You hear it all the time from conservative pundits and spinmeisters and other assorted propagandists on the political (and cultural) right: True Americans live in the red state "heartland."
These heartland denizens are patriotic, unapologetically. They have solid, family- oriented values. They go to church. They're safely removed, geographically and culturally, from the liberal-elitest moral cesspools in Hollywood and New York. And they reliably vote Republican.
Never mind the data that show heartland divorce rates are higher than in the so-called "blue" states where most of the morally bankrupt Democrats live. Never mind voter-approved legalized gambling taking hold throughout the red state Midwest. And never mind studies showing epidemic drug use, especially methamphetamine, in the rural heartland:
"The results are shocking and are rattling the rafters of Mid West America. Per this study, 8th graders living in rural American communities are 34% more likely than their urban counterparts to smoke marijuna; 83% more likely to use crack cocaine; and 104% more likely to have used amphetamines within the last month.
"The study also reports that drugs are as readily available in rural areas as in large urban cities. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) seizures of meth labs jumped from 263 in 1994 to 1,627 in 1998 - a sixfold increase, concentrated in rural areas of the Heartland."
And finally, if you're going to swallow the myth of the wholesome heartland, you'll have to ignore stories like this one about the increasingly "grisly notoriety" of small town Skidmore, Missouri, situated in the extreme northwest corner of the state and roughly equidistant form the heartland towns of Des Moines, Iowa, Lincoln, Nebraska, and Topeka, Kansas.
Skidmore is where Lisa Montgomery has confessed to strangling pregnant Bibbi Jo Stinnett. And then cutting her open and "stealing" her baby. That's not a crime consistent with an ethos of family values. Nor one typically associated with small town America.
But Skidmore has an appalling record of criminal notoriety:
"First came the notorious "Skidmore bully," Ken Rex McElroy, whose death made national headlines. He had so terrorized the town that when somebody gunned him down in broad daylight in 1981, nobody would admit to seeing a thing.
"Then on Oct. 16, 2000, Wendy Gillenwater was stomped to death by her boyfriend. Locals take comfort in knowing the killer is serving life in prison.
"The next year, a 20-year-old resident vanished. Many think he was murdered."
Some may remember a movie that came out a few years ago called Boys Don't Cry, about the murder of a young transsexual, Brandon Teena, in Humboldt, Nebraska. Actress Hilary Swank won an Oscar for her powerful portrayal of the title character. The movie was not flattering in its depiction of life in the heartland. Locals who saw the film said they didn't recognize the town they called home.
Every story (or myth), as they say, has two sides. The media myth of the heartland reveals only one side, or facet, of a complex, multi-faceted culture. Boys Don't Cry (a great movie) portrays another. Where's the truth?
Somewhere in the middle. Or more precisely, somewhere on each of the many faces the heartland reveals to the patient, and open-minded, observer. That's why the red states aren't truly red. They're varying shades of purple.
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