Just who in the Hell lives in "mainstream" America?

[Fenris]

This is perhaps the most thrown about term on television today and no one can explain what it is. Think about it: every time one of the conservatives screams about how John Kerry is out of "the mainstream" or doesn't have "mainstream" values, your mind either can't place that word, or immediately equates "mainstream" with "conservative." And that isn't fair. Conservative philosophy is no more valid than liberal philosophy, and it's very telling of the climate of this country when the conservatives are able to go on every talk show and tell Americans how conservative they are. Are there no liberals in this country? When did the Republican party take 100% of the Congress? It gets very tiresome listening to the same bloviator tell me for the nth time how "liberal" John Kerry is, or, even more disgusting, how Kerry is the "number one ranked liberal in the Senate." So? I think the bizarre eschatalogical philosophies of Bush are out of the mainstream. The same can be said for Dick Cheney's kleptocratic worldview. If that man had been Clinton's Vice President he would have been forced out of office so quickly he might never have entered the White House. Where is the Independent Council now? Why isn't anyone investigating the Republicans? Doesn't their extreme right philosophy bother anyone outside of the left?

Of course not, I'm told. He's a good man. The type I apparently would love to have a beer with (if he wasn't a teetotaler). He's just a regular guy, not a Washington insider. Absolute rubbish. Connecticut-born, Ivy League educated Christian zealot with a foul mouth and a silver spoon up his nose. I'm supposed to like him because he's from Texas? I'm sorry, but as a Texan, I can't let that pass. Pardon me, but fuck him. He wouldn't give me the time of day were I to ask him. He's a smug, arrogant carpet-bagger with a feigned affectation and drawl. That man has never known what it's like to never have money, and it shows in his politics. But then again, I am told, Kerry has been wealthy for all of his life, so my argument is negated. True that he has been rich, but he doesn't make it a point to screw the poor and middle classes. And I believe that if elected he would fight for those who have been disenfranchised by this CEO government.

So is that what "mainstream" America looks like? A drugstore cowboy and dry drunk whose only achievement has been to cash in on his heredity? Or is it the government insider and crooked CEO scowling next to him? Or is it the anti-intellectual university watchdog and author of sapphic erotica holding his hand? Or is it one of the other CEOs clapping behind all of them?

If that group of swindlers and cheats is reelected, I don't plan on fleeing my country. To Hell with them. I plan on fighting till their out of office or I am dead in the ground. We can no longer let them push us around anymore. I will stand and fight them because, dammit, I am a mainstream American, and I will be goddamned if they are aloud to speak for me any longer.

Que se vayan todos!

[Cerridwen]

1. I live in Las Vegas, Nevada . . . I know fer sure I ain't livin in no

"mainstream" America.

Hope this helps to narrow it down a bit.



:toast:

[shimmergal]

11. Hi Nemdaille!

Good to see yet another Las Vegas resident in DU!

[Cerridwen]

15. Hi shimmergal!

I've seen a couple of us around here. Too cool. I was starting to feel everyone in Vegas was not-quite-progressive.

Yay! for us!

Edited for grammar.

[lachattefolle]

2. If by mainstream America

it's meant to suggest Republican (excuse me whil I gag) values America, then the answer to your question is only cheneying idiots live there.

[Piperay]

3. The majority of people

who voted for Gore are the 'mainstream' and not the crooks that stole and cheated to get themselves placed into the Whitehouse.

[stellanoir]

4. I live in mainstream america. . .

"I spent the balmy afternoons in Kenneybunkport giving fellatio to the *es living comfortably off my Carlyle and Halliburton stock options. Aaaand how are you fairing dahhhling. . .??"

Kidding, I swear.

[seabeyond]

5. as much as i dont like being placed in groups, i am mainstream

yes this is right. i am mainstream. and living in the panhandle with a lot of people that think mainstream as the church going christian, conservative, repug.............they all have to own i am mainstream in my pro choice, willing to support the poor and pay taxes, willing to work on insurance,..........

i with my 2 kids, stay at home mom, hubby owns his own business, kids in private school (for the time being),

i have had friends talk about the christian friends, christian families and i have asked them, am i one. YES they say, but but but i dont go to church, i dont follow your rules, i am not going to tell a woman what to do with body, i am not going to decide what abortion is ok,.......

yet they all have to say, well you are, cause i live it, i am it.

and i vote dem.

i challenge any and all when they talk morality on the right only, when they talk liberals and their bad. no one gets to slide by. they have to look me in the eyes and say i am bad, and not a one (there have been many) can say i am bad. i am always the exception

challenge any and all when you hear someone paint liberal as bad, bring self into it, few can point the finger face to face, few can say you are evil as you have worked side by side, or lived next door to

[qwlauren35]

6. I have a few thoughts....

This, of course, is just my "humble" opinion...

Mainstream America is white. Kerry meets that criterion.

Mainstream America is working-class or middle-class. Frankly, Kerry has no idea what that's like. But neither does Bush.

Mainstream America is fairly anti-intellectual. This is where Kerry loses and Bush wins.

Mainstream America is Christian. Kerry is Catholic, and that doesn't cut it in some folks eyes. Moreover, a large number of Americans think that the liberal pendulum swung too hard, and America would do better to reinstitute "Christian values" within the American conscience. In God we trust, prayer in the schools, etc. Pro-gay, pro-choice philosophies are no longer in vogue.

Mainstream America could care less about the environment... until it directly affects them. So Kerry's environmental record only impresses a small minority of people.

The white males of mainstream America, by and large, are sick of Affirmative Action. People who have so much money, connections or specialized skills that they never have to really compete for a job (except in political races) aren't likely to be able to relate. If they come down on the side of Affirmative Action, they win 90% of the black vote, but lose most of the Southern vote.

Mainstream America is patriotic (an also xenophobic). Mainstream America is IMPRESSED by a president who takes matters into his own hands and declares a "War on Terror" in the face of the 9/11 bombings, even if that president uses this as a cover for invading Iraq.

Mainstream America is isolationist... and anti-immigrant, to boot. Mainstream America is NOT interested in fair policies toward immigrants "who steal our jobs and drain our social services", or in defending other nations. Kerry's immigration policies won't win him any "mainstream America" votes.

Taken as a whole, you might say that mainstream America is conservative. And I don't think that's quite true. But mainstream America does care about certain issues from a conservative viewpoint, and mainstream America could CARE LESS about a lot of issues that liberals think are important.

[Bluzmann57]

7. I have a few thoughts too

I am a white male, blue collar, sort of typical I suppose, like sports, beer drinking, rock and roll, and other stuff that Michael Moore calls "Stupid White Men". I am probably mainstream. I am also Liberal and damn proud of it. I have never ever had anything handed to me, I worked my ass off for what I have, like John Edwards did. One of my best friends (now deceased) was a Vietnamese guy. And I am most certainly NOT impressed by a president who "Takes matters into his own hands" and declares a war on terrorism with a country who had nothing to do with 9/11. And I am patriotic, not nationalistic, there is a difference. So do not make generalizations about us "mainstream white folks". Kerry/Edwards will not only have my vote, but my labor too.

[qwlauren35]

8. Okay... I won't make generalizations... BUT

Why don't you tell me how many of your friends/drinking buddies share your liberal perspective?

I wasn't trying to insult you and I wasn't trying to call you stupid. I have simply encountered a LOT of people who are pretty "mainstream" who either say "Bush did the best he could with what he knew at the time" or, worse still, "Go Get 'em!" In our lunchroom, for many months, a few die-hard liberals attempted to hold down the fort against the tirade of folks who were convinced that attacking Iraq was the RIGHT thing to do. (Interesting double entendre there...)

50% of America is still giving Bush a decent approval rating.

So... I have a feeling that just by being liberal, you're not mainstream. You may have the same background, the same hobbies, and the same demographics as the mainstream, but I don't think you have the same ideology.

Despite all the rallies, poles, banners, etc. of American liberals, the newspapers constantly reported that the American MAJORITY wanted us to invade Iraq.

If nothing else taught me that "the American majority" could care less about what is right and decent in the world, that did it.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

9. There's no way I live in 'mainstream America' (Cambridge, MA)

and I thank my lucky stars for that. I think of mainstream America as having to shop in strip malls, towns devoid of historical character and chain restaurants. But the people who inhabit mainstream America still have varying political philosophies and beliefs. The Repukes are delusional if they think that 'mainstream America' is a unified voting block.

[IronLionZion]

10. Republicans don't have to explain anything

I still want them to explain why every last one of them has the exact same talking points when they go on TV.

Or how Bush has helped this country or stands for its values.

Or how KerryEdwards are so damn liberal and how that's a bad thing.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. Nobody. It's all bullshit.

"Mainstream America" is the Republican version of what America should be based on the mythology of what America once was. A sort of lily white Mayberry USA coupled with Ozzie & Harriet. Chock full of Dad coming home, briefcase in hand, to his smiling family with Mom cooking dinner and the preppy kids looking for his wise advice about dating and football. There was no crime, poverty, injustice, violence, and everybody was very nice.

That "mainstream America" has never existed, doesn't exist, and nevery will exist, shouldn't get in the way of using it as a propaganda tool for politicians.

Goebbels and Riefenstahl did a grand job of doing the same thing with their images of a mythological Germany of happy, muscular, Aryans all toiling cheerfully away for the good of the Fatherland.

[noiretextatique]

13. exactly...it's a complete myth

there is no such thing as "the mainstream."

[PATRICK]

14. Obviously mainstream

is really meant to be the herd of viewers calmly being led by the media shepherds. Anyone raising a ruckus is a stray or a stampede threat.

Or- mainstream values are meant to involve the most important aspects of naivete and apathy- namely a general disinterest and lack of information and involvement in their government and politics.

Anyone seeking to rouse more interest than feel good vapors is once again a stray or stampede threat.

Ideology is invisible in the fog of tyranny. The "mainstream" is supposed to fear stressful responsibility.