If you live in a blue-state stronghold, a coastal city where you can go 24 hours without meeting any Republicans, it's consoling to think of the red staters as an alien bunch of strait-laced Bible thumpers.
Otherwise, how do you explain why they're Republican? Or answer the question Democrats asked in astonishment when they saw Mr. Bush's vote totals: Who are these people?
The favorite Democratic explanation is that the red staters are hicks who have been blinded by righteousness, as Thomas Frank argues in "What's the Matter With Kansas?" He laments that middle-class Kansans are so bamboozled by moral issues like abortion and school prayer that they vote for Republicans even though the Republican tax-cutting policies are against their self-interest.
Meanwhile, on "The Daily Show," Steve Colbert played a recording of Laura Bush repeating the milking-a-male-horse joke later on, with much more detail. I'm not seeing a clip at the show's site, and I'm not going to quote it here. Suffice it to say many words were bleeped out, and it was quite hilarious.
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4 comments:
I agree, Lee. Tierney is spinning it just a tad.
I'm a Manhattanite, not only that but a "Wear a lot of black" downtowner. The Democrats/liberals I know thought Mrs. Bush's remarks were funny, and some of us are or have been professional comedians.
We also recognized it as a smooth marketing move on the part of the White House to reassure "regular" people--the vast majority of Americans--that the Bush Administration wasn't plunging the country headfirst into Holy Roller Land.
Paul: Good catch. That is annoying.
Art: It's only hypocrisy if you begin with the stereotype. I don't think the Bushes have been personally sanctimonious about sexual matters. Now, Tipper Gore would deserve to be flamed.
Well it seems to me the jokes did what they were intended to do, divert attention from W's falling popularity and falling numbers in the polls. Heck, they might have even picked him up a bit. It seems to have brought the left a little closer to believing that he might be human, or at least something more than ultra-conservative. Now if only W would actually do something to back all this up! How about something he could do to unite the country.
I agree with Art, if someone from the left's wife had made these remarks Fox "News" would have going ballistic about it.
Lee: face reality: it was a horse masturbation joke. Malkin is right.
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