Incidentally, Alex picks up a smart Virginia Postrel essay that zeroes in on Palin's Western appeal. Virginia went to the National Cowgirl Museum once upon a time, thinking it would be silly, and was surprised:
...the Cowgirl Museum showcased women of no-nonsense character, pioneer (and pioneering) achievement, physical daring, and unapologetic femininity. Full of inspiring role models, the museum presented a piece of feminist history that gets left out of the city-oriented accounts most of us learn. ...This all came back to me when I heard Sarah Palin's convention speech and thought about how so many smart--but parochially "cosmopolitan"--miss the enormous appeal of her persona. She may have wrangled fish rather than cattle, but she shares the cowgirl tradition.
Hmm. My sister down in rural Louisiana, working hard right now to keep her family going in the country with no electricity and her husband off with the National Guard, likes Palin not because she (my sister) is a religious voter (she's a churchgoer, but not a classic religious voter), but because she sees in Palin the kind of character that she admires, and that women like her -- "country girls," as she puts it -- prize. IOW, folks sense that Sarah Palin can skin a buck and run a trot line, and they love it.
These Palinistas -- "from the West Virginia coal mines, from the Rocky Mountains and the Western skies ... from north California and south Alabam, and little towns all across this land" -- are what you might call "Bocephus Republicans," after the Hank Williams Jr. song, "A Country Boy Can Survive":
Watch that clip. If you get that song, you get Sarah Palin.
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@ Karen Brown:
God Bless you and your work at that shelter. I am sorry for calling you a snob. To paraphrase Alan Jackson: Lord forgive me, I'm still a work in progress.
Yeah Virg, the software is working real well. :+)
BTW, what exactly is that "bamboo train" you work on?
@ Casey Roman:
I think you're thinking of my forebear who served on the Danville(VA)to Lynchburg line that was destroyed by Col. George Stoneman after the latter's release from POW confinement. That Virgil Caine was later killed in the tragic Wreck of the Ole '97.
@ Casey Roman:
Sorry for the multiple posts, would take 'em down if I could. I guess I don't need Foxworthy's clues to taxonomize myself because sarcasm always takes me awhile.
I don't care much for dubya, never did, never will. I liked Bill "Bubba" Clinton and I'm registered a Democrat. But more than that, I am one of the biggest Hank Jr. Fans around, and I respect the man.
I don't like obama anymore than dubya, I respect John McCain. He suffered, was beaten, tortured and broken down out of respect and devotion to this country in the Hanoi Hilton. You can't love a country more than that and there is no doubt in my mind that McCain is 100% dedicated to the United States of America. I don't think obama is. I don't think Obama is even 25% dedicated to the USA and there is nothing he could say or do to convince me otherwise.
I heard the term "Bocephus Republican" after the song about McCain/Palin, well, I'm a "Bocephus Democrat" and feel the same way.
For the first time in my voting life, I'll be voting Republican because of the choices I have. I'd pick McCain/Palin over obama/biden any day of the week.
Now if it were Hillary in the race, that wouldbe a different story, but they stole it from her and I'll be casting my protest vote against the DNC and at the same time, voting forthe man who made REAL sacrifices for his country and a Governor that would do the same.
McCain/Palin 2008!!!
Bocephus for life!!
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