The Hinterland

This all started when my youngest brother sent along this link, from Government Executive Magazine.  At the link is a column by a Mr Charlie Cook, dated the 27th, and titled, "An Ear-Splitting Alarm".  "Over the past 12 months, Democrats have badly damaged their brand."  The column concludes:

Any Democrat with a pulse ought to be extremely alarmed by now:  The same wave of independent voters that swept away the GOP's majorities in the House and Senate in 2006 could do the same to Democrats, at least in the House, this November 2.

Then there was the exchange of a series of EMails.

My big one was

It is truly amazing, isn't it.

And, it is complicated for the Democratic Party because it is easy to blame it on racism and clingers and "tea baggers" and the like.

They have forgotten that there is a hinterland.

[And here is a quote that Law Professor Ann Althouse lifted from a book review on a biography on Justice Louis Brandeis.]

And this also touches on Lance's point about Senators and the States...

Law clerks and other young people who met Justice Brandeis learned how serious he was in his commitment to the states.  He would advise them to leave Washington and go home.  A lawyer I knew in Washington in the 1950s, Joseph A. Fanelli, told me that he went to Washington from Harvard Law School in 1935.  Sometime later he had a telephone call from the justice's messenger, Edward Poindexter, saying that the Brandeises invited him for tea.  Fanelli went to their apartment, was handed tea, and introduced himself when the justice came into the room. "What do you do, Mr. Fanelli?"  "I'm with the Reconstruction Finance Corporation, Mr. Justice."  "Don't stay too long!" Brandeis said, and moved on.

Fanelli was invited back once a year, and the same conversation occurred. He achieved such seniority that his wife (he had married) was asked to help pour the tea, and Fanelli was determined to break through the formula.  When the justice said, "Don't stay too long!"  he quickly asked, "Why do you say that, Mr. Justice?"  "Because, Mr. Fanelli, I believe that every man should get back to his hinterland."  "But, Mr. Justice, I come from New York.  I don't have any hinterland."  "That, sir, is your misfortune," Brandeis replied.  And moved on.

I think the Democrats have forgotten that there is still a hinterland in these United States.  Have I mentioned the book Deer Hunting with Jesus?

I have to take out the trash.  [It was Tuesday and Gunter wants it done right.]

And the point about the hinterland—does anyone even use that term anymore— is that while people have left the farms and moved to the cities for industrial jobs, we do still have a sort of hinterland:  the farms, the small towns and small cities and the suburbs of the larger cities.  Mr Fanelli should have wondered about what the folks in Up State New York were thinking, and not just what the people in New York City, and Washington, DC, were thinking.  If we look at the pattern of voting for Senator Elect Scott Brown, it sure looks like the hinterland of Boston went for Mr Brown.

I am not interesting in helping elect Democratic Party candidates come November, but it seems only fair to point out to our Democratic Party friends that Justice Louis Brandeis had a point.  And I would not characterize Justice Brandeis as a true Liberal♠—he was more of a "Progressive".

Regards  —  Cliff

♠  People like Maggie Thatcher and Ronald Reagan and Adam Smith and the Founding Fathers, or a good bunch of them.