KISSING US WITH CONTEMPT
The revelations involving NBC’s attempt to “out” NASCAR fans as anti-Muslim bigots by having men who “look Muslim” wander around during a race in order to raise the ire of of race fans toward representatives of the Religion of Peace says something profound about the red state/blue state divide in America and the conundrum facing liberals as they seek to claw their way back into power in Washington.
The utter contempt toward ordinary Americans exhibited by NBC in this case would be shocking except that it is representative of a mindset that permeates the journalistic elite in New York and Washington as well as the political and cultural elites along the Potomac and the ivory towers of academia. The fact is, these groups have about as much interest in the lives of ordinary Americans as they do in the study of some primitive New Guinean tribal culture. We are anthropological curiosities to them, best suited to keeping our mouths shut and voting “correctly.” Beyond that, our strange beliefs as Christians, our focus on families (”dysfunctional,” of course), our dangerous flag-waving patriotism, and our silly, sappy, sentimentality when it comes to our feelings about this country are mercilessly derided as simple-minded, unsophisticated, and just plain stupid.
Herein lies the dilemma for Democrats and liberals in general: How do you cover up the fact that you feel such haughty disdain for the very people you absolutely must convince to vote for you so that you can regain power in Washington?
We got a dose of this scornful contempt in the immediate aftermath of the election in 2004. The caustic remarks dripping with sarcasm about “Jesusland” voters being too stupid to know where their own interests lay and the long, thumb-sucking magazine pieces accusing Bush supporters of being afraid of gays, of blacks, of Muslims, of any and all things “different” which dovetailed nicely with their pre-conceived notions that the NASCAR culture is, at bottom, in favor of re-establishing Jim Crow and throwing the sodomites in jail while making sex illegal and chaining women to the kitchen.
There are even efforts in blue states to stop “trading” with people and companies who live in ordinary America, as if people who live, work, play, go to church on Sunday, take off their hat when the flag goes by, and get choked up when they hear the national anthem live in a different country than the urban sophisticates who dominate the culture and to a large extent, the national conversation. We are told what is proper to believe, what we should watch on television, what cartoons are blasphemous, and which European countries are better than we are. We are instructed in what is “good” and even what is funny and what is not.
And when red state America rebels against this cultural tyranny by voting the way they think rather than the way they are told to, they are belittled as morons, mouth breathers, hicks, hillbillies, and dolts.
And liberals wonder why they can’t win an election for dog catcher in most areas of the country?
In truth, as we head into the silly season in politics, Democrats are going to have to find a way to put a lid on this attitude of loathing toward ordinary voters lest they be discovered for the insufferable elitist louts they truly are. This will prove to be more difficult than they think given that their base makes their feelings known toward ordinary voters every single day on the web. With cries of “American Taliban” echoing in their ears, somehow I don’t think evangelical Christians are going to feel too kindly toward a party that thinks them capable of the kinds of crimes against women and gays that these webnuts assure us hovers just below the surface of the “theocrats” beliefs. In their conspiratorial fantasies, the Republicans are conspiring with Christians to throw progressives to the proverbial lions while waiting for the rapture with a brew in one hand and a bible in the other.
In another context, it would be amusing. But since the KosKooks are dead serious about this, it poses an enormous problem for the Democratic party who, thanks to the stupidity and arrogance of the Republican Congress, have a shot at taking back both the House and Senate in November. How does one go about rhetorically satisfying a base that sees apostasy in saying anything nice about their cultural enemies in red states while sounding a soothing note to those very same voters in order to get them to swallow the blue pill on election day?
The Democrats are going to need help. In this, they can count on their allies in the media who view red state voters in exactly the same way as the netnuts; culturally backward ape-like creatures whose worldview must be shaped correctly by carefully managing what news is fit to be disseminated and what news should be finessed. This dance with the truth will be vital if the true feelings of the left toward their fellow citizens is going to be subsumed by the mainstream Democratic message of “change.”
What that change represents will also be finessed. It just wouldn’t do to inform the public that the first order of business for a newly seated Democratic House will be to start impeachment proceedings against the President of the United States. Beyond that, changing Iraq by cutting and running and altering the war on terror to one similar to pursuing bank robbers will also be in the cards. Along with their complete contempt for the nature of red state voters, Democrats show a disdain for their intelligence by hiding their web-driven agenda behind platitudes and sophistry.
“Exposing” red state America may be satisfying to the elites in a cultural context. But I don’t think the NASCAR dads, security moms, or evangelicals who voted for Bush 62 million strong in 2004 will appreciate the spitefulness their cultural “betters” direct their way when they once again fail to do as they’re told and vote for a radical liberal agenda.
UPDATE
Michelle Malkin has a round-up of reaction to the Dateline story, including an interesting email from Ramsey Poston of NASCAR to NBC:
“This is outrageous for a news organization with the reputation of NBC to stoop to the level of attempting to create news instead of reporting it. Any legitimate journalist should be ashamed.”
This is directed to a “news show” that has been exposed time and again in the past of trying to manipulate images in order to make a story more “dramatic.” I hardly think they can feel any shame since any pretensions to being legitimate journalists went out the window years ago.
UPDATE II
Do my liberal friends think I’m exaggerating?
Check out this column in today’s WaPo from Harold Myerson about the DeLay story:
Let us not think that Tom DeLay’s decision not to seek reelection was prompted by merely temporal concerns. The Rev. Rick Scarborough, DeLay’s sometime pastor, told the New York Times that The Hammer confided in him last Saturday that “God wanted him to get out of that race.”
DeLay’s apparently is the most obliging of Lords. He stuck with the embattled incumbent long enough for DeLay to give a “Texas whuppin’ ” to those infidels who ran against him in the Republican primary, only to counsel withdrawal when the polling made clear that a Democrat could still beat The Hammer in the fall.
The broader question is whether such a deity still rules in Washington. As gods go, He was surely more ethically flexible than most. Lesser gods might frown upon bribery, fraud, greed and the abrogation of the democratic process, but this one was willing to overlook such trifles if they strengthened the Republicans’ hold on the House and were performed in a spirit of piety.
Yes DeLay is a very bad man who was mean to Democrats, kicked dogs, beat little children, and probably ate human flesh. But please note Mr. Myerson’s dripping sarcasm when talking about DeLay’s prayers and the snide comments about religion in general. I’m sure Myerson is giving a good chuckle to his elitist, snobby friends. But if one were to ask a person of faith what they thought of Myerson’s humor, somehow, I don’t think they would find it quite as amusing - even if they were a Democrat.
The antique MSM may broadcast NASCAR but evidently they don’t watch what goes on. Maybe they should watch the private jets, helicopters and $200,000 + homes on wheel arriving. NASCAR was a southern thing 30 years ago. Today it’s a worldwide sport with more viewers (aka fans) than most other sports put togather. The antique MSM is still (after 50 years) trying to cover up the fact most racism is and always was in the Northeastern part of the U.S. (blue dot areas, there are no blue states) and not in the Red States. Let them keep up the racist attitude and hype, in a few more years the antique ‘news’ will fade away. NASCAR fans are loyal to America and the sport and they also watch what the left wing democrats are trying to do, destroy America. I hope they announce this ‘news’ ploy at every race since all if it is tied to the democrats rabid anti-american plans.
Comment by scrapiron — 4/6/2006 @ 9:48 am
Regarding Delay, the article was not being snide about religion but about Delay evoking God as his reason for pulling out of the race. His sarcasm is not religion per se but what he feels is an apparent act of hypocracy. Leaving the race for clearly political reasons (whether you argee with them or not) and saying it God who told him to. Delay is a product of the people who voted for him and speaks their language I don’t doubt. However, after all this time his actions are louder than his words. And, in the end, he made enemies (unnecessarily in my opinion) that are not going to let him go quietly.
Comment by Hallfasthero — 4/6/2006 @ 10:54 am
The Democrat Party of Roosevelt was elites calling from limousines “we’re on your side” to people who had hunger pangs and trouble seeing past the ends of their noses. Today, no one is hungry and no one is outrageously ignorant (thanks in no small part to Democrat party successes in distribution of food and education). The Joe Six Pack of the 21st Century has his belly full and understands, if only vaguely, that for there to be a chicken in every pot, someone has to grow the chicken and someone has to make the pot. Problem solved! Except the grandchildren of the FDR elitists now yell from their limos by day and whine over their Pinot Grigio at night that Joe never listens to them.
Comment by tyk — 4/6/2006 @ 12:55 pm
Re: NBC trying to bait NASCAR fans. Is this the same NBC that was smart enough to rig up bombs in GM pickup trucks for filming, but was too stupid to have the trucks crushed and melted?
Comment by tyk — 4/6/2006 @ 1:04 pm
KISSING US WITH CONTEMPT Right Wing Nut House
Herein lies the dilemma for Democrats and liberals in general: How do you cover up the fact that you feel such haughty disdain for the very people you absolutely must convince to vote for you so that you can regain power in Washington?
…
Trackback by The Absurd Report — 4/6/2006 @ 8:49 pm
Sorry …
… for the light blogging recently. Life of late has been a series of urgent semi-crises combined with long stressful workdays. I’m trying to be faithful, but to be frank there have been days when the news and sports I
Trackback by Joust The Facts — 4/7/2006 @ 6:02 am
I have a wide educational background in both psychology and sociology. Many social psychology related studies with a similar style will be conducted by university students, psychology and sociology journals.
DATELINE merely conducted an interesting study to see if prejudice against Muslims exists in a social setting. I gather from the above information that nothing really happened, but yet until the story is aired, I don’t know if that conclusion can really be taken as of yet.
NBC is indeed a sponsor of some NASCAR events on their network, so they had certainly had nothing to gain by the DATELINE social psychology experiment. On the other hand, FOX News ran a very critical look at this DATELINE experiment, and with weekly NASCAR telecasts that bring in millions in advertising revenue, you can’t excuse the role that FOX has in their involvement in attacking the DATELINE social psychology experiment.
From merely my personal experience, I once had a Muslim friend from Pakistan who frequented a business I ran back in 1979. It was during the Iranian hostage crisis which raised real anger at MidEast culture in those days.
My friend Mohammad, had a father who ran a clothing factory and he had these great shirts that only sold for about a $1.00 each. They seemed like a terrific deal to possiby import and market in the U.S. I started wearing them, but unfortunately with a strange look and collar that had a foreign of even “MidEastern” looking culture, I started getting way too many dirty looks and funny attitude from persons as though I was part of some sort of role in the Iranian hostage crisis.
The NBC DATELINE social psychology experiment is interesting. Have Americans grown beyond generalizing all MidEastern and Muslim culture as the same? Do most Americans accept that there are good and bad persons in these cultures nowadays compared to the past or not?
Maybe the DATELINE social psychology experiment failed. But no doubt there are many places where a MidEast looking person could face a severe threat of a beating or violence such as many taverns, bars, or some small towns, where all MidEast looking persons may well still be generalized as terrorists or antiAmerican by many.
It was only in recent times that Southern juries have been finally brave enough to bring charges against Southern racists who shot and killed Jewish and Black civil rights volunteers who were merely involved in attempting to register Blacks to vote during the early 60’s. In some cases, some of these racists are still of of jail because of foot dragging by judges or other things that prove that not that much has really changed since the early 60’s.
And this Sunday, most Blacks and Whites will still worship God seperately in what Billy Graham once referred to as the nation’s “most segregated hour” in churches largely seperated by racial divisions.
It is still interesting for social psychology studies to see how far social conditions have advanced or not. The DATELINE study would be interesting to see if any difference in airport security treatment based on a MUSLIM appearance exists. This may seem prudent based on the past role of a scant few MidEast elements who have given all from this region a cloud of suspicion by airport security, but still interesting to witness with a hidden camera investigation.
And it would be interesting to see to what extent that “driving while Black”, is still a good reason for police stops in some White neighborhoods. I remember having dinner with a Black friend of my business in 1979, and we were stopped by a policeman who made up a phony traffic violation which never happened as a reason to stop us. It put me in an unfortunate position that I felt very badly about of having to defend my friend as almost to say, “It’s alright officer, he’s with me”. That’s not right. But has that changed very much nowadays or not?
I can’t really fault DATELINE for conducting an interesting study to see how much racial or ethnic prejudices have changed or not. A curious mind should be interested in such a social psychology investigation, not try to intellectualize reasons to sweep such a study under the rug and pretend that society is race or ethnic blind, which of course it certainly is not as of yet.
Comment by Paul Hooson — 4/7/2006 @ 7:42 am
NBC Puts Another Nail In Big Media Coffin
I waited a bit to post about the NBC/NASCAR fiasco. I’ll declare that the staging of news is one tactic that makes my skin crawl and writing about it soon after learning of the memo, via the lovely Michelle Malkin,…
Trackback by The Rolling Barrage — 4/7/2006 @ 8:08 am
[...] So don’t be too hard on NBC. After all, what can you expect from such ninnies? Oh, and Rick Moran has an excellent piece on the same topic. [...]
Pingback by Right Wing Nation » Blog Archive » Not Just NBC — 4/7/2006 @ 2:25 pm
No real Muslim (or Christian) would go anywhere near a NASCAR race except to protest.
Regardless of the fact that cars kill an American every 12 minutes (making cars the #9 cause of death in America), NASCAR sells beer while advertising hard liquor on Fords racing during the Coke-Cola 600 while Ford and Coke-Cola finance gay marriage.
Does NASCAR care? No.
Do you?
http://nascarboycott.blogspot.com
Comment by Rev. T. S. Painter (R) — 5/24/2006 @ 4:05 pm