Blue stater visits a red state

Phoebe has an interesting series of posts about what it’s like for a blue state woman to visit a red state. (Post 1, Post 2, Post 3) Julie Saltman and Kevin Drum add their opinions.

The difference between blue states and red states is certainly a topic worth writing about, and I think Kevin Drum brushes it off too quickly. And he brings up David Brooks, who isn’t such a bad guy as far as evil conservatives go, except of course for when he writes lovingly about the upper middle class, whom he affectionately calls bobos.

I drove through some red states once. You have to learn to eat greasy food, there's not a salad to be found anywhere.

UPDATE

The following comment from a book review of Tom Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons found at the right-wing NRO is interesting in light of the current conversation:

Modern U.S. society is addled with class snobbery. Poor and rural Americans are coarse-looking, ill-dressed, speak in dialect, and have lousy dietary habits. Rich suburban and high-urban Americans would much rather have nothing to do with them. When confrontations do occur, the rustics are insecure but defensive, the rich patronizing but impatient, with a frisson of guilt.

Comments

[Fargus]

As I think about it, I really haven't had occasion to spend much time at all in red states. I've visited, of course, but I grew up in California, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey. I spent the past summer in Virginia, but it was Northern Virginia. You know, right outside of DC Virginia. Not a really good indication of the "redness" of the state.

When I have visited red states, I've had a hell of a time. I went to Memphis for a week a few years back, and it was a blast. I recently spent a week in Columbus, Georgia, and it was a great time.

But you're right; there does seem to be something pretty fundamentally "different" about those places. Different from NYC Metro area Jersey, anyway. Different from Connecticut, or Eastern Pennsylvania, or Los Angeles, or Washington DC Metro area. Some might call it a sort of lack of pretense; red staters are straight shooters who believe what they believe. Simple folk with simple goals, simple lives.

But that's oversimplification. I wouldn't say that there's anything overwhelmingly complicated about my life, the way I live it, but there's something "different" about it, for sure. And I can't quite figure out what that is.

[Kender]

Salads are for cows:D

[Mark Coffey]

I hope this conversation is tongue-in-cheek; most differences you talk about are differences between people who choose to live in rural areas or cities, and have little or nothing to do with the blueness of the state, as the comment at NRO you mentioned got right. I live in Texas, reddest of red states, perhaps; in my city (Austin), we have salads everywhere, and big steaks, too; we have dozens of bookstores, and a highly educated populace; we have our beloved Longhorns, but we also have the Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Symphony, and a thriving film scene. We have restaurants that are so ultra-chic that you'd be lucky to get by with paying a mere $100 a plate; we have barbecue pits by the hundreds. In short, we have just what any place anywhere has - and no, I'm not being defensive, I've had job offers in other states and other cities, but I love this place too much to move. I've been to Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Chicago...they all have their charms, but I'm a Texan by birth and by choice. Cheers!

[TJ]

"I drove through some red states once" ... so you have driven through some states that are not on the Pacific Coast, North Atlantic or Grt Lakes? Wow, how very well traveled you are.

And you think NY doesn't have greasy food? Let's get serious, if you want to criticize a bunch of people en masse atleast pick a valid bone of contention.

/TJ
NIF
The Wide Awakes

[SheaNC]

I grew up in a red state, in a very rural fundamentalist area of that state. I'm not widely traveled, but I find most places that I have been are a mixed bag of ideals and attitudes, with one dominant one being most visible, but also some exceptions to the rule. Kind of like this: Map

[SheaNC]

PS, even us liberals know that Austin has a hot music scene - Fastball came outta there.

[Kender]

I guess that map was just a bit too purple last time around.

Salads are for cows.....mooo.

[KraftyOne]

Here's another very cool map:

And the interesting analysis site it came from.