Maybe it is just my perspective but I found Iowahawk funny: it describes the seductive powers of red state culture to blue state adolescents.
Around here, it is true, ethnic groups and aesthetic contests that seem, well, “blue state,” are co-opted by Aggie power. The scholarships for high school art students come from cowboy art awarded in a contest sponsored by the Houston Livestock and Rodeo show; the Rabbi’s son was active in FFA; coveted high fashion to our exchange student from Germany were senior boots – part of the military uniform of the Corps of Cadets.
Academics see this as provincial. When a lovely Brit described this affection for the Corps as fascist (a term I suspect is used interchangeably with militaristic), I pointed out that the training of the parents and grandparents of the guys she patronized helped keep England free. She is a nice person, but some academics walk through this local culture without enjoying its richness. It’s not where my heart is, perhaps, but it has its own integrity, its beauty and its healthy pride. Ags were quite willing to see the world from someone else’s perspective which led them to be quite willing to leave their corner of the world to storm Normandy.
It really gripes me to see the people we have been protecting for 60 years and who we built up after the debacle of WW II now lecturing us on how we should act and how we should vote and what our foreign policy should be. They were the ones who got us involved in 2 world wars and Vietnam in the first place. Their support for Saddam under the table and their refusal to back up their votes with action and their constant sneering about the provincial stupid redneck idiots who know nothing really gets me and I feel like just pulling out of Europe and letting them fall apart as they seem to be on the verge of.
While I don’t like being patronized by anybody, remember the English are standing beside us and losing men as they do. I assume they are split a lot more divisively than are we – and that Tony Blair may show courage but is not alone, he also represents Great Britain. And I haven’t heard that any Britain was a party to the oil-for-food corruption (indeed, that many European countries were). (Which makes the graft all the worse and all the larger in the ones that were.)
Ginny:
“I haven’t heard that any Britain was a party to the oil-for-food corruption.”
George Galloway.
Good point – and what I get for shooting from the hip & not doing any backgound (my memory sure doesn’t do it). I think my sense that we are more allies than not and they deserve respect remains true.