Comment by justin66
4 years ago
> But OP's implication that MGT's district lacks a "culture" is exactly the sort of rhetoric that got her elected. That sort of talk makes people mad and justifiably so.
The notion that the people in that district did not have it in them to elect a right-wing conspiracy theorist prior to some sort of recent national culture war / media phenomenon is entirely mistaken.
edit: that's not to trivialize some of the other stuff that's going on nationally... I suspect the national culture warriors actually do explain why MGT's campaigns are funded as well as they are.
Politics isn’t about what people “have in them.” It’s about everyone pursing their perceived self interest.
If you attack a group of people, they will consolidate ranks and fight back. And they will throw their weight behind leaders that they perceive as fighters. This is especially true of honor cultures like in the American south.
I’m reminded about the speech George W. Bush gave after 9/11: https://georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov/news/releases/20.... I think liberals don’t fully understand the genius of this speech. He wasn’t just moralizing to Americans to tell them not to take out their anger on Muslims. He was giving Muslim Americans an opportunity to reaffirm their Muslim identity while giving them a vocabulary to talk about the ones who did evil in the name of Islam.
Contrast this against the rhetoric the media in New York uses against people in the rural south anytime something bad happens there. They portray it as a confirmation of the bad things that New Yorkers already believed about southern culture.
My initial objection was about the culture you experienced further south vs the culture in MTG's district, which always struck me as a pretty culturally unique place (in addition to being the carpet capital of the world). You riffed on the part of my comment that was a joke (re: Marietta and ATL).
I disagree with you less than might have been obvious, particularly because I've had relatives make the move north and experience some discrimination.
I can assure you there are many people who reside in MTG's district and find her deplorable, reprehensible, and an embarrassment--both locally and nationally.
Source: I live in her district. And work for an outstanding software company that's headquartered there.
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