Like blaze I am a bit sick of the crying on the left, and the weird "us vs. them" mentality and anger towards rural, non-coast voters. In particular a lot of posters to a (usually bright) academic cultural studies list-serve are saying all sorts of things about the "bigots"... here was my response:
Posted by thickeye at November 9, 2004 04:38 PM | TrackBack
I think it is important to remember, as has been said rather eloquently on this list, that in making claims such as this the speaker quoted above makes, is in many ways speaking from a place of privilege, (ie an educated, academic elite) while not making note of that place.In particular I feel that claims of "xenophobia and bigotry" bely the fact that much of the decision making agency of these otherized "people living in Oklahoma and Kansas" can be seen as determinted by a late capitalist hegemony (media, etc.), which seeks to trade in fear in order to service hegemonic power. Votes for what we may see as wrong-headed leadership do not come about from an isolated personal place of bigotry or xenophobia but from a much more complex narrative which is, in many ways, written by a society which is itself guilty of xenophobic and bigoted ideals.
While I understand the anger at the elections results (and in fact share that same anger) I think it is more important to understand, especially from a cultural studies standpoint, how the right wing was better able to construct narratives which wrote xenophobia and bigotry into the votes people cast.