I'm just finishing this up now and I though it was a great, memorable read.
I grew up redneck, so did my husband and the majority of our clan still fit that profile pretty well, so I thought I would recognize the people he's writing about -- but it turns out I kinda do but I don't. I think the ecumenical religious fervor he describes is the main reason why not. We don't have as much of that here, although Harper is a rapturist, I read in the Walrus a couple years ago, so I guess we could be headed that way. Hard to believe.
Also, in the times that I've been in the southern US, I got the impression that our primary education system here does seem to be working a bit better than what they're dealing with down there. Our rate of unionization is also much better and our labour laws are still better though slipping perilously in some respects. And of course the whole constitutional right to bear arms argument is moot, although it is good to have a chance to read about gun culture from someone who obviously knows the territory so well, and I think a lot of those observations probably apply here too regardless.
Interesting that he thinks that progressives need to make a deliberate, concerted effort to reach out to poor rural voters, the same way that Republicans do. Has anyone read this Thomson guy he talks about?