Political Demographics "Real America"

[Cory]

"Real America" is code word for white, protestant conservative America. Isn't it obvious?

[muon2]

After spending my 20's in New England and New York, I felt that phrases like "Real America" were a natural reaction to attitudes that were magnificently captured on the famous cover:

[opebo]

I admit to feeling like a 'real American' to the exclusion of all people who are not at least middle-to-upper-middle-class WASPs (which is somewhat paradoxical as technically I was reared in a very casual sense Catholic, but in all important respects we followed my mother's family's culture - WASP).

I suppose another way to approach this conundrum is that in fact a certain type of Catholic does fit the 'WASP' stereotype to a surprising degree - in St. Louis I think a fair number of French and German derived families fit this bill.

[LastVoter]

I admit to feeling like a 'real American' to the exclusion of all people who are not at least middle-to-upper-middle-class WASPs (which is somewhat paradoxical as technically I was reared in a very casual sense Catholic, but in all important respects we followed my mother's family's culture - WASP).

I suppose another way to approach this conundrum is that in fact a certain type of Catholic does fit the 'WASP' stereotype to a surprising degree - in St. Louis I think a fair number of French and German derived families fit this bill.

You want to tell us more about French and German families in St. Louis? Especially the differences between the two.

[pbrower2a]

The idea that "Real America" is synonymous with "Middle America" is one of the most poisonous memes currently out there in our culture.  The coasts (and people/places inland that don't fit the stereotype) are just as real, and just as American.

Now, if you were to ask me what part of the country best represents the whole on average, that's a more interesting question.  I keep coming back to the Chicago suburbs as a good representation of the country as a whole; the I-4 corridor in central Florida seems like it would also be quite representative.

Ohio on the whole is representative of America.

Indeed, Sarah Palin sank to a new level of divisive demagoguery, praising people more for 'not' being urban, sophisticated, non-straight, non-Christian, non-Anglo, non-White, and secularist.  She suggested a nostalgia for an America that still exists that used to dominate American politics -- but no longer does. Barack Obama is a poor match for that world, to be sure -- 

People aren't so much where the cattle pastures, grain-fields, and cotton farms are. They are where the concrete and asphalt are. The "Real America" includes the South Bronx, the South Side of Chicago, and "South Central LA".