and desires of those in small towns?<< If they truly were champions of those things, it wouldn't be bad. But history shows that what the GOP has actually done nationally is pander to fears in small towns, to whip up votes. McCain/Palin spend their time mocking Obama and "elites". To me, this is treating small town residents like rubes, as if they couldn't possibly understand anything but simplistic flag waving sentiments. Essentially, big city politicians go all Frank Capra and fall all over themselves hamming up the "You're the REAL America!" stuff -- for votes.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip Well, they seem to be drinking the Kool-Aid. All you need to do is look at the red/blue map to know that they have small town American in their pocket. The map showing results of the 2004 Presidential election by county make this strikingly apparent. <a href="http://www-personal.umich.edu/~mejn/election/countymapredbluelarge.png" target="_blank">http://www-personal.umich.edu/...arge.png</a> And who is to say they are not truly voting according to their needs and desires? They clearly aren't voting according to their financial self-interest. But frankly, if the primary thing they were concerned about was financial self-interest they wouldn't be living in a small town to start with.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 <Small towns are not more American, but they more closely represent the quintessentially American experience. > I can't agree. Why is the experience of growing up in Brooklyn or Minneapolis or Dallas, working hard, raising your family, etc. etc. there... less a "quintessentially American experience" than doing so in a small town? It's different, certainly. But it's not less "quintessentially American." My Grandma lived in a town of 285 in rural-est Missouri. There's a lot about small towns to like. But they're not more authentic, more patriotic, or more quintessentially American - they're just different.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>But it's not less "quintessentially American." << Of course it isn't. AMERICA is "quitessentially American." All 57 states.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I'm pleased to be speaking to you today here in New York City, the heart of REAL America. Here a diverse spectrum of people work hard, play hard and dream big! Vote for me! I'm pleased to be speaking to you today here in Maine, the heart of REAL America. Here along the rugged eastern shores, people work hard, play hard and dream big! Vote for me! I'm pleased to be speaking to you today here in Denver, the heart of the REAL American west. Here in the Mile High city, people work hard, play hard and dream big! Vote for me! I'm pleased to be speaking to you today here in Florida, the heart of the REAL America. Here in the Sunshine State, people work hard, play hard and dream big! Vote for me! I'm pleased to be speaking to you today here in Reno, the glittery heart of the REAL America. Here in the Biggest Little City in the World, people work hard, play hard and dream big! Vote for me! This stuff is easy.
Originally Posted By Mr X If by "quintessential America" you mean under educated, uninformed, extremely distrustful and phobic of anything remotely unknown or different, and markedly stupider than most..then you have described small town America to a "T". That the right wing ideologues have them in their pocket is not the least bit surprising.
Originally Posted By RoadTrip <<If by "quintessential America" you mean under educated, uninformed, extremely distrustful and phobic of anything remotely unknown or different, and markedly stupider than most..then you have described small town America to a "T".>> Yeah. Right. Is there any doubt why people in small towns hate "libs" when they are stereotyped like this? My eyes sure have been opened in this election. You great defenders of liberalism and diversity are the LEAST TOLERANT, LEAST ACCEPTING OF DIFFERENCES people that I've ever seen. Sure, diverse is good. As long as the people are on your list of officially accepted diverse people. God help them if they aren't. Then they are "markedly stupider than most....". You narrow minded superiority makes me sick. Every time I think the republican have sunk to new depths in the campaign all I need to do is come here and see that you guys are just as bad.
