Tonello Article Posted in the Huffington Post, October 26, 2008 10:46 PM (EST)
How Our Candidates Insult American Intelligence
Mr. Tonello, you referred to middle class America as the "lowest-common denominator," and a commentor to your article said that speaking about Joe the Plummer is a "glorification of mediocrity."
This is what one of the major problems is. This campaign has revealed the way left-leaning Americans truly feel about fly-over country and the people in it,.
This campaign hasn't been a vilification of the exceptional, it has been a vilification of Iowa corn country, Alaska oil field workers, Wyoming ranchers, Idaho potato farmers, Minnesota fishermen, Montana hunters, North Dakota beet farmers, Pennsylvania coal miners, and all the nursing assistants, electricians, carpenters, waitresses, and yes, plummers, in our society. Joe the Plummer resounded with a large number of us.
Sure, Joe the PHD is important,too. And so is Josephine. But for many of us, having Sarah Palin in the race made us feel we might be truly heard for the first time in a long time, rather than just used as campaign rhetoric and props.
We aren't Norman Rockwell paintings. We're real people. We truly exist. We are half of the voting public. Raised in the Twin Cities but spending most of my adult life in rural America as well as rural Canada, yes, I have met Josephine. I have also met Jose the illegal immigrant, (he lives in rural areas as well), Joey the locavore-hunter-fisher-writer-vintner-overall-Renaissance man, Joe, the homosexual, and even Joe the millionaire-philanthropist. We aren't stupid. I can know all these people, love them, and still feel socially conservative.
It's safer to say that you have never truly met us. You've seen us in the movies, particularly when there is something Hollywood wants to make fun of. But you've never really known us - or loved us.
DyingInIndianCountry.blogspot.com
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