Which is the real America?

Kevin Williamson
NationalReview.com

Do any of you journalists know someone who owns a pickup truck?
When conservative provocateur John Ekdahl tweeted out that question
last week, said Kevin Williamson, it set off a predictable debate about
whether big cities or heartland states are the “Real America.” As a
Texan, I know that owning a pickup doesn’t signify any particular authenticity;
in the wealthy neighborhoods of Houston, for example, the
streets are filled with shiny “$70,000 specimens that are never used to
haul anything other than grass-fed steaks from Whole Foods.” So yes,
farmers driving pickups are the real America, but Houston and New
York City are also real. “So is Hollywood and Malibu and glorious
Big Sur, and Chicago and Detroit and Miami.” Unfortunately, both
progressives and conservatives tend to sneer at the places where the
other lives as somehow foreign and lesser. This is dumb. Farmers need
loans from Wall Street bankers, and bankers need the food the farmers
grow. A healthy, vibrant society has lots of different kinds of people,
doing lots of different kinds of jobs. “America is a big, splendid place,”
and there is room in it for all of us.