While on hiatus I started this post as an email to Rick in response to photos of the Palin family he mistakenly emailed, and for which he apologized. The photos portrayed her family as "red necks" partying with liquor and toting guns. I still haven't figured out how that helps Obama. So far, every smear on Palin has successfully increased McCain's poll numbers for women voters. Keep it up guys and sink your candidate.
Anyway, who are we to judge the level of consciousness of Palin's family? They looked happy in the photos and that counts for something. The sooner the elite left wing of the democratic party, the intelligentsia, the creative class stops judging the honest working class stiff as "just a red-neck", the sooner Democrats will win more elections. Republicans win because they know that elitism is a glaring weakness of the Democratic Party and they play to it for all it's worth. Hillary knew better than anyone that you can't diminish, women, and hard working Americans and expect to win their vote. Obama thought his 50 state strategy, could win without them. But that's another story. Hillary's populous campaign made me aware, having lived in Fairfield's bubble for almost 30-years, of how out of touch I had become with my own working class roots. My brother isn't very educated, he is a Union man, bowls in tournaments, shoots pool, smokes, drinks beer, gets drunk, tells off color jokes, and takes care of a disabled wife. He is a devoted Democrat and proudly served in Vietnam. He loves our country. He is your typical "red neck." We don't talk much but the love is there. I get emails from him complaining about illegal aliens taking jobs, about 2nd amendment rights, about desecration of the flag, about soldiers serving in Iraq, and about school prayer. He is not a swing voter, but the Republicans are more than happy to address his concerns. Before Hillary's campaign I thought, "I'm an educated post graduate person, I have meditated for almost 40 years and know a lot about life." I now ask how can I judge myself to be more knowledgeable about life or to know better who deserves my vote than my red neck brother who never finished high school but whose life experiences I will never feel as he has.
