Some of you may remember that I am a rural voter who has written several diaries about rural issues and the presidential race. Today, I read something one of the top contenders for the Democratic nomination for President said, that I found disturbing. In this case, it was Obama's expresion of "surprise" when a rural Iowa man wearing a "seedhat" and overalls asked him about Burma and not "corn."
In my view, this was inappropriate at very least. He made a joke about rural Iowans wanting to always talk about corn as if corn is either all they want to talk about or corn is all they have enough brain power to talk about. This plays into a stereotype of rural people (one of which is often repeated online that rural people don't have computers and therefore don't blog - Hi!).
Many times in the past the left has gotten angry with right wingers who are astonished and somewhat proud that a stereotype about a minority wasn't true in a particular case.
Bill O'Reilly recently was criticized for doing something similar. He expressed his "surprise" that a stereotype wasn't true. Namely that African Americans in a Harlem restaurant could eat civilly without shouting out for "M.F'ing iced tea."
Bill O'Reilly reported that he "couldn't get over the fact that there was no difference between Sylvia's restaurant and any other restaurant in New York City. I mean, it was exactly the same, even though it's run by blacks, primarily black patronship." O'Reilly added: "There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, 'M-Fer, I want more iced tea.' "
Now, an issue I brought up a while ago is that rural voters are important not only in primaries, but in the general election. They usually go Republican, but I have argued that is partially due to the lack of understanding that comes from many Democratic strategists and candidates. Many times they are simply ignored. However, to contribute to a stereotype about them is even worse.
I am scared that too many people forget about us. They forget about the 40-60% of Dems in rural and traditionally "red" states. We exist. We are not SUV drivers. We are not the stereotype. Stereotypes should not be used by the left either because it misleads us. Stereotypes always lead people to the wrong conclusions.
