The Indiana in which I grew up was not as 'yokel' as what you might have seen on just about every news report covering the primary election there. Evansville was, yes, a factory town with an agricultural bent. Watching Dad drink beer and play guitar with his friends (one of whom played banjo!) amongst their assorted four-wheel drive trucks while Mom and the other ladies drank "Harvey Wallbangers" was a regular summer ritual.
Sure, we were blue-collar folk in a blue-collar town. This town though also had two universities, a pops and concert orchestra, museums, a zoo and a vibrant cultural life. The education system was good for the state. Nothing stunning, but good enough to get this lazy kid an assortment of scholarships in excess of tuition.
While much time was spent "just getting by" there was a savvy to the people in my 250K population town. You learned to see through a lie, yet expect the best of people. It was hope mitigated with reality.
That's from where my disconnect with Hillary Clinton in Indiana comes. The blatant pandering, the "common-folk" positioning and all of her other tactics would have been something from which my parents and their friends would have had big laughs over their beers and wallbangers. They could see through this so easily. The pragmatic positions of Barack Obama push past politics and would appeal to the Indiana where I grew up.
Indiana has changed since I left. Chains have replaced the (amazing) family-owned restaurants. Wal-mart has replaced the local nurseries and hardware stores. There are fewer woods and more cul-de-sacs. One thing hasn't changed though - that hope, mitigated with reality. Whether that hope is still strong in my old home town might be measured today by whether the vote goes to Clinton or Obama.
Link: If Barack Obama Is Out of Touch With America, Is the Media Too? -- New York Magazine.
