Will the Real America Please Stand Up?
We have been hearing a lot lately about how “Real Americans” think and what is going on in the “Real America.” Most of this has been coming from the Republican party and its supporters. The idea is that somehow they are genuine and their opponents are fake. They are honest and their opponents are deceptive. They are from small towns and their opponents are from big cities. They are hard working and their opponents are welfare queens. They are good god-fearing Christians and their opponents are Atheistic Socialists. They are white and their opponents are not…ok well that last one may have something to it.
The “Real America” is the America of small towns. Apparently only about 20% of the denizens of this chunk of rock we call the United States can even qualify as real Americans because that’s the percent that doesn’t live in a metropolitan area. Metropolitan areas are cities of more than 50,000 and their dependent outliers. Even if we go with a more conservative rendering, we see that those living in the urban core are 30.3% of the country and of the remaining 50% of the total 80% in metro areas, 80% live in an urbanized area (40% of the total population). So with 70% of the nation living in urban or urbanized areas, is it honest to call that anything other than the “Real America?”.
“Real America” is a nostalgic rendition of the America of my parents’ childhood. A country of small towns, church on Sundays (which is still largely true), hard work, self sufficiency, guns, common sense, and a raft of other things. Real Americans don’t have sex before you’re married and if she gets pregnant, they damn sure better marry her or at the very least support the child. They didn’t go to college. They shop at Walmart. They have kids. They don’t like fancy things. They are patriotic. They are an increasingly rare breed.
“Real America” seems to be a few things at once. It is a throwback to an idealized bygone era. It is, in some estimations, a code for the America of the blue collar WASP, white America. It is the America of my country right or wrong. It isn’t really America. Oh sure, there is a segment of the populous that fits the bill, but increasingly we live in a nation of urbanites. We live in big cities. We go to college. We cohabitate. Most of us don’t own guns. In fact, as older generations slowly pass on, we resemble “Real America” less and less. So what gives?
Part of it is our history. This country started out as a country of relatively egalitarian small towns. Great wealth was not a big concern for early colonists. The earliest settlers (invaders?) were northern European Christians with similar culture and religion who mistrusted distant power and ascribed status. As time has gone on, however, we have become less white, less religious, and more urban. Americans are White, Black, Latino, Asian, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Atheist, Gay, Straight, and Polys. In short, we are far more diverse than the invokers of the “Real America” would have us believe. The “Real America” is changing, it’s time to open our eyes and see it for what it is today, not what some particular segment of the population wishes it was. So, will the real America please stand up?
Comment by John Bambenek on 27 October 2008 at 7:34 am:
The real America doesn’t channel Eminem lyrics. ;)
Comment by Brandon on 27 October 2008 at 9:20 pm:
It’s true. That just goes to show that I’m not a Real American huh?
Comment by Ragnar on 28 October 2008 at 3:36 pm:
Brandon, I think the thing you are missing is that real Americans still believe in the principles America was founded on. Things like self-reliance, God, Democracy, Capitalism, the Right to Self Defense, Freedom, the Constitution, all that stuff – You know – Truths that are “Self Evident”.
Real Americans are not defined by where they live, or by what color they are. The fact that many of the non-republican persuasion really are pretty much American-hating-commie-pinkos who don’t own guns (and want to take away those of those who do), who cohabitate, and who really are Atheistic Socialists is kind of beside the point.
I personally feel sorry for urbanites because living in the vinyl siding jungle sucks – and the city even more (at least compared to living on a farm) ((at least as far as I am concerned)).
Here are a couple of litmus tests, if your biggest traffic congestion problem is when the neighbor’s cows get out, if you can sit on the porch and shoot beer cans off the pasture fence, and if your ole lady’s favorite place to fool around is outside in the grass under the stars in the middle of your own front yard, you are far enough from the urban sprawl. It doesn’t define you as an American, but it sure is a lot less stressful.
The real change is we now have a generation that is the product of anti-american brainwashing and rewriting of history courtesy of our public schools and the agenda to dumb down America. Don’t believe me, pull a history book from about 50 years ago. I bet you find out the founding fathers did some stuff you never ever heard of. More than anything else it is a control issue. You live in neat little rows of buildings, you march in step, send your kids to Obama youth rallys (well not yet but it is coming), live your lives for the Collective. In other words, you sir, are a sheep, and you have confused being American with being a “Non-Sheep.” Baaaaaa
Comment by Brandon on 28 October 2008 at 11:05 pm:
Ragnar your utter hilarity and senselessness never ceases to amaze and amuse me.
Comment by Ragnar on 29 October 2008 at 8:47 am:
Thanks Man, I dig you too!