Where is America? You know, the real America. Land of Apple Pie. Baseball. The Hamburger. Big Cars. Big Hair. And so on. Well, if you are looking for America, Michael Kinsley (who's been writing some bang up columns lately) has some advice on where not to look for America.
"Wherever a Democratic candidate happens to be from, that place turns out to be isolated and unrepresentative and not part of the real America. They are having a good time at the moment dissing Vermont, home of former Gov. Howard Dean. It's way up there in the Northeast somewhere. (Yeah, not too far south of the Bush family hangout in Maine.) It doesn't have any black people. Its best-known product is some hippie ice cream. Worst of all, it's (gasp!) "bucolic."
Odd, but I don't recall these points being made by any politician, Republican or Democrat, about New Hampshire, which is adjacent to Vermont. In the next few months, as always in election years, we will be hearing repeatedly about what a wonderful place New Hampshire is. Second only to Iowa. But, Vermont—now, that's a different story."
So there you have it.
I dont know about anybody else, but I'm not a big fan of the idea of a "real" America. For one thing it rarely contains me. I mean is there room in the "real" America for a guy who really likes The Chemical Brothers or Underworld or The Baldwin Brothers (the band, not the brothers)? Is there room in the "real" America for New York? Los Angeles? Is there room in the "real" America for the millions that have joined the Democratic Party?
Depends on who you ask, I guess, but I personally think so.
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