A Very Old Story
(wait for the page to jump down).
It's long but really excellent, and hard to excerpt a representative bit. Let's just say that he shows that we have a history in which some groups have always resented having the values of other groups "imposed upon them," and the resentment has far outlasted any particular proximal issue. New Yorkers and Los Angelenos may not seem themselves as having much in common, but they have become identified as this "liberal elite" which is now the focus of that resentment:
This notion of two easily identifiable cultures is only held by the people who used to call themselves the confederacy and now call themselves "the heartland." That alone should be reason to stop and question what is really going on here.Unfortunately, his solution involves introspection on the part of those who have carried this "historical pique" for 200 years, which leaves the rest of the country to fret on the sidelines. Perhaps targeted migration is the answer, although my understanding is that not all parts of the country welcome transplants...
2 comments:
"Perhaps targeted migration is the answer, although my understanding is that not all parts of the country welcome transplants..."
If you mean blue-staters moving to red states, I think there are certain areas of the red nation that blue-staters could colonize happily. For instance, this site:
http://funandsun.com/1tocf/trvl/gay/gaytravel.html
makes a pretty good argument for certain parts of Florida welcoming gays, and I figure a place that welcomes gays must be the sort of place that would welcome most blue-staters. I've been yammering lately that liberals should try to put red states high on their lists of places to move to the next time they go hunting jobs. A lot of people will change jobs in the next four years, and they could also change states if they just changed their priorities a little. Florida, say, instead of California. Or if you're an eternal northerner, try Ohio. Cleveland apparently has a suburb people call "Homo Heights." Swings states can be swung and the frontier can be pushed back.
Ok, but does that feel at all odd to you? I added the migration suggestion half in jest, although I read it somewhere this week. Somehow I feel more comfortable trying to change the national dialogue or mindset than taking an "invader" approach, although I would think it would only take a fraction of MoveOn-level engagement to convince some New Yorkers, say, to colonize Cincinatti...
Relocating seems uncomfortable, in more than just the prospect of being uprooted. (1) It feels aggressive in some way. (2) It makes the idea of the electoral college seem stupid in the extreme (although I suppose you might argue the other way if you were a battleground state that could gain a bunch of intellectual transplants this way!)...
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