Fighting the "elitist" label for Democrats - it's called "Illinois."

[alcuno]

First of all, letting them peg us with the label of the party of the elite is an error of unparalleled proportion. If the Democrats want to appeal to the rural voters, it's time to start using Chicago and Illinois as the epicenter for Democrats. We've all heard the terms "Northeastern liberals" or "the left coast" and how those coasts don't understand the middle of the country. Well guess what, when they're talking about "flyover country" they're talking Illinois and I have NEVER heard the term "midwestern liberals."

I've also never heard Chicago described as one of those "liberal" cities like Boston, New York, or Washington DC. Our mayor has never come across as a particularily cosmopolitan kind of guy and if our media is liberal, it certainly hasn't been noticed by those who are frequently damning the NY Times.

I love the Northeast and the West Coast, but let's face it. Everytime rural America sees Ted Kennedy (and rural America is watching and thinking about urban America a lot more than we are them) they think of Boston and LIBERAL. Democrats need to showcase the MIDWEST because the midwest is identified with values, screwy as that may be.

We need to see those two senators from Arkansas, the two from Illinois, Feingold in Wisconsin (who's the other?), and the ones from Michigan. We should see a LOT LESS of Boxer, Feinstein, Kennedy, Clinton, Schumer, etc...

[Cuban_Liberal]

1. I think you may well be on to something. n/t

[Copperred]

2. We need to see Warren Buffett as head of the DNC....

Hear hear to that............

The one name that keeps coming back to me....who I think should be petitioned to get HEAVILY involved because he did not come from the East and he is true to his beliefs...is... WARREN BUFFETT

Warren Buffett as head of the DNC..... Warren cannot stand people who come from privilage and thinks its important that they did...... He will send them to the dust bin where they belong....and squeeze the party like never before....

May sound far fetched....but u have no idea how practical a man he is, and how much he truly embodies basic American values....

[Placebo]

3. Illinois is America:

The big cities go for democrats, and the rest of the state goes for the republicans.

[MissMarple]

4. Looks like Illinois has a lot of pink and some light blue.

I don't have a link but a graduate student from Washington made a map of electoral results and a lot of America is various shades of purple. Although the fallout does seem to be more urban vs rural.

[alcuno]

10. Some of those counties had only 3000 votes in them.

Even Champaign only had around 100,000. When the downstate counties are voting 60% for *, suburban Cook is keeping it close, and Chicago is 80% for Kerry, the map is very misleading. I'd like to see a map that is 3D so that the population takes more prominence.

[Cuban_Liberal]

11. It also doesn't reflect state and local races.

My county would be DEEP red, if all that counted was the votes for President. However, if you take state and local races into account, it becomes VERY pale pink.

[Cuban_Liberal]

5. That's not universally true.

Base it on votes for President, and the answer is 'usually', but drop below the presidential level and it becomes a lot more purplish. I live in a VERY 'red' county, vis a vis presidential elections, yet Democrats won all 3 county-wide offices and 5 of 6 races for county board. What color does that make us, really?

[alcuno]

8. That's true, but I've not heard Chicago described as some sort of

an enclave of elitists or liberals. A Republican country northwest of Chicago actually ousted Phil Crane and voted for a Democrat in the recent election.

[RadioLeft]

6. Yes. You have a point, But...

The real problem is that we are labeled "elite" because we are better educated than the base of the Republican Party. Red-states almost universally have lower quality schools, more drop-outs, lower incomes, etc than we do.

So, in truth, we are elites.

The irony that we want everyone to have a better education, etc. so that they can join the elites while the Republicans use fear and hatred of "elites' to convince those with less education and less economic status to vote Republican.

Then the Republicans work to destroy public education and to deny good health care and living wage jobs to the very people who voted form them - thus guaranteeing that they will never join the ranks of the educated, better employed, and financially more stable "elites".

[alcuno]

9. I agree. But we have a public relations problem.

What better way to appeal to "average" Americans than with what many would deem a pretty average part of the nation. And welcome to DU.

[havocmom]

7. And we need to expose Marc Racicot for the elitist, corporate whore

that he is! He opened the way for MT to be devestated by Corporatists then got his cushie job with ENRON & the RNC. That man needs to be taken down so hard that everyone in the nation knows him for the lying bastard whore he is. He pulls too many strings and pushes too many buttons. Expose his REAL values and you might really make some headway with the marketing of evil as 'values' and take their clout away from them

Marc Racicot: red state pol gone national, ENRON lobbyist and would-be king maker. Expose the bastard.