Another e-mail, re the Village Voice column noted much, much earlier:
That is great! It is why our side wins the “flyover country” so solidly. Most of America doesn’t have time for such theories or beliefs. That is why as soon as the advocates for the left-wing (not nessacerily the candidates, but the intellectuals and pundits and academics) start talking, most of America stops listening. Oh, if you have too much education for your own good or wish you did, you love this kind of stuff…but most of America with a high school diploma and some college or a degree has no interest in this. Two things to turn off middle America the quickest are making too much of obscure symbolism in trivial things, and trying to sound important by making complex arguments and using big words, and the best thing is that the LIBERALS DON’T KNOW THIS/CAN’T UNDERSTAND IT! That is why conservative networks like Fox News and the conservative talk radio shows will always blow liberal ones out of the water…
I was deployed over for Enduring Freedom in the “stans” area of the world. We had limited TVs to watch the Armed Forces Network on. It was 2 or 3 AM local time when they broadcasted Bush’s landing on the USS Lincoln and the room was full of folks who had gotten up to come out and watch it. We wanted to see the Commander in Chief land on the carrier. Sure, it was part machismo, but an overt part – the landing on the carrier…that wasn’t hidden, and the military folks loved him for it.