In the famous cover of The New Yorker, a native Manhattanite gives his view of the world which ends at the edge of the Hudson River. Other than LA, San Francisco and Tokyo the rest of the world to the west is an undifferentiated blob of land with the occasional blowing tumbleweed. In the late lamented television series The West Wing, the token Republican staffer Ainsley Hayes (played by the amazing Emily Proctor) tells Sam Seaborne, one of the most insufferable of the presidential aides, that he isn't so much against guns as he is against those who like to use guns--the folks who live in the "red states" or Steinberg's tan blob.
These thoughts from popular culture crossed my mind when I read that the Democratic staff director of a US House of Representatives committee strongly advised a series of inoculations such as would be prudent if traveling in the third world for committee members attending a NASCAR race this past weekend. (Ostensibly the travel was business related.)
Understandably the good folks at the speedway and the surrounding North Carolina counties took exception to these instructions. The committee's Republican staff and members were flabbergasted but they also knew a political gift when they saw one. The bloggers (like me) caught wind of it and a full political imbroglio has been taking place in NASCAR land.
While such a story is, in reality, much ado about little, it bespeaks the attitude that could be fatal to the modern Democratic party. Unless it suppresses its sense of superiority and disdain for most of the nation (the so-called "fly over territory"), its message will be ignored outside of urban areas. It will be reduced to a political party of the coasts and a few other urban centers.
By the way, in the end no one was vaccinated . No one got ill, either.
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