Schussman.com: Bubbas

There was a fracas when Howard Dean made an ill-formed comment about seeking the southern vote, subsequently articulated as the NASCAR vote. Will there be another to-do, now that Bush has entertained race-car drivers at the White House, joking about “stock cars on the lawn” and the “Bubbas” in his own staff?

Now, I know that Dean’s comment about confederate flags and pickup trucks connects to a particularly simmering mess over the South, racism, and candidate chic (Jesse and Ezra at pandagon have had some thoughtful posts about candidates making brain-dead and hopeless appeals on this sort of ground lately), and there’s no doubt that what he said just wasn’t very smart. But here is the President making jokes that play unambiguously on white trash stereotypes of the South, and somehow he gets credit for being folksy? I guess he’s just real authentic that way. Also, is there a public event where the guy has not used his “marrying well” line? Could we suspend that one for a while, maybe rotate it out for a “clearing brush” line or something?

I'm not so sure that "brain dead and hopeless" are the right qualifiers for appealing to, what is internally believed to be, 'working men'. We New Englanders also have a very large NASCAR audience, who traditionally vote towards the left (largely because most they are mostly union men), but feel disenfranchised because their industries are moving over-seas and neither Cons or Libs are doing anything about it. So they've stopped voting (there is a good "King of the Hill" episode on this). Is appealing to an anguished population, no matter how self-described, really "brain dead and hopeless"?
— marcum Dec 3, 05:20 AM #

Er, no. I wasn't at all characterizing the audience. The point wasn't at all critical of appealing to an anguished population, it was about making such appeals in an ignorant way, per recent posts (like this one: http://www.pandagon.net/archives/00002176.htm) at Pandagon, where the thread of conversation has been about candidates trying to be hip and cool, to appeal to the kids, but failing miserably because trying to be hip doesn't overcome their problem of being fundamentally out of touch with that same audience. In the same way, the NASCAR photo op does little to convince me that Bush gives a whit about car racing, or is intimately familiar with the lifestyles and needs of the community ostensibly represented by the NASCAR phenomenon. And yet when Bush makes white-trash jokes, somehow it's more okay. Bleh.
— Alan Dec 3, 07:42 AM #

I understand that you were not characterizing the audience. I think that attempts to be hip are not pointless; I agree though, that it is unconvincing. Still, what do we expect from politicians? I bet that Bush, and probably the other southern candidates, really do enjoy NASCAR. I do not believe that they can identify with the wider NASCAR audience, however. They do not have to; it is the audience which identifies with the politician that generates votes.
— marcum Dec 3, 09:19 AM #

If they're not pointless, can they be cynical? I'd just like to expect more than that.
— Alan Dec 3, 09:35 AM #

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