In the midst of all the blue state, red state nonsense going around, Iowahawk has come up with a truly inspiring piece: Blue State Blues as Coastal Parents Battle Invasion of Dollywood Values. Its description of coastal youths being lured into "cracker" culture is one of the funniest things I've ever read. Here's my favorite part (but quick, go read the rest):

Some say the craze threatens even the nation's most exclusive prep schools. At Exeter, Andover and St. Albans, rumors abound of secret societies where initiates are steeped in the black arts of restrictor plate cheating and satellite descramblers. Washington's elite Sidwell Friends School was nearly forced to close after scandalized parents learned that several students were openly touting Sams Club cards.

Like most satire, there's more than just a kernel of truth in this story. I think the election has exposed a Coastal/Northern disdain for the South, not just because of differing political views, but also because of the overall culture. Right before the election, Saturday Night Live rebroadcasted some fake presidential debates. This bit from 1992 stood out:

Governor Clinton, let's be frank. You're running for president, yet your only experience has been as the governor of a small, backward state with a population of drunken hillbillies riding around in pickup trucks. The main streets of your capital city, Little Rock, are something out of L'il Abner, with buxom underage girls in their cutoff denims prancing around in front of Jethro and Billy Bob, while corncob-pipe-smoking, shotgun-toting grannies fire indiscriminantly at runaway hogs.

Maybe it's not that some liberals don't respect the culture of the South, but rather that they are ignorant of it. Bubba, a Texan now living in NYC, puts it nicely:

Our experience with native New Yorkers is they have no clue what living anywhere else is like. This is interesting because living in New York City is different than living anywhere else in this country.

In that spirit, maybe it's time that liberals got out of New York, Boston, DC and Los Angeles and visited the rest of this great country. That goes for our Euopean "friends" too. But don't worry, they'll have a great time. I was over at Lonely Planet and I looked at the Theme Guides, which feature interesting destinations all over the world. It was funny that in so many categories the only American listing was somewhere in the South:

• Fatal Attractions: Voodoo in New Orleans
• Food: BBQ "anywhere" in the South
• Music: Mississippi Delta Blues
• Safaris: Florida Everglades

The South, much like George W. Bush, is greatly "misunderestimated". Yes, it's different than New York or even liberal college towns like Boulder, but it's hardly a vast cultural wasteland. As Neal Pollack said:

The south gave us Johnny Cash, Ray Charles, Michael Jordan, Hank Williams, Tennessee Williams, fried chicken, Gone With The Wind, Truman Capote, pecan pie, barbecue, Mark Twain, and manned flight. The list goes on and on. Thomas Jefferson and George Washington were both from Virginia, both founding fathers and both gun-toting slave owners.

The culture the Left so disdains is, to use language they'll understand, part of the "authentic culture" of America. They're all for "celebrating diversity" except that, to paraphrase Inigo Montoya, I don't think it means what they think it means.