Bush's Yahoo Nation

CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, November 14, 2000

BY WILLIAM O'ROURKE

The cliffhanger 2000 election reveals not only a divided country, leaving us with an equally divided government, but also a nation divided in a specific way. Looking at the various colored maps of the United States showing states won and lost, and it is clear that George W.'s America is Yahoo Nation (not the dot-com Yahoo!, but Swift's Gulliver's Travels sort.)

It is a large, lopsided horseshoe, a twisted W, made up of primarily the Deep South and the vast, lowly populated upper-far-west states that are filled with vestiges of gun-loving, Ku-Klux-Klan sponsoring, formerly lynching-happy, survivalist-minded, hate-crime perpetrating, non-blue-blooded, rugged individualists. Yahoo Nation, George W.'s electoral bundle--save contested Florida, the toss-up state--contains not one major city, nor one primary center of creative and intellectual density.

Al Gore's America is the country's great cities: New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle.

And so, if George W. becomes president, he will not have won one center of the thinking America, the teeming centers of creative and intellectual life. It is the clearest rural-cosmopolitan split in modern presidential elections.

But, that will suit the Bush-Cheney administration just fine, since it was Papa Bush's administration that did everything it could to stamp out government involvement with intellectuals and artists in the country. Republicans then managed to ruin the National Endowment for the Arts. Lynne Cheney, the seemingly veep-elect's wife, the head of the National Endowment of the Humanities during the Bush presidency, eventually called for its abolition.

Lynne Cheney, second lady perhaps to be, has penned a couple of novels. The experience hasn't endeared her to the arts, but only to free enterprise. For a number of years, conservative commentators (George Will, for one) have been predicting that the first female president will be a Republican. Despite Hillary's election to the Senate, here is how that prediction can become true.

First, it requires Dick Cheney to die of a heart attack. In sympathy, young President Bush will appoint his wife (in the fashion of the day) to replace him, and a grieving Senate will confirm her. Then Lynne Cheney will be next in line.

What happens then is anyone's guess, but you can see how the succession announces itself. That is the sort of plotting often indulged in by commercial novelists. It is somewhat close to Mrs. Cheney's second novel.

But of all the things that might occur with a Bush presidency, that is the least alarming.

It was not a surprise that the last of the undecideds broke for Gore. If Bush does not emerge victorious, it is likely the young woman Fox News reporter who broadcast the Bush DUI story will be fired (though likely hired by CBS). That story stopped the notion of the Bush inevitability and it reminded the public of George W.'s first 40 years, which the press, by and large, had given him a pass on throughout the final months of the campaign. But the turnout was larger than expected, since it was clear, with the race tightening at the end, that every vote would count (and count twice or three times in Florida). Fear that Bush actually might win did energize the Democratic turnout but, alas, not quite enough.

Given that the last piece of the electoral puzzle has another Bush as governor overlooking the final, official count, the likelihood of a Bush presidency becomes too real. As a state, Florida is fast becoming one of a kind. And the tiny majority Bush has won there is hardly a victory. But nonetheless, Yahoo Nation rules.

-- (yeeehaw@hang.em.high), November 16, 2000

Answers

Well, lah dee dah.

-- (yahoo_is@yahoo.does), November 16, 2000.

"gun-loving,Ku-Klux-Klan sponsoring, formerly lynching-happy, survivalist-minded, hate-crime perpetrating, non-blue-blooded, rugged individualists. "

Oh yeah..that's me. Yup. Klan member..lynchings..the whole nine yards. Forgot to perpetrate a hate crime though..but I'll get right on that! (where on earth do they get this stuff from? we can't just be people?)

-- Non-Blue-Blooded Gun Lover (kritter@adelphia.net), November 16, 2000.

*Al Gore's America is the country's great cities: New York, Boston, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Seattle.*

Well there YeeHaw, you certainly appear to be a dumb motherfucker. Wanna take a minute and tell us about the fine group of upstanding so- called Americans that have infested all of the above formally great cities? If you need some help you jus hollar ya hear.

-- eyes (b@e.speakin), November 16, 2000.

This is Dem demagogy bullshit of the worst stripe.

The Ku Klux Klan reference doesn't surprise me. On a recent thread I was accused of making a racist observation. To wit, that blacks voted 93% Gore and 7% Bush in Florida.

Open question. Have you noticed that when asked about minority voting demographics that white liberals find a way to bring up racism? Embarassement maybe? "White men have straighter hair than black men." That's a racist statement but what's important is that it isn't prejudicial to either.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), November 17, 2000.

As the Greeks said: "after hubris there is nemesis".

-- (gagging@my.wine_n_cheese), November 17, 2000.

Best said, gagging.

-- Carlos (riffraff@cybertime.net), November 17, 2000.

theres only so much wealth too be had---and the wealthy want it ALL.

LANDLORDS & TENANTS=END OF STORY!!

-- al-d (dogs@zianet.com), November 17, 2000.

You could say that Gore did well on the East Coast ("BosWash"), the West Coast ("SanSan") and the Great Lakes area ("ChiPitts"). Bush's strength was with those who lived outside of those three urban agglomerations.

It's the long-standing clash between fast-faced, cynical and sophisticated city life and the traditional values more common in small town life.

-- The big (cities@vs.towns), November 17, 2000.

Hey!

Let's be careful about those generalizations, William O'Rourke.

>Yahoo Nation, George W.'s electoral bundle--save contested Florida, the toss-up state--contains not one major city

Depends on the definition of "major":

Houston, #4 by population, 1995 census estimate

Dallas, #8

Phoenix, #9

San Antonio, #10

... Okay, so three of Bush's most populous four are in his home state ... It's still 4 of the top 10.

Indianapolis, #13

(Jacksonville, #15 - maybe)

Columbus OH, #16

Memphis, #18

El Paso, #22

Cleveland, #23

New Orleans, #24

Nashville, #25

... 11 or 12 of the top 25 ...

Denver, #26

Austin, #27

Fort Worth, #28

Oklahoma City, #29

... 15 or 16 of the top 30 ...

Kansas City MO, #31

Tucson, #33

St. Louis, #34

Charlotte, #35

Atlanta, #36

Virginia Beach, #37

(Albuquerque, #38 - maybe)

... 21, 22, or 23 of the top 40 ...

Tulsa, #43

Cincinnati, #45

(Miami FL, #46 - maybe)

Omaha, #48

Toledo, #49

... and 25, 26, 27, or 28 of the top 50 cities by population.

>nor one primary center of creative and intellectual density.

Hmmm ... Dallas? Memphis? New Orleans?

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), November 17, 2000.

53% of the nation lives in cities of 200,000 or more people, while 47% of the nation lives rural areas or towns of less than 200,000.

http://www.fta.dot.gov/library/program/rurlstat/rurlstat.html

Nearly two-thirds of America's population lives in urbanized areas. Of the 249 million people counted by the 1990 Census, 94 million were found in the 33 largest urbanized areas (those of a million or more people). Another 38 million live in areas with between 200,000 and a million residents and 26 million live in areas of between 50,000 and 200,000. That leaves almost 91 million people, or 36 percent of the population, living outside of urbanized areas.

While rural America's population grew by 3.5 percent between 1980 and 1990, total U.S. population growth was roughly 10 percent and urban areas grew by nearly 14 percent (including the designation of 33 new urban areas as a result of the 1990 Census).

Large-Urban Areas 94 million

Medium-Urban Areas 38 million

Small-Urban Areas 26 million

Rural Areas 91 million

Total 249 million

Regionally, the size of the rural population varies, greatly. In the West, rural residents account for only one-fourth of the population, while 44 percent of all residents live in rural areas in the South. In the Midwest, 43 percent of the population is rural while in the Northeast, it is 28 percent.

-- 200,000 is (near@the.median), November 17, 2000.

Maybe we should take a quick poll here. Do you live in a metro area of 200,000 plus...or do you live in an area of under 200,000 people?

I live in a metro area that's just shy of a million people.

-- Lukewarm (supporter@of.Gore), November 17, 2000.

My city sports 70,000 people. It borders on a city of 150,000. Which is for all reasons connected to a city of over 500,000. BTW I voted for Moorehead. What Gore says he wants, Monica Moorehead believes with all of her heart. The Workers World Party will be the Green Party of 2004 (well at least 2008).

-- Moorehead for Prez (go@workers.world), November 18, 2000.

Just over a million here -- which is a small town compared to where I used to live (NYC - 8+ million).

LV isn't so much a "city" as it is a "collection of suburbs".

-- Patricia (PatriciaS@lasvegas.com), November 18, 2000.

No city here. My precinct has about 700 voters. Gore won it by a landslide. My county has one city of about 80,000. The nearest city of more than 20,000 is over 100 miles away. The whole county doesn't have 200,000. Gore won the county. By-the-way, for the city lister above; Bush lost both KC and Saint Louis [at least according to the numbers they published here].

Best Wishes,,,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), November 18, 2000.

Z,

My list is of major cities in the states won by Bush, not whether Bush won in the particular cities listed.

Bush seems to have won Missouri, according to my sources.

-- No Spam Please (nos_pam_please@hotmail.com), November 20, 2000.