Open thread: Kentucky and Oregon; Update: Hillary wins Kentucky; Update: Obama wins Oregon

SEVEN MISTAKES OF THE OBAMA CAMPAIGN IN KENTUCKY

1. “Daisy Mae Don’t Live Here No More”: Using the Lil’ Abner cartoons as a guidebook understanding the Kentucky population. For that matter, using the accumulated Hollywood and media stereotypes of Kentuckians, Appalachians, mountain folks etc. was quite foolish. Kentuckians took Obama’s remarks and the Media’s slurs as mortal insults. They won’t forgive or forget them
2. Assuming they were dealing with an homogeneous culture
Ignorance of what every Kentucky politician must know to survive: Kentucky has very distinct
cultures and regions. Each region often acts as a state within the state, and meets any attempts to
approach them as a homogeneous population with frozen rejection. .

Northern Kentucky is a German-Catholic suburb of Cincinnati with a significant Japanese community; Lexington, Louisville( and their surrounding metropolitan extensions) are very southern in the sense of Atlanta or Charleston, SC–a very British-American ethnic group. However, Lexington also has a very large Irish and Hispanic-Catholic population, as well as a large Jewish population, an influential Japanese community, and an international academic community; Eastern Kentucky has a knee-jerk pride in being Appalachian[heaven help the idiot that offends it] ; and Western Kentucky shares Nashville’s culture and business circles.

3. Assuming that a predominantly religious culture was politically gullible. They paid too much attention to the left-wing propaganda mills which spins religious people as uneducated, stupid bumpkins.
4. This has been a hunting state since its inception. In the rural areas, people actually supplement their food budget by hunting game animals. Do not refer to an over two-century old tradition as an emotional pacifier.
5. Ignorance of the Kentucky Code. They do not forget or forgive anyone offending their “honor”. An old fashioned term— meaning to question their integrity.
6. Poor Historical Understanding: Although, Kentucky had slaves, it was not a “slave state”. The Civil War spilt families, communities and cities wide apart. Most of the regions never even had slaves and many were big participants in the Underground Railroad. Kentucky never joined the Confederacy.
7. What Kentuckians still remember are northern and east-coast vultures of the post-civil war era; attracted by the states post-war economic collapse; that treated the entire population like an occupied, conquered territory. They either swindled or pressured thousands of families to sell them their farms and mineral rights for pennies and built huge fortunes. What followed was the “raping” of Kentucky’s natural resources by the horse industry, timber, natural gas and coal companies; whose owners lived out-of-state and took their profits out-of-state. The “new elites” gave political donations and lobbied to buy-off democratic politicians, who gave them a tax-free status for more than a century [the corruption of the controlling Democratic Party is still legendary]. For decades, Kentuckians were frustrated by watching the wealth of their state carted off to the corporations in the north and east coast. In essence, Kentucky was treated like a third-world country by other states for over a century. By the time, Kentuckians re-gained control of their own state government and could raise capital; much of the state’s resources had been harvested by outsiders. In the process, this form of industrialization destroyed the resources which had allowed the Eastern Kentuckians, in particular, an unmatched level of independence.

Examples, of how these proud people have been degraded include a Broadway play, the Kentucky Cycle, written by a gentleman who never bothered to visit the state, and whose derogatory portrait has been debunked by every major American historian to date. Yet, it is considered fair game to aim the worst offensive, “racist-like” regional slurs against these people. Their silent fury has been building for generations. The Media triggered an eruption of accumulated resentment when they conducted themselves like a 21st century “Bwanna” swaggering in to civilize the savages. I doubt Obama will ever be able to gain their trust.
ragnell

Ragnell on May 21, 2008 at 3:15 PM