Inland Conservative Elites

Since the 2016 election, the prevailing consensus about America’s cultural divide is that there are the educated, wealthy, coastal liberal elites who look down on the poor, rural, conservative Americans who live in flyover states. Many Trump supporters cited this as the reason for their vote in the 2016 election. They were supposedly tired of the condescension of coastal liberal elites and their alleged imposition of progressive values onto middle America–something Hillary Clinton embodied to Trump voters.

As a proud coastal liberal elite, I wanted to better understand these people. I wanted to know what their grievances were against coastal liberal elites like myself and whether or not they were justified. So I read former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee’s book God, Guns, Grits, and Gravy. The book does an excellent job accurately describing the culture divide in America today. Huckabee talks about how there are essentially two Americas: The “Bubblevilles” of New York City, Los Angeles, and Washington D.C. and the “Bubbavilles” of almost everywhere else. As he describes it, each has its own set of values. Bubblevilles are progressive and liberal but tune out the rest of the country, while Bubbavilles are full of “good ole boys” who hold their conservative beliefs and most of all, love their God, guns, grits, and gravy. He goes on to paint the people of Bubbleville as condescending elitists who think they are better than everyone else.
[su_pullquote]While there is condescension and elitism from liberals on America’s coasts, the conservatives living in middle America are equally guilty.[/su_pullquote]
Huckabee is not wrong about this geographic and cultural division overwhelming the United States, but his argument reveals a greater truth about this division–one that Huckabee never explicitly addresses: While there is condescension and elitism from liberals on America’s coasts, the conservatives living in middle America are equally guilty. They believe, just as liberals on the coasts do, that their belief system is superior to their political and regional counterparts and that their views should be imposed onto the entire nation. They look down on anyone who does not share in their narrow view of the world. To them, the streets of New York are filled with heathens who are all fast-talking, loud-mouth assholes who are too quick to speak their minds. Los Angeles is full of hippie liberal Hollywood elites who just focus on pushing diversity–the most egregious affront to middle America. Yet just as conservatives complain about coastal liberals trying to impose their values on the nation, middle America does just the same. From pushing bills in Congress that would cut off government funding for Planned Parenthood to continual insistence that America is a Christian nation, middle America is equally as guilty of trying to shape the country in their image.

[su_pullquote]The term “Real America” refers to middle America and connotes images of farmers and small towns and hard-working country boys. But it is a term that epitomizes the elitism and condescension of middle American conservatives. [/su_pullquote]This trend of conservative condescension manifests itself in one phrase that is said far too often: “Real America.” The term “Real America” refers to middle America and connotes images of farmers and small towns and hard-working country boys. But it is a term that epitomizes the elitism and condescension of middle American conservatives. Despite middle America’s insistence that the coasts’ liberal policies are un-American as they try to change the status quo in the U.S., there is no one part of America that is more American than any others. SoHo is just as American as Omaha, Nebraska. Santa Monica is no less a part of the United States than the farms of Iowa.

Yet this idea of some parts of the country being more American–and thus superior–to others has begun to seep into policy, particularly in the Trump administration. The tax bill that was recently passed has sections in it whose sole purpose is to punish blue states for being blue states. The removal of the State and Local Tax Deduction (S.A.L.T.) served no fiscal purpose. In fact, it contradicts what the Republicans said the goal of the bill was–instead of making average Americans pay fewer taxes, it will make the hard working people of New York, New Jersey, and California pay even more. The argument behind the removal of the S.A.L.T. provision was that it would incentivize states to lower their income taxes. However, this contradicts the doctrine of federalism that Republicans preach as it is the federal government forcing the states into enacting a policy.

This kind of regionally motivated political sabotage continued in the recent infrastructure budget proposal, where the Trump administration offered to put tons of money toward rural infrastructure projects, but cut funding for infrastructure in urban America and for projects in blue states like the Gateway tunnel in New York and New Jersey.

[su_pullquote]The way people are looking at the culture divide is wrong. [/su_pullquote]The way people are looking at the culture divide is wrong. It is not just the coasts that are elitist, condescending, and are attempting to impose their values on the entire nation. Much of middle America–like Governor Huckabee–see the coasts as nothing more than “Bubblevilles” who need to be punished for not seeing the err of their ways and then set straight with some good ole conservative policies. Middle America is equally as elitist, and it is time they stopped getting away with it.

Arik Wolk ’21 studies in the College of Arts & Sciences. He can be reached at arik.wolk@wustl.edu.