Joe Bageant

Sarah Palin is the Future of Conservatism

Dear Readers: Here we have a fourth article by An Anonymous Political Consultant, now writing under the pseudonym John Brown (Email: postpolitico@yahoo.com). His previous contributions to this site are: "Not New Ideas, but Identifying New Enemies", "Moving to the Center of Elite Consensus", and "Life in the Post Political Age".
-- Joe

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By John Brown

When we look back with the benefit of hindsight at this year's presidential election, we will remember two noteworthy developments. The first and the most obvious one is the historic victory of Senator Barack Obama, and the other and much less noted one is the political birth of Governor Sarah Palin or more importantly the new prototype of conservatism her emergence represents.

Senator Obama's victory is most important in what it negated, the primary political narrative of our time. The conservative political and economic consensus, which has dominated this country since the start of the Reagan administration, is no more. Governor Sarah Palin's emergence is important in what it revealed, a snap shot into how and in what form the American right makes its comeback.

Joe discusses the election and poor whites

The American News Project traveled to Winchester, Virginia to get Joe Bageant on video, talking about his book Deer Hunting with Jesus, the upcoming election, corporate control of damn near everything, and why poor people without medical insurance are opposed to expanded access to health care. On its web site introduction, the American News Project described Joe's book as "one of the most prescient pieces of analysis about American politics and culture in this election year."

The seven-minute video closes with 20 seconds of Joe picking his mandolin and singing.

-- Ken Smith

Not new ideas, but identifying new enemies

Dear readers,

Well, the masked political consultant blew through town the other day painting the town with his latest message, this time a big picture message. So big picture in fact, that it makes the ideas such as the "framing concept" of George Lakoff look like mouse farts. Before he again rode off on his white horse Mescalero, he left this silver bullet for us to contemplate -- the answer to the question: "Why the neocon bastards always seem to put six rounds into the chests of earnest liberals in every political gunfight, and why the Christian fundamentalists always cheer for the bad guys?" 

In art and labor,

Joe

PS: Here are linked headlines to the two previous contributions to this site by our favorite anonymous political consultant: "Moving to the Center of Elite Consensus" and "Life in the Post Political Age".

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By An Anonymous Political Consultant

The rise of religious fundamentalism as a political force is the most important and misunderstood development in our recent history.

The primary motivating factor in the development of the religious right is a defensive response to the challenges posed by the power of popular consumer and entertainment culture and not a backlash against progressive or liberal ideas and social movements.

TV documentary about Joe Bageant (in Italian)

Several months ago, Vasco Dones, an independent television producer for Swiss TV spent a week with Joe Bageant in Winchester, Virginia, interviewing Joe and many of the people who are profiled in Deer Hunting with Jesus. This resulted in a 30-minute documentary titled "Joe's Winchester" that was broadcast yesterday on the Italian language channel of Swiss TV and posted to the web.

The narration and voice-overs are in Italian and even if you don't understand the language the story is wonderfully told. Dones began his career as a still photographer and this is evident in the way he shoots video. Each scene is carefully framed, the camera is still, and the subjects move within the frame. Beautifully done and worth a look.

Dones said today there are no immediate plans for French or German versions of the documentary for Swiss TV, nor yet any English language versions in the works.

Click here and scroll down to the clickable "Guarda il video", where you will find a choice of high and low speed connections.

-- Ken Smith

PS: This has nothing to do with above, but I just noticed that out of the hundreds of current articles on the BBC News web site, Joe's article "Why rednecks may rule the world" is the most emailed.

Why Rednecks May Rule the World

This article originally appeared on the web site of BBC Radio.

By Joe Bageant

During this US election cycle we are hearing a lot from the pundits and candidates about "heartland voters," and "white working class voters."

What they are talking about are rednecks. But in their political correctness, media types cannot bring themselves to utter the word "redneck." So I'll say it for them: redneck-redneck-redneck-redneck.

The fact is that we American rednecks embrace the term in a sort of proud defiance. To us, the term redneck indicates a culture we were born in and enjoy. So I find it very interesting that politically correct people have taken it upon themselves to protect us from what has come to be one of our own warm and light hearted terms for one another.

Can Democrats Learn to Speak Redneck?

In a HuffingtonPost.com column today, "Can Democrats Learn to Speak Redneck?", Beth Arnold writes that the McCain/Palin ticket appeals to far more Americans than the Democrats have been willing to recognize. Using Joe Bageant's book and his recent columns as a starting point, Arnold writes that the Democrats need a campaign with more than the charge that John McCain is too old and trigger-happy and that Sarah Palin is nothing more than an inexperienced "hockey mom".

Arnold, a staunch Democrat and ardent supporter of Barack Obama, says that the Democrats must do more than simply make fun of their opponents. "We cannot let this happen," Arnold writes. "We dim Democrats have got to stay on task here. As idiotic as it seems to have named Sarah Palin as his running mate, McCain has accomplished what he set out to do in some sense."

It's a column worth reading. Click here.

-- Ken Smith

Joe in The Guardian explains leftnecks

Joe Bageant has a great column today in The Guardian (UK) explaining to the British some aspects of American politics. In the column, "Meet the leftnecks", Joe says: "McCain's popularity in the red-state heartland took another jump with his selection of the moose-shooting ex-beauty queen, Alaskan governor Sarah Palin, as his vice-presidential running mate. The war hero and gun advocate 'hockey mom' are obviously reaching American heartlanders: at some point the left is going to have to learn to reach the same people, especially in the swing states. And to do that they are going to have to learn to speak redneck."

Click here for Joe's Guradian column, and be sure to read the comments, including one by Joe himself in response to some of the other comments.

-- Ken Smith

Moving to the Center of Elite Consensus

Dear friends,

Our popular masked political consultant just rode back into town "on his white horse Mescalero" to again scrawl insight on our village walls. This time the subject is elite consensus and how it affects our lives.

Enjoy,
Joe

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By an anonymous political consultant

Over the last many weeks we have all been subjected to endless news stories about Senator Obama's campaign "Move to the Center". Leaving aside the political illiteracy which underlines this phrase, the use of it reveals important clues about the rhetoric of electoral campaigns, whom they target and what they are trying to communicate.

Put simply, what "Moving to the Center," means is: moving towards power and money.

Times of London article on Joe Bageant

The Times of London in its most recent Sunday magazine had a wonderfully written article on the coming American election, "How Barack Obama can win over poor whites". The Times writer, Tony Allen-Mills, spent a couple of days with Joe Bageant in Winchester, Virginia, to learn why many Americans vote against their own self-interest.

"The story is pretty accurate," Joe says, "except for one transposition of quotes. I have never milked a cow in my life and certainly never walked four miles to school. That was 80-year-old Jim McCoy's quote."

This article uses Joe's book, Deer Hunting with Jesus, as a focal point to explain the Obama/McCain race to British readers. Also, be sure to look at the comments, including many from American readers. It appears that some Americans don't like a European, especially a Brit, getting ideas from a redneck socialist. Click here.

-- Ken Smith

Life in the Post Political Age

Every now and then I am fortunate enough to communicate with someone who has near complete insight into our political process, why things happen and where it seems likely to be headed. Recently I received this analysis from a high powered political consultant whose name is withheld for obvious reasons. He/she has to live and work in the political world and for either party. In any case, I found it breathtaking in its fundamental analysis and its clarity -- clarity being no easy thing to accomplish in the swamp of media-consumerism-politics. Here it is:
-- Joe Bageant

By an anonymous political consultant

Much has been written by political pundits in their attempt to explain the unexpected victory of Senator Barack Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton in this year's Democratic Presidential Primary. When looking at the results of this race, none of the conventional political math that would help one handicap the outcome would make one conclude that Senator Obama would win this contest.