“Hick”: We’re taking it back
For as long as I have been alive, the Democrats have always considered those of us who hail from the South as uneducated country bumpkins, ignorant hillbillies, and moronic rednecks. Those who are in control of pop culture have derided, insulted, and slandered rural Southerners for literally decades, in movies, on TV, in the words they write in books and papers.
And now the folks at NPR want to try to point to the use of the word “hick” as a reason we should all vote Democrat in the 2010 elections?
The “story”, from NPRis entitled “Hicky, blue collar look leaves GOP red-faced”.
The National Republican Senatorial Committee had some explaining to do this week after casting material for a West Virginia campaign ad was made public. A casting note for the television spot called for “a ‘hicky’ Blue Collar look.” The note went on: “These characters are from West Virginia, so think coal miner/trucker looks.”
…
But those are Philadelphia actors, not West Virginia workers, who answered a casting call that said, quote, “We are going for a hicky blue collars look.”
A talent agency, not the Republican Party, wrote the casting call, which also suggested that actors who wanted the part should wear John Deer hats — Deer spelled like Bambi, not the tractor.
So? After decades of being slandered by the Democrats in Hollywood, New York City, and DC, we’re supposed to flip out when a casting agency puts out a call for actors that can play a “hick”?
Heck, most of the people running the casting agency, the very people who wrote this description while trying to fill this part, are probably Hollywood Democrats!
It’s time these people realized that they’ve been left behind.
The last twenty years have seen the birth of what I’m calling “The Foxworthy Revolution”. Many GOP voters are cigarette smoking, beer drinking, NASCAR watching fans of Jeff Foxworthy who laughingly call themselves rednecks. They’re the multitudes of people who made Ron White and Larry the Cable guy into millionaires. They celebrate the trailer park. They love button up shirts with no sleeves. They relish slapping a new NRA bumper sticker on the back of their old Ford pick-up and putting Old Glory up in the back window of their rusted out RV. They’d rather buy a new shotgun than Gucci anything, though that might change if Gucci put out a fall line that featured camo for cheaper than what they can get at Wal-Mart.
Heck, even though I don’t support the GOP, I’m proudly a redneck. When I take off my hat, you can see its outline on the back of my head. It means that I’m outside working, providing, taking care of my responsibilities to my family, paying my taxes, and generally being a productive member of society.
The real insult would be to called a pasty, white liberal who has never gotten dirt under their fingernails. The “silver spoon” type of liberal you always see on TV, or in DC. The kind of person who couldn’t pick up a shovel or a chainsaw and give a boss 8 hours of honest work for their money. God forbid that anyone ever thinks of me like that!
It’s time that the establishment realizes that we don’t care if they call us ignorant hicks anymore. We have moved to a point where we, the “uneducated rednecks” who have been the butt of their jokes for years, do not need their approval to feel good about ourselves, or our lives. We have learned to self actualize. We realize that the things we believe in, things like men who provide for their families, kids who respect their parents and teachers, the value of an honest day’s worth of work, and the spice of life that is living paycheck to paycheck, these are the things which provide the drive, the energy, which has made America the greatest country on Earth.
And so now we’re taking “hick” back. It’s not a term of derision out here in the sticks. It’s a badge of pride. It’s an honorable thing to be called a redneck.
Long live the hicks.
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Brilliant, as usual, Mike! It’s time we stop allowing the bigots on the left to control the dialogue. It’s time we stop playing the P.C. game and be ashamed of the fact that we are hard working, down to earth, unpretentious average Americans. Let them crow to the rooftops about their superiority complexes. The vast majority of us are done with their self-proclaimed elitism and nobody is buying that hogwash anymore. Long live the sexy rednecks that make America great!
Well, how are Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, authors of the book “Nudge” about forcing Americans to let the government assume total control of our lives going to react when they meet the Hick with his NRA sticker in his Ford pick up? Will the “Nudge” become more than a “Nudge”? More importantly, how are we “Hicks” going to react when we encounter these elitist who have a view of America’s future that is very different than our view of what America should be. I have seen clips of far too many liberal minded individuals that think we are “astro turf” as Pelosi stated, that we are all simple minded like Homer Simpson as Cass Sunstein has repeatedly stated during interviews and now the monaker of Hick. We can’t vote out Sunstein since he is an Obama appointee as the Administrator of the Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs; however, we Hicks can exercise the right to vote that was won by the blood of our forefathers and vote for candidates that reflect our values, not the values of Carl Marx. See you at the voter booth.