Myth of the "Bigoted Christian Redneck"

Charles Krauthammer has a great observation about the Dems' myopia of last week's election:

In 1994, when the Gingrich revolution swept Republicans into power, ending 40 years of Democratic hegemony, the mainstream press needed to account for this inversion of the Perfect Order of Things. A myth was born. Explained a USA Today headline: "Angry White Men: Their votes turned the tide for the GOP." Overnight, the revolt of the Angry White Male became conventional wisdom.

At the time, I looked into this story line and found not a scintilla of evidence to support it. Nonetheless, it was a necessary invention, a way for the liberal elite to delegitimize a conservative victory.

Ten years and another Democratic defeat later, and liberals are at it again. The Angry White Male has been transmuted into the Bigoted Christian Redneck.



But the fallback is then to attribute Bush's victory to the gay marriage referendums that pushed Bush over the top, particularly in Ohio. This is more nonsense. Bush increased his vote in 2004 over 2000 by an average of 3.1% nationwide. In Ohio, the increase was 1% - less than a third of the national average. In the 11 states in which the gay marriage referendums were held, Bush increased his vote by less than he did in the 39 states that did not have the referendum. The great anti-gay surge was pure fiction.

This does not deter the myth of the Bigoted Christian Redneck from dominating the thinking of liberals and from infecting the blue-state media. So once again they angrily claim the moral high ground, while standing in the ruins of yet another humiliating electoral defeat.


Sure, like New Mexico, Ohio, North Dakota, Arizona, and Iowa (among many, many others) are known as bastions of rednecks, huh?

"Sheeee-oot, Bubba! What say me and you go on down to Santa Fe and do some cow tippin'?"

Or maybe: "Well, shet yer mouth, Bootsie Lou! If this here ain't the finest moonshine still in Tuscon, I don't have any idee what is!"