Matt Gunterman January 2nd, 2008
Sounding off Shawn’s comments about his frequency of posting (by the way, Shawn, best of luck in Iowa tomorrow, and happy birthday — Shawn had his birthday breakfast this morning with John Edwards), I have been a bit quiet on these pages the last few weeks.
Namely it’s because I have had lots of other deadlines to meet as of late for my employer and most recently it’s because I’m in rural Kentucky for the holidays where dial-up Internet connections make blogging pretty near impossible (well, painstaking at least). So, once again, I find myself thirty miles from home at a good old Panera Bread with a bottomless cup of coffee and free wireless.
And, while I’ve been home, I’ve been listening a lot to what local folks are talking about politically.
Interest seems to be really picking up in the Presidential race. Last week, the county weekly newspaper featured an op-ed from the minister of the local Christian Church. What was his concern? Mitt Romney (R), how he’s not a real conservative (or Christian), and how dangerous the “cult” of Mormonism is. This denomination, you’ll recall, is the same one that failed Kentucky Attorney General candidate and über-bigot Rep. Stan Lee (R) belongs to.
What’s humorous is that this Christian Church preacher is so, so oblivious to the history of his own religious tradition — Stone-Campbell Restorationism — that he’s unaware that a century ago it wasn’t uncommon to hear more “mainstream” churches call “Campbellites” like him cult members.
The other smear I’m hearing a lot of — and I mean a lot of — is the Barack Obama (D) is a covert Muslim and/or the anti-Christ. I’m hearing this from all corners of the fundamentalist religious community here.
My role as listener ends when I hear this one. There’s no sense in trying to reason with any person who would utter that silliness aloud. So, whenever I’ve had the chance, I’ve just told the person saying it that they’re an idiot.
Really. I just ask, “Do you believe that?” And if the answer is yes, then I just tell them they’re an idiot. I don’t see any point in trying to convince them otherwise; I just let them know that I think they’re an idiot.
We’ve talked here before (and the post was heavy on comments of affirmation, too) about the problems Kentucky has with the more churlish elements of its culture.
And these problems have only been made worse by the political machine and methods of Sen. Mitch McConnell (R) and his minions. McConnell’s program to politically empower rednecks has been so successful that as of late it’s even threatened to get out of control of McConnell himself. You need only witness the rise and spectacular fall of the Ernie Fletcher faction of the KY GOP to see that.
McConnell’s brand of the GOP will implode (and is in the process of imploding). The GOP of the future will not look back on McConnell’s tenure as a party leader as some sort of golden era. McConnell and McConnellites will be the Dixiecrats of the 21st century.
But that doesn’t mean that McConnell’s politics and tactics can’t poison and cripple the culture of Kentucky for decades to come. And in a continent-sized nation with a population of 300 million, cultural strength factors significantly into economic prosperity. Over the course of a generation, dynamic minds and creative personalities will tend to be drawn to locales with more progressive outlooks. Birds of a feather flock together. If the future culture of Kentucky is dominated by a creed that thinks Kentucky’s internationally disgraced Creation Museum is science, then that future culture will not be one that supports a vibrant economy.
And, while it’s true that you’ll find backwards-looking people everywhere, Kentucky is one of the few states where they’re a serious political force, and we have McConnell to thank for that. For his short-term political gain, Mitch McConnell has turned the keys to the Porsche over to folks who literally don’t believe in the laws of physics.
One hopes that Kentucky’s political leaders — Democrats and Republicans alike — will find the courage and voice to one day call out these fundamentalist redneck types for what they really are: idiots.
One hopes.
