What's the Matter with Beverly Hills?

One of the Democrats’ biggest brouhahas about the 2004 elections (and 2002, and 2000, and maybe 2006) is that too many Midwesterners and Southerners were voting against their class interests and common sense by pulling the GOP lever. Why aren’t these people using their brains and voting for the party that would better help them?

This conundrum has truly baffled the Democratic partisans who are trying to crack the red state barrier (states are only red and blue in the electoral college, not in any other election, but that’s another blog.) Nowhere are these grapes sourer than the elite liberal enclaves of Beverly Hills, the Upper West Side, Harvard Square and similar wealthy bastions around the country where people need to look in the mirror – for they are just as badly voting against their best interests!

Think about it. Don’t these super rich, white, ultra-privileged celebrities, scholars and investor-savvy folks understand the huge tax breaks they’ve received under the Republicans? Why are they so against the war in Iraq, when there is less than a zero chance that any of their sons and daughters will volunteer to fight among the misguided soldiers from the red states? How could they be against the plans to tighten our borders when hordes of illegal aliens raise their children, mow their lawns and clean their penthouses so they can get a table at Nobu, play squash and hit the day spa?

Why, the same people wonder, do so many red staters think only of moral issues when casting their vote? Why do they rely on the Bible when there’s The New Yorker and Vanity Fair? How could they live in a backwater like Nebraska where there’s no Four Star Szechuan restaurants around the corner? Why do they head to Branson or Las Vegas for vacation when it’s quicker to fly to Paris or take the helicopter to the Hamptons? And just how can they possibly enjoy these mainstream, big budget Hollywood movies when The New York Times gave a four star review to this artsy French film on the Renaissance?

Hey, I think they’re right. If the Republicans have lost the Upper West Side, then they might lose Malibu next. Maybe a Barbra Streisand film festival at the White House could help, before it’s too late.

More info:

What's the Matter with Kansas? -- A very good, although not completely flawless, book about how the Democrats lost the blue collar, Midwestern vote to the Republicans. I goofed on its flaws with my lame jokes in this post, but you should read it anyway.