http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A19806-2004Oct9?language=printerA Democrat's Lonely Stand
By Robert S. McElvaine
Sunday, October 10, 2004; Page B01
CLINTON, Miss.
Greetings from the heart of "red" America, that vast swath of the U.S. interior that voted for George W. Bush in 2000. (And what a wonderful irony in that designation, given the staunch anti-communism of such late Mississippi leaders as Rep. John Rankin and Sen. James O. Eastland. Could it be that calling the Republican states red is part of the vast left-wing conspiracy of the liberal media?) Mississippi is the birthplace of the blues, but in our divided nation today, it's a veritable crucible of red. This gives me and a significant minority of other Mississippians the blues. Or, as that noted Democrat Willie Nelson might put it, it has our blue eyes cryin' in the rain.
(snip)
Not too long ago, my wife, Anne, put a Kerry-Edwards bumper sticker on her car. Soon after, she stopped in a line of cars at a red light. A man in a pickup truck pulled up behind her and began honking his horn. He then sped around to her right, again blasting his horn and now waving a fist. When he passed on the right, she could see that his vehicle was emblazoned with a "W '04" sticker and bore a military veteran license plate. A few blocks farther up, he was in the left-turn lane when my wife passed him. Again this fine Southern gentleman blasted his horn and brandished a fist, albeit this time with one finger raised.
And that's how it is for us blue folks in one of America's reddest states. I know, I know, you're probably thinking, "How paranoid can you get?" But if you don't trust me, come on down, put on a Kerry-Edwards button, and we'll take a walk around town. Then you can tell me if it's just my imagination that some of my neighbors get a funny look on their faces when they see me coming. I don't think I've sprouted antennae, but sometimes it sure feels that way.
(snip)
To understand where a majority of Mississippians are coming from, you have to understand that they are people of faith. Nothing wrong with that. It's just that they seem, from my blue perspective, to have placed the faith that only God deserves in a man and in a party. For too many of them, the locally popular bumper sticker that reads "God said it. I believe it. That settles it," seems to morph easily into "Bush said it. I believe it. That settles it."
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