…for taking an interest in our blog.
HERE’S another post on Dreher’s going home, which isn’t meant to be critical at all.
I certainly agree with Gene Callahan that comparing a real town with a movie town isn’t fair. But the truth is I know less about Rod’s real town than I do about the movie town. And the movie town is seen, in some large measure, through the lens of a sociopath. But I admitted the portrayal is an exaggeration. It’s also worth remembering that the movie portrays the sociopath as having flourished–as a really mean girl–in the small town. I do live in a fairly small southern toward that seems comparable in some ways to the town shown in the movie. Among the big differences, though: My town includes three colleges and maybe a couple hundred MDs. Surely the South, we might add, is more interesting than Minnesota–and Atlanta a more invigorating and cosmpolitan big city than “Minnie-apple.”
Pete is already thinking past the inevitably fairly inconclusive Iowa results. So I will too.
January 2nd, 2012 | 3:13 pm
I just can’t see the stuff that matters in Iowa right now. I don’t know that anything anybody says on the day before (as long as it isn’t some kind of meltdown) will change the Iowa result much. I don’t know how the campaign organizations will influence the people who show up. I have a good feeling about Santorum, but don’t know how good.
He needs to have a really good speech for tomorrow night.
January 2nd, 2012 | 3:20 pm
So he does, and it is possible that he will. Assuming not-Romney is dominant mood, he could convince people he is the best not-Romney around.
January 2nd, 2012 | 3:35 pm
I’d like to think so because, given this field, he probably is the best non-Romney. I can’t stress enough that he needs, without moving away from his social conservatism, to come out with a strong message on the economy that connect to people’s lives. He actually has been talking a lot about the economy and he has some policies (though I disagree with some of them) that could get attention He just needs to stress them and use the free media he is going to get to not be defined as just a social conservative identity politics candidate.
Lot of things to get in his way though. Romney looks really strong in New Hampshire. Maybe Santorum cuts into the Gingrich/Bachmann/Paul vote and picks up some right-leanig Romney voters to get a second place finish or something and really define the field as Romney v. Santorum. But that is going to be with Prry trying to knife him in South Carolina and the debates (and having plenty of money for anti-Santorum ads) and Santorum having to build a national organization and film and fundraise for effective ads of his own. And the media will turn ugly before too long.
January 2nd, 2012 | 8:26 pm
Peter, the Dreher who comments on my Spengler link is Mark Dreher, FYI.
As for Rod, it does seem that the social reality of the American High School is a problem of sorts for communitarian conservatism. The home-schooled or specially schooled do not partake of those community-defining four years, for one, and for another, the coummunity the High School represents, for the kids, somewhat less so for the parents, and even extending the local population as a whole, does not fit terribly well into Berry-esque accounts of community, let alone the impossibly demanding MacIntyrean accounts of community. George Lucas’ American Graffitti gives you a quick glimpse at the Community realities linked to High School and such that never seem to make their way into Porcheresque theory.
P.S. Go Santorum!
January 2nd, 2012 | 8:36 pm
Okay, I see it now. Rod objects to John Presnall’s Young Adult review here: http://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/2012/01/02/lake-wobegon-is-not-mayberry/
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