Understanding Red State America

H.L. MenckenA twentieth-century journalist, satirist, social critic, cynic, and freethinker, known as the "Sage of Baltimore". He is often regarded as one of the most influential American writers of the early 20th century., back in 1928, described the mindest of the denizens of rural, conservative America. Unfortunately for America, things haven't really changed that much since Mencken wrote the words below 80 years ago, which is why to this day Red State AmericaRed States and Blue States refer to those states whose residents predominantly vote for the Republican Party or Democratic Party presidential candidates, respectively. has such a tough time grasping why government spying and government monitoring and government control and government oversight (e.g. The Patriot Act) are bad things.

The yokel has scarcely any privacy at all. His neighbors know everything that is to be known about him, including what he eats and what he feeds his quadruped colleagues. His religious ideas are matters of public discussion; if he is recusant the village pastor prays for him by name. When his wife begins the biological process of giving him an heir, the news flies around. If he inherits $200 from an uncle in Idaho, everyone knows it instantly. If he skins his shin, or buys a new plow, or sees a ghost, or takes a bath it is a public event. Thus living like a goldfish in a glass globe, he acquires a large tolerance of snoutery, for if he resisted it his neighbors would set him down as an enemy of their happiness, and probably burn his barn. It seems natural and inevitable to him that everyone outside his house should be interested in what goes on inside, and that this interest should be accompanied by definite notions as to what is nice and what is not nice, supported by pressure. So he submits to government tyranny as he submits to the village inquisition, and when he hears that city men resist, it only confirms his general feeling that they are scoundrels. They are scoundrels because they have a better time than he has — the sempiternal human reason.

Now, if you happen to be a conservative-minded person living in a conservative area of the country yet think that the government generally shouldn't be taking an interest in what goes on in your law-abiding household, then you are not a Republican... or at least you haven't been for the better part of a decade. You are a libertarian (small L) now... like me. Vote for somebody like Ron Paul in the primaries, or vote for a third-party candidate, or vote Democrat until the Republicans figure out what the problem is, but whatever you do, stop voting like a yokel.

Hat tip.