The memes of Real Virginia

Sorry I’ve been away. I’ve been thesis-ing, and when you get into a writing spate, you look around and say, “Oh, it’s Wednesday now.”

I confess I’ve also been following the US election obsessively. There’s just too much to say about it. I have sent back my absentee ballot (registered in Washington), marked for Obama and any other downticket D’s I could find.

It’s been so interesting to watch the slow movement across the Democratic parts of the map. The blue started at Minnesota and Michigan, and since then it’s spread to states I didn’t expect. North Dakota’s in play? North Carolina? Virginia! Did you expect Virginia to go for Obama? Even ‘real Virginia‘.

My favourite political ad this year is this radio ad, that aired in Virginia, where bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley describes Obama as a ‘good man’. I really enjoy Stanley’s phonology — the [t] in ‘the’, the elided [l] in ‘help’, the dropped participial ‘g’, the slower, more deliberate cadence — but what really stands out here is the memes he hits. You can infer a lot about a community by their memes:

• Nobody’s lookin’ for a handout. They value independence and take pride in standing on their on two feet.
• Barack’ll cut taxes for everyday folks. The Plainfolks strategy runs right through this ad.
• Our kids shouldn’t have to leave our communities to find work. The brain drain must be ripping these communities apart.
• He values personal responsibility and ‘family first’. A dog whistle for Republicans. Not sure I like to see it co-opted by Democrats, but perhaps subverting the meme is the first step to dismantling it.
• Describing Obama as a ‘true friend of the people’. This really sounds old-style populist. Doesn’t it sound like it should be said from off the back of a train, maybe 100 years ago?

This article from the LA Times was interesting too. (I know it’s old.) It sounds like a lot of folks would like to vote for Obama, but it’s making them confront their inner racist. The article concerns the strategies that Obama supporters are using to convince their friends and neighbours.

When Cecil E. Roberts, president of the coal miners union that shapes politics in much of this mountain region, talks to voters, he tells them that their choice is to have “a black friend in the White House or a white enemy.” When Charlie Cox, an Obama supporter, hears friends fretting about Obama’s race, he reminds them that they pull for the nearby University of Tennessee football team, “and they’re black.”

Union organizer Jerry Stallard asks fellow coal workers what’s more important: improving their work conditions or holding onto their skepticism of Obama’s race, culture or religion. “We’re all black in the mines,” he tells them.

If I had to summarise these memes into one, it might be: Reducing the distance between black and white. You’re closer to black folks than you realise, so it’s okay to vote for one.

If the map is any indication, this is working. Pollster.com has Obama up by eight, and I hope it holds. I’m really encouraged to see the nation sort itself out on this issue. I think this means good things.