I guess my blog’s not worth going to, if I don’t provide a link.  Or is it?  I’m posting this here as a fourth stop. I guess you could say this is a vetted piece.  Red Staters deserve such consideration.  I’ve gotten few comments.  Could it be because people know there’s something good here, but they’re not ready for it?  One of the places this appeared previously was a site for African-American intellectuals.  Let me ask this:  Will it be a great Republican politician who reaches out to minorities?  Or will it start with a humble Rebublican doing that?

For brief periods of time, in various regions of the country, African-Americans and rednecks have been one. I think of the fact that one-seventh of all long-drive era cowboys were black. And they got along well with the other cowboys. We think of barroom fights when we think of the Old West. But real cowboys needed each other as they faced real dangers from the natural elements.

We face real dangers now.

It was an act of redneck common sense that freed the slaves. And Lyndon Johnson, a redneck if there ever was one, signed the Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights Act into law.

But who has really brought rednecks and African-Americans together? Martin Luther King? Not really. He was shot by a redneck. (Obviously not an intellectual one.) And his death tore apart race relations.

Al Sharpton? No, his persecution complex drove him to greatness in certain sectors of the African-American community. But it keeps him from reaching out beyond that.

Barack Obama? Sure, he won the Iowa Caucus. Then he won Iowa. And he gave McCain a real run in the real deep south. But his economic policies sap the spirit, not empower the will.

I have a feeling the leader will come from an unlikely place. Maybe a northern rural state? Maybe the person is a teacher like LBJ. Maybe he’s a gangling awkward-looking guy, like Lincoln. Maybe he’s a man of faith like King. Maybe he’s a conservative like Reagan.

Or a northerner like Garrison. Or a writer like Stowe. Maybe he’s someone who’s not afraid to rile his people, like Clarence Thomas. Heck, he could be any one of us. And all of us.

We have a new website called “intellectual Redneck.”  Some of our critics say there can be no such thing.  What say you?  A version of this post was on our site yesterday.  I’m not going to post the link.  If you’re interested, Google it. Then bookmark it, because we’re not done saying interesting things.

Will Rogers, an intellectual redneck, once said, “Everybody’s ignorant, only on different subjects.”

Will Rogers was deceptively smart, like maybe our new website. I mean, look at his goofy face. Look at our goofy face. We write about dogs and trucks. Goofy.

Goofy to an elite liberal. And make no mistake, they too are ignorant on many, many subjects. They have one perspective on the economy. They have one perspective on race. They have one perspective on religion. They have one perspective on guns. They have one perspective on gay marriage.

They have knowledge of trucks. They have knowledge of dogs. They have knowledge of beer. They have knowledge of poverty. They have knowledge of hunting and fishing. They have knowledge of hockey. They have knowledge of NASCAR. But put all these things together? They have no understanding. None.

And yet a southerner understands hockey. And a northerner understands NASCAR. Redneck is not a place. It’s a state of mind. And not an ignorant one.

The liberal elites are experts on four dollar cups of coffee. They are experts on weasel words. They are experts on being soccer moms, but not necessarily being moms. And they are experts at mocking.

Yes, liberal elites are intellectuals too. Intellectual snobs, at best. Intellectual fascists, at their worst. Will Rogers was a Democrat. But he was an intellectual redneck, not a liberal elite.

George H.W. Bush was not heir to the Reagan legacy. Not the communicator. Changed too many times. Not prudent.

George W. stuck to his guns. His communication skills? Perfect! Perfect for Texas.

John McCain was heir to the George H.W. Bush legacy. Horrible communicator and changed too many times.

Mitt Romney is heir to Ronald Reagan’s hair. But the rest of him changes too many times.

Sarah Palin? A little too young to be the Gipper. But boy, having grandchildren will make you grow up fast.

So, that leaves…

For this and other nuggets of wisdom, see my new site at  Intellectual Redneck .Com.

Mike Huckabee and Sarah Palin both have foreign policy wisdom, if not experience. I say this because they know their Romans.

In this case, I’m not talking about the history of the Roman Empire, although that’s instructive too. For right now, I’m talking about holy scripture.

Romans 12: 1-3 basically offer these three precepts:

1. Reasonable sacrifice.
2. Do not conform.
3. Sober judgment.

Reasonable sacrifice means your sons and daughters in time of war. But reasonable is the key word. The war must be just and necessary.

Do not conform means do not avoid a just and necessary war just to seek international approval.

Sober judgment. Do not decide out of arrogance. The president is the decider. But he must decide wisely.

When Paul wrote The Book of Romans, he was contemplating a trip to Spain, by which he would visit Rome. He hadn’t been there yet. And yet he had remarkable wisdom. He wanted to reach out and extend his faith, just as we want to extend our democratic values. He wanted to connect with a valuable ally, just as we want to do with our foreign policy.

Huckabee and Palin will visit foreign lands. And they will bring with them their wisdom.

This and more at Intellectual Redneck .Com.

I tightened this piece up a bit.

Exceptional nations and exceptional individuals have the same two characteristics:  They are strong. And they are well balanced.

Just as strong and well balanced individuals have a greater capacity to utilize their goodness, so do strong nations.

We are the most powerful nation in the history of the world.  And incredibly restrained, given how much power we have.  Are we perfect?  No.  Abu Ghraib reminds us of that.  But then again, exceptional doesn’t mean perfect.

We are well balanced in our traditions, which include stability, prosperity, respect for democratic principles, respect for law, and a tradition of having an orderly transfer of power every four or eight years.

Sweden is another well grounded country.  But it’s not powerful.  China is a powerful country.  But it’s not well grounded.  Iran and North Korea?  They are strange, strange countries.  Who is to keep an eye on them?  Sweden?  China?

No, it falls to America.  No other country is capable. No other country is willing. And no other country is as exceptional.

Pretty soon the Republican Party will have to coalesce. The various factions will have to come together. The GOP is not a small party. Pundits and opponents make that mistake at their own peril. No, the Republican Party is a fractured party.

Not since Ronald Reagan have social, foreign policy, and economic conservatives been united. Our mission at Intellectual Redneck is to unite us intellectuals and us rednecks. There’s no reason why we can’t take traditional value-based arguments and package them into new, smart, and bold messages. In ways that appeal to the erudite among us. And the common folk among us.

We can agree to a bold, engaging, and active foreign policy, can’t we?  Can’t we, Pat Buchanan? Ron Paul? Are you listening? A foreign policy that’s not naive but not jingoistic either.

We can stick to our capitalist principles, can’t we? And in a Judeo-Christian way. Muslim too, if they want to join us as freedom-loving capitalists. God is a capitalist. He provides. He tests us. And he provides for those who provide for themselves. What can be more capitalist than that?

Capitalism is very much a freedom-loving concept. Much more than a money-loving concept. When they come for our economic freedoms, surely our individual freedoms are next. Requiring auto insurance came first. Then health insurance in Massachusetts. Can requiring gun owners to carry prohibitively expensive liability insurance be far behind?

And then you get a few libertarians that are not strong enough on social issues yet. They don’t have religion yet. The ones that are pro-choice on abortion or pro-choice on drugs. The ones who do not realize yet that there is no liberty without virtue. That’s okay. Ronald Reagan once said, “My 80 percent friend is not my 20 percent enemy.”

Who can unite the Party once again? Mike Huckabee? Sarah Palin? It’ll have to be someone with the principles of true Republicanism. And it’ll have to be pretty soon.

“The Truth Commission.”  Sounds like the name of a pop band  — in North Korea.   Pat Leahy can’t handle the truth. He doesn’t want the truth. Really he doesn’t.

Okay, here’s the truth.  Leahy’s state of Vermont is the most liberal state in the country. An exit poll conducted by WCAX Channel 3 indicated that 32 percent of Vermonters consider themselves liberal.

But a lot of other states are close. And more importantly, 44 percent consider themselves moderates. That’s 68 percent that consider themselves conservative or moderate.

President Ford may have cost himself a close election by pardoning Nixon. But this ain’t Watergate, and Leahy’s not being asked to pardon or not pardon anybody.

The truth is that if Leahy persists in pursuing this “Truth Commission” thing, he’s going to painted a McCarthyistic zealot. Every partisan statement in support of not impeaching Bill Clinton will be used against him, and Governor Jim Douglas, a brilliant campaigner, will know just how to do it. It’s been a long time since Leahy’s fought a tough campaign. It will have been 30 years in 2010.

Even though the Vermont State Board of Education is now stacked with the handpicks of Governor Douglas, it seems to be under a “Stockholm Syndrome” sort of grip of the Education Establishment.  And so they’ve decided not to endorse, consider, or even hardly acknowledge a survey of the attitudes of Vermonters toward school choice (they’re for it!) co-sponsored by the Friedman Foundation and Vermonters for Better Education.

The Brattleboro Reformer first broke the story.  Subsequently, the Board of Education voted to not accept the survey.  In an email circulated among education reformers in the state, Chris Robbins announced, “As you know, yesterday the SBE voted against my motion to ‘accept the survey as a legitimate reflection of Vermont’s opinion on K-12 education and school choice…’”  Robbins noted that the vote was 5-3, and that the “Gang of Three” that supported the measure, and other reform measures over the years,  have had their terms expire. 

I hope Governor Douglas will appoint other reform-minded individuals, who will resist Stockholm Syndrome.

BBOW’s writings can now be found primarily at Intellectual Redneck.

“Post-racial” means we’ve gotten over race.  And that’s largely true in America.  How could it be otherwise, with the election of an African-American president with identities stronger than race?

That doesn’t mean that race isn’t a factor in many of our social and economic problems.  But the racial elements of education, for instance, are not the  main cause of our poor schools.  And poor schools are not the only factor in the achievement gap for minorities.   Katrina, to use another example, was not a racist hurricane.  There’s no such thing.  The problems of Katrina were largely those of complacency.   There are aging dams and nuclear power plants currently threatening large populations of white people.

Post-racial does not mean every person in America is post-racial.  I have to wonder about the New York Post cartoonist who depicted Democrats as a dead chimp.

Post-racial does not mean every place in America is post-racial.  In my rural state of Vermont, some people are pre-racial, because they haven’t yet had much exposure to minority races.  Some people are racial.  And many are post-racial.  It was easy for Vermont to become the first state to outlaw slavery; our forefathers had no use for it.  It was easy to become a relatively tolerant state, given that we’ve always had few racial minorities.  But it’s really hard to become diverse, regardless of how many white liberals move to our tiny state and try to force it on us.  We won’t get more diverse without economic push/pull factors.  White farmers here are doing more for diversity than white liberals.  They’re hiring undocumented Mexicans.  So we’re becoming  more diverse.  But not more documented.

The message for the day on my website is:  “We, the God-frearing citizens of Rock Ridge, are still God-fearing.  We’re post-racial.  But we’re not ready to be pork-loving Keynesians yet.”  (I have a post on how Blazing Saddles resembles our current politics.)  My heritage is not the west.  But it’s rural America.  Rural America and rural values are both disappearing along the eastern seaboard, just as racism disappeared from the west.  The pendulum of the former will swing back.  Racism, however, is disappearing for good.  Both are true, regardless of how Barack does as president.

Note:  My website is now called Intellectual Redneck.  BBOW will remain my screen name, on this site and  over there.  And we have a great new cartoonist.

Vermont’s largest newspaper is reporting that Senator Bernie Sanders, a progressive Independent, is endorsing Burlington’s Progressive incumbent mayoral candidate Bob Kiss.

Sanders abandoned his old Progressive Party last year when he snubbed Progressive candidate for governor Anthony Pollina.  Pollina edged out Democrat Gaye Symington, the sitting House speaker, for second place.  With no help from his former boss, Sanders.  

Why did the snub happen?  Who knows?  As one prominent progressive-minded reporter (and big critic of Republican Governor Jim Douglas) told me: 

Maybe because Pollina’s a crappy candidate? Or, that there were two crappy candidates in the  race? I know Gaye was working Sanders hard for an endorsement, and I  think in an effort to “keep the peace” Bernie just sat it out. Or,  disinterest in hitching his name to another loser.

The critics of Douglas seem frustrated.

Now that it looks like a Republican can actually win this mayor’s race, it’s getting exciting.  Republican candidate Kurt Wright is the current president of the city’s board of aldermen and a state legislator.  It’s amazing how he keeps getting elected from his district. But then, it’s amazing how Douglas keeps getting elected.

If Wright wins this race, he will become the darling of the Vermont Republican Party.  You heard it here first.