THE PLANK SEPTEMBER 27, 2007
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While, as Chait points out, many social conservatives remain unconvinced of Fred Thompson's commitment to their cause, the Southern Baptist's Richard Land continues his tireless cheerleading for Big Daddy.
Even having talked to Land about Fred at some length a few months ago, I still don't understand this particular attraction. It's not as if Fred is the most conservative or the most religious or has the most irreproachable personal history of the GOP contenders.
My best guess is that Fred's appeal for Land is culture based--i.e., he is the only arguably top-tier Southerner in this race. Rich or poor, Southerners tend to be protective of our own, in part because we're sensitive to the fact that much of the rest of the country still looks down their noses at us as a bunch of racist, ass-backward, banjo-pickin' hicks. (Don't deny it: non-Southerners hear a drawl or a nasal twang and immediately assume the speaker is a little on the slow side.) Land grew up in Houston--which ain't exactly Jena, but it also ain't exactly Cambridge. And it's entirely possible that when he went off to college at Princeton, and later to Oxford for his PhD, he may have encountered a bit of anti-Southern snobbery.
Further fueling my suspicions is Land's recent attempts to explain Fred's appeal to CBN News' David Brody:
"Fred Thompson grew up in a very modest means in a small town in America just like Ronald Reagan grew up in very modest means in a small town in Illinois. You acquire not only an understanding of but a respect for everyday folk when you come from the background that you don't get otherwise and people sense it. That this is a guy who respects me, a guy who understands that we are the backbone of this country, we are the salt of the Earth and he not only understands us, he's one of us. He's a successful one of us but he's one of us and they trust a guy like that. They give a guy like that a larger margin of error. Nobody gets everything right but its core values. My assessment is that this guy is a whole much like Reagan including his Teflon quality. The press has been beating up with him for these types of gaffes and he continues to climb in the polls."
Admittedly, Houston hardly qualifies as a small town. But even many big-city Texans tend to identify with the country-music image of themselves as salt-of-the-earth types with old fashioned small-town values. And certainly Land's constituency includes lots of small-town folks.
Then again, maybe there's an even simpler answer: The SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, of which Land is president, is headquartered in Thompson's old stomping grounds of Nashville. Even if Land spends most of his time in the ERLC's DC office, he and Fred probably share old friends and acquaintances from Music City, not to mention fond memories of gorging on fried chicken and biscuits out at the Loveless Cafe.
Granted, this seems like an odd reason to support a man for president--although, come to think of it, not any odder than the fact that many Americans support Fred because they dug him on "Law & Order."
--Michelle Cottle
13 comments
The reason that people view you Southerners as a bunch of racist, ass-backward, banjo-pickin' hicks is pretty much because that is what you all are. Please. Yeah, and everyone from New Jersey says yous guys and wears Members only in honor of our thing. People in New Jersey at least have a sense of humor about it, why the persistent chip on southerners shoulders? And when did the south become the backbone of this country? Economically the North East and the West coast have been far and away the backbone of the country, sending far more money to Washington, DC then it gets back. And why this tired old shtick the only people from small towns are authentic? That only they have any understanding of and respect for the common man. What utter bullshit. I would love it if someone plays that to thomson to explain why that is true. Why the hell can't Land praise Thomson without making a backward dig at the rest of the country? If I were him I would want to muzzle the guy.
- blackton
September 27, 2007 at 5:01pm
A long time ago, I read somewhere that Flannery O'Connor felt isolated and unable to communicate in college due to her thick southern accent. That always struck me as sort of sad, so ever since I've tried really, really hard not to judge people by their twangs. But damn, it's hard. The small-town authenticity thing really gets my goat too, blackie. Especially since it seems to be taken seriously by people who really ought to know better. (cough) Chan (cough)
- ratnerstar
September 27, 2007 at 5:13pm
is really disturbing. I mean, sure, if they want to out-and-out have sex with each other, like Foley or Craig or what not, go right ahead. Not my cup of tea, but certainly nothing wrong with it. It's a great way to relax and clear the mind before delving into the nation's to-do list. But all these platonic urges--Cheeses, I read this stuff and the hairs just stand up on the back of my neck. They like each other? They express admiration? Please, don't let them go to church together and grasp each other's hands in prayer! Please mama, make them stop! I'm gonna hurl. Any moment, some universal circadian hormone is gonna kick in and thousands of them will burst from their exoskelatons, spread their damp wings momentarily in the sun, then take to the air in giant swarms before descending on San Francisco like huge vampire locusts.
- williamyard
September 27, 2007 at 5:20pm
I really don't buy the whole "Land supports him because he's a southerner" thing. Huckabee is a southerner. He's more conservative, has a wider appeal, and is pretty much the man crush of all the rest of the Christian right. Land is the odd man out on this one because, as he's previously stated in interviews, he thinks Huckabee can't win. Period. Which is pretty fucking crazy when you stop and think about it. Huckabee maybe can't win the nomination because he's arguably not a small-government conservative, but he would be our worst nightmare in the general. But good for him, though. Actor-christs need love, too.
- g.mcentire
September 27, 2007 at 7:34pm
I know, I am deathly afraid that Huckabee is the McCain of 08, someone who bursts out big, but this time there is no establishment Bushie to beat him back. Oddly enough, Huckabee is hated by Club for Growth nutcases, so maybe he isn't quite as conservative as he makes himself out to be.
- blackton
September 27, 2007 at 7:58pm
Don't deny it: non-Southerners hear a drawl or a nasal twang and immediately assume the speaker is a little on the slow side.. Give me a freaking break. Did anyone think this when they first heard Bill Clinton speak? Or John Edwards? One of the smartest people that I never knew in graduate school was a soft-spoken gent from Alabama. I thought he was shy, but I never mistook him for stupid. It's much easier to think that someone from New Yawk is ignorant because they're so aggressive. Maybe it's because I'm from a younger generation, but I don't really think this has any bearing except in the fevered imaginations of overly sensitive Southerners.
- kerouac9
September 27, 2007 at 8:34pm
Calling yourself the salt of the earth is like calling yourself "cool," i.e., just by calling yourself that, means you *aren't*.
- nancyirving
September 28, 2007 at 7:38am
You said it. I've been to many interesting places around the world but the only place in the first world where I've seen people on assembly lines need pictoral instructions is Alabama. And it didn't appear that that was due to a more refined appreciation of art on their part.
- Nari224
September 28, 2007 at 8:26am
The cleavage is rather incorrect from what I've seen. I's not that people from other parts of the country tend to assume that people with Southern accents are "a little on the slow side," it's that people without the accent tend to feel that way about the people who have it. (I recall guy I met with a thick Southern drawl bitching about his "Republican" accent---this was, mind you, in Dallas.) In places like Houston particularly, it seems like the drawly, salt-of-the-earth mentality is drawn mainly from the working classes. Go to a middle-class suburb and you'll hear more Dan Rather than Rick Perry, more Radiohead than Keith Urban. I can't speak for Land, but the Houston I grew up in was more like LA without the scenery, glamour, or movie stars. I may have said this before, but TNR as a body does seem to have some rather pervasive, soft stereotyping of my home state which, while it may have been a fairly accurate picture a number of years ago, doesn't really do us justice. There are a number of articles that muse on the "Southern" or "Texasn" mentality, but none I've read really capture the dynamic between the more cosmopolitan urban areas and the "ass-backward, banjo-pickin'" country. Or the stratification of either. The writers, in what I assume is a misinformed attempt at uncovering zeitgeist, tend to present this monolithic image of a rather pluralistic society.
- guyminuslife
September 28, 2007 at 9:45am
A southern drawl doesn't make me think the speaker is stupid, but it does make me think they'll beat up a bad guy who's got it coming. That sheriff in the dog video on CNN? I hear his accent and immediately think, "Here is a man who will kick the hell out of those bastards who ran that puppy mill." That's probably the appeal of Fred. His accent says he'll warn a man, "I'm gonna pop you if you don't stop," and then do it if the polite warning doesn't fix things.
- phargle
September 28, 2007 at 11:20am
. . . which isn't to say that I have a man-crush on Fred. Heavens, I wouldn't want TNR making vaguely anti-gay comments about me. (Between that and the constant Guiliani-in-drag posts, I kind of wonder about TNR's views of homosexuals.) No, I'm a McCain man.
- phargle
September 28, 2007 at 11:22am
The cleavage is rather incorrect from what I've seen.
I've never seen incorrect cleavage.
About the accent...the bias is that a heavy drawl or twang marks a provincial -- someone who hasn't been off the reservation to soften their accent, like the Southern deb who takes a year or two in Florence to soften her accent. Heavy dialect marks a farmer, whose job does not afford the chance to take "broadening" sabbaticals. Thus, twangs and drawls pigeonhole its speakers as "country". Or more pejoratively, as hayseeds or rubes...or Gomers. This hasn't created a problem for Southern candidates, however, because, until 2008, the South elects presidents. The problem with the Texas drawl is that it's sharp and nasal -- to non-Texans it's annoying. They say Southerners have no use for the letter "r". Except Texans, who say "r"s with a vengence. My dad was a Texan (Dallas), but travelled a lot from an early age, so his accent softened. LBJ's travel was mainly between Pedarnales and that other Southern town, D.C., and of course, before 2000, "incurious" Dubya hardly traveled at all. (Yale didn't seem to help on any front.)
Ol' Fred's accent isn't too bad. It's a Southern accent of a type. And, of course, there are Southern drawls that are downright attractive, like Virginian and North Carolinian.
Of course, the accent-to-intellect bias is unsound. Four of our most intelligent presidents -- Jefferson, Wilson, Carter and Clinton -- have been Southerners. I think Fred's problem is that, whether in the Congressional leadership or in the White House, Americans are just fed up with Southern accents and with Republicans...in which order I'm not sure.
- jm_rice
September 28, 2007 at 12:29pm
"I can't speak for Land, but the Houston I grew up in was more like LA without the scenery, glamour, or movie stars." It's still like that, though there is a lot of glamour. Any large and wealthy city will have that. I agree that the interesting story about Texas is the interplay between the culturally urban, cosmopolitan areas of the state and the culturally rural, traditionalist parts of the state. While all states have elements of that interplay, I think it comes out strongest in Texas, and in Houston in particular (sorry, Austin, you're too much of a white-bread college-town to lead this discussion). If you just look at politics in Houston, Houston in the past few years has produced Sheila Jackson Lee and Tom DeLay in the Congress, and its city government includes two out lesbians (one is a city councilwoman and the other is city controller - the number two spot in city government) as well as (up until a year or so ago) the inimitable Shelley Sekula-Gibbs on city council. Mayberry it ain't.
- myzaguirre
September 28, 2007 at 7:25pm