Bill LaCroix: Rural Right-Wing Populism and the City-Slicker

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Rural Right-Wing Populism and the City-Slicker

This blog was started as my pea-shooter attempt to elevate our critical modern discussions out of Fox-news-landia and back to where intelligent (and literate) Americans can find their feet and fight back, either with the Muse, by other means, or both. It now includes essays and updates from the Bitterroot Valley, a rural area in Western Montana mostly encompassed within Ravalli County where I am politically active in and from which I necessarily draw much of my material. “Bitterroot Politics” is intended to be informative, humorous and motivating for those of you who live in the Bitterroot and are experiencing this latest iteration of home-grown, rural right-wing populism known by me as Teabaggery first-hand. For those of you who happen upon this site and are not from the Bitterroot or rural areas like it—and I hope you do happen upon it—I try to keep “Bitterroot Politics” broad enough to be of interest to you, too. The Bitterroot is a microcosm of what’s happening throughout rural America these days. If you live in a relatively progressive area, a city for instance, and are wondering how the crazy nationalistic notions being peddled by the likes of the Koch Brothers et al. can possibly stick to the inside walls of otherwise-rational peoples’ skulls, wonder no more. Read on.

To finish up enigmatically, it’s not up to some politician to change the narrative. That’s up to us so don’t waste your time waiting for the bus. We can still get ourselves to where we need to go, so by definition we still have as good a chance as we ever had. Don't lose hope. It’s always been this way. At least in literate societies. So speak up, have fun and stay tuned.

And remember: if I do happen to come up with something original, enlightening and funny from time to time, which is of course my intent, you heard it here first.

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Why I Blog

Thoreau and Emerson had a discussion in May of 1846 about the Mexican War--our first war that set us on the course we still track today. Conquest of nation-states and the inevitable Imperialism that follows. Emerson counseled his friend that we can supersede the transgressions of a well-meaning State by the Muse. Thoreau wasn't so sure that the State was so well-meaning or that the Muse alone would be enough to supersede it. But he tried both the Muse and "other means" to our everlasting benefit. Civil Disobedience, in the American sense, has always been his child, in large part because he raised it to the level of Literature. "Other means" requires the Muse to be lasting and effective, and vice versa. How would anyone know what the hell you were talking about otherwise, let alone emulate what you're trying to do?

The problem with Progressives today, I think, is that we have been in the habit of letting other people--Rupert Murdoch, the Koch Brothers, Sun Myung Moon--tell our stories for us, people who do not mean us well. We haven't plugged our muse into our political discourse very much, and that's a big mistake. Mark Twain didn't make that mistake, and he was among the first American writers to use the new-fangled typewriter. Why do we children of Twain, Emerson and Thoreau make that mistake now with our new-fangled computers?

For all its faults, Corporate America understands that people are story-based critters, like it or not, and I think we progressives should like it. By definition, people make many important social (read: political) decisions based largely on who's the best storyteller. It’s in our nature, and Corporate Media is a classic example of how Nature abhors a vacuum. We’ve collectively created a cultural ‘narrative’ vacuum by allowing ourselves to be so easily entertained by—Corporate Media! And Nature hates that. She’ll allow the same garbage responsible for that vacuum (Corporate Media!) to be sucked in and to rattle around until it ruins our cognative motors before she’ll let that sad state of affairs stand. I'd ask any "America Firsters" stumbling on this blog and reading this far to consider: Rupert Murdoch is from Australia. Sun Myung Moon, now-deceased but whose creatures, the Washington Times and UPI still walk the face of the earth, was from Korea. The Koch Brothers, of course, were from the sheikdom of Texas. All of them were, and the living ones still are, so obscenely rich they apparently believed they own America simply because they paid for it, and we collectively let them define who among us are “real Americans”?! C'mon!

Although it helps to strive toward the goal, progressives don't have to be great writers, and I'm not claiming to be one. We simply have to acknowledge that we have the better stories and we’re sitting on our best ones. Our truest ones. Multi-national billionaires have better versions of American Liberalism and Progressivism than the real ones told by real Americans? Us? We shouldn't put up with that. Why do we?

Like any historic attempt, we need to find our Voice. Significant action will come only after our contemporary, progressive political muse matures, which it hasn't yet. Not to paint with too wide a brush, but too much of our positions have been framed in intellectual, almost-didactic prose, which, if you don't identify as an intellectual, means boring. Not all of it, just a whole lot of it, but never mind. If history's still a guide--and I hope it still is--there's hope, because when any progressive movement's Muse matures, it generally becomes the baseline for much of Western Civilization’s meaningful and therefore lasting literature. For example, "Mein Kampf" is still in print but I'll bet you'd have to turn over a lot of rocks to find someone to call it 'literature'.

So, this blog. It's a call, I suppose, to elevate our critical modern discussions out of Fox-news-landia back to where intelligent, caring Americans can find their feet and fight back, either with the Muse, by other means, or both. It’s not up to some politician to change the narrative. That’s up to us. So by definition we still have as good a chance as we ever had. Don't lose hope. It’s always been this way. At least in literate societies.

In other words, like Emerson advised and Thoreau partially agreed with: stories matter, and may the best Muse win.