{"id":11153,"date":"2012-03-19T05:45:19","date_gmt":"2012-03-19T09:45:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.geneveith.com\/?p=11153"},"modified":"2012-03-19T05:45:19","modified_gmt":"2012-03-19T09:45:19","slug":"playing-to-the-local-yokels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/","title":{"rendered":"Playing to the local yokels"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

We\u2019ve posted about various kinds of condescension to Southerners and Oklahomans (not exactly the same).\u00a0 Here is another kind, one seemingly more friendly and yet just as ignorant and ridiculous.\u00a0 Whenever politicians of both parties visit a Southern state to which they are not native to campaign, they try to affect a Southern accent and pretend to Southern folkways!\u00a0 Thus, when when Mitt Romney visited Southern states for Super Tuesday, he was all \u201cya\u2019ll\u201d and \u201cgrits\u201d (which he called \u201ccheesy grits\u201d instead of \u201ccheese grits\u201d\u2013the funny part is that when they try to sound like they are just like their audience they nearly always get it wrong).\u00a0 But, again, all politicians do this, as do many regular visitors to these states, as Melinda Henneberger observes:<\/p>\n

His hat-tip to \u201ccheesy grits\u201d didn\u2019t win over the locals, some of whom thought he was making fun of them. . . .<\/p>\n

\nAnd if some of the coverage seemed skewed towards Southerners from central casting, well, as my late friend the New York Times reporter Allen Myerson once wryly observed, \u201cYou can never go wrong pandering to the prejudices of your editors.\u201d\n

With Louisiana yet to vote, on March 24th, and thus more wonder at the diverse region\u2019s quaint and colorful folk ways yet to be expressed, I\u2019m here to tell you how the hog eats the cabbage: The idea that Southerners have any wish to hear politicians from other parts of the country talk like them is silly.<\/p>\n

Still, lots of pols who go South do try to go native, with varying degrees of success. Barack Obama, who as everyone knows was born in southern Hawaii, can drop his g\u2019s without any fear of embarrassing himself.<\/p>\n

Whereas Hillary Clinton, after all those years as a Yankee in Bubba\u2019s Little Rock, wisely made no further forays into her husband\u2019s patois after that disastrous day in Selma in March of \u201907 when she sounded like Scarlett\u2019s Mammy quoting Rev. James Cleveland\u2019s hymm, \u201cI don\u2019t feel noways tired.\u201d<\/p>\n

There may be something in the sweet tea, because Rick Santorum\u2019s accent during his victory speech on Tuesday night was a little more deep fried than usual.<\/p>\n

And Obama, if you recall, talked about his love of biscuits and grits on the stump in \u201908 \u2013 oh, but that was in Evansville, Indiana, where they\u2019re not on the menu, so that wasn\u2019t so much pandering as just confused.<\/p>\n

In any case, I move that we give all office seekers a pass in this regard, because many of us who aren\u2019t running for anything do the same thing.<\/p>\n

via Why Romney\u2019s grits are fried \u2013 She the People: \u2013 The Washington Post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Well, I don\u2019t think anyone should give them a pass.\u00a0 This sort of thing is brazenly fake, condescending, and the flip side of mockery.\u00a0 It testifies to authenticity and the lack thereof.<\/p><\/div>\n<\/blockquote><\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We\u2019ve posted about various kinds of condescension to Southerners and Oklahomans (not exactly the same).\u00a0 Here is another kind, one seemingly more friendly and yet just as ignorant and ridiculous.\u00a0 Whenever politicians of both parties visit a Southern state to which they are not native to campaign, they try to affect a Southern accent and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1281,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25,36],"tags":[139,1747],"class_list":["post-11153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-language","category-politics","tag-american-dialects","tag-political-rhetoric"],"yoast_head":"\nPlaying to the local yokels<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"We've posted about various kinds of condescension to Southerners and Oklahomans (not exactly the same).\u00a0 Here is another kind, one seemingly more friendly\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Playing to the local yokels\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"We've posted about various kinds of condescension to Southerners and Oklahomans (not exactly the same).\u00a0 Here is another kind, one seemingly more friendly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Cranach\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/cranachblog\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-19T09:45:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Gene Veith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/\",\"name\":\"Playing to the local yokels\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-03-19T09:45:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2012-03-19T09:45:19+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\"},\"description\":\"We've posted about various kinds of condescension to Southerners and Oklahomans (not exactly the same).\u00a0 Here is another kind, one seemingly more friendly\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/2012\/03\/playing-to-the-local-yokels\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Playing to the local yokels\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/\",\"name\":\"Cranach\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/f9ca8670bcc51908a78994c0484dbfa1\",\"name\":\"Gene Veith\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/geneveith\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/054d79faea5d476edd8f99e5f14fb17f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Gene Veith\"},\"description\":\"Gene Edward Veith, Jr. is a writer and retired literature professor, serving as Provost Emeritus at Patrick Henry College. 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