For GOP, the "real" America is rural America
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has made a lot of her small-town roots. This week, the Republican veep nominee turned it up another notch, declaring that she was happy to visit what she called:
“…these wonderful little pockets of what I call the real America, being here with all of you hard working, very patriotic, very pro-America areas of this great nation.”
Democrats fired back, with Democratic veep candidate Joe Biden denouncing what he called “this policy of division.”
“We are one nation, under God, indivisible. We are all patriotic. We all love our country in every part of this country. And I’m tired. I am tired, tired, tired, tired of the implications about patriotism.”
The moment might be written off as another “gotcha” exchange on the campaign trail, except for the fact that Republicans themselves are declaring their geographic preferences.
Speaking this week on CNN, McCain adviser Nancy Pfotenhauer dismissed Virginia’s northern counties as less real and authentic than the state’s southern, rural and exurban counties.
“The Democrats have just come in from the District of Columbia and moved into northern Virginia,” she said. “And that’s what you see there.”
“But the rest of the state — real Virginia, if you will — I think will be very responsive to Senator McCain’s message.”
Pfotenhauer went on to identify rural parts of other states as key Republican constituencies — suggesting that they, too, are more legitimately American.
“You’ve got places in other states like northern Winsconsnin, the Iron Range of Minnesota, south central and southeastern Pennsylvania, the St. Louis suburbs, and the rural area of Missouri, that are very responsive to our message.”
CNN’s interviewer offered Pfotenhauer a chance to “climb back off the ledge,” asking, “Nancy, did you say the ‘real’ Virginia?” Her response:
“Real Virginia, I take to be this part of the state that is more Southern in nature, if you will. Northern Virginia is really metro DC.”
Part of this alienation is understandable. From Long Island to the northern Virginia suburbs, Republicans have been losing suburban and urban voters for a decade.
The GOP hasn’t yet found a formula to recover that lost appeal. But it seems unlikely that this kind of rhetoric will help.
As America’s urban majority grows in number, Republicans run the risk of representing a dwindling minority of white, rural voters.
Whether they’re “real” or not, those small-town folks aren’t a big enough base to win national elections.
