… the line, that is, separating Red from Blue America. Ilya Shapiro, a law clerk on the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals living in Jackson, Miss., whose politics and values are Red but whose cultural tastes are Blue, eloquently reminds us via an OpEd in today’s Los Angeles Times that “It’s Never Black and White Inside Purple America.” (Tip thanks to reader who calls himself “Bonehead.”)
“You see,” he writes,
I reside in that quixotic region, Purple America, where the cosmopolitan meets the conservative. Purple America is not so much a place as an idea, or a confluence of values from Red America with tastes from Blue America. It combines a strong belief in personal responsibility, ordered liberty and civil society with a passion for independent film, Belgian ale and salsa dancing. It also could go with a good ballgame, preferably on grass and without the designated hitter.
….
Purple America demands independent creativity grounded in a solid moral core, as well as an inevitably thick skin; its inhabitants are attacked for godless “hedonism” on one side and politically incorrect “insensitivity” on the other. If I had a nickel for every time an urbane acquaintance marveled at how someone so “nice” could sympathize with those ghastly Republicans, I’d be able to build that bridge to the 21st century. Conversely, a cobblestone for every time a good ol’ boy sneered at my choice of drink (wine or imported beer), car (Japanese sedan or German sports car) or clothing (mostly Italian, except my seersuckers) would lead me to that shining city on a hill. Purple America gets a tear in its eye during the Fourth of July parades of patriotism, but it relishes even more the playing of “The Star-Spangled Banner” on the Champs-Elysees after Lance Armstrong wins another Tour de France.
It welcomes diversity, but not the false diversity that considers a black lawyer’s kid from Brentwood more worthy than the son of a West Virginia coal miner or of a Vietnamese fisherman.
Interesting, well-written essay. I find it significant, however, that, if Shapiro is a typical representative, Purple Americans vote Republican. I wonder if that means they’re really more purplish Red than Purple?
I don’t think purple Andrew Sullivan is voting GOP this time around. Quite a few pro-legal-abortion purplish-blue women voters, too, I think. You see, Ilya doesn’t really have to worry about the import duties on Belgian beer; he doesn’t sound like one of those imperiled by Red cultural values, just occasionally inconvenienced in quite a minor way. Maybe after he has children and they coming home from school reciting the official (Protestant-oriented) prayer.
The Princeton Alumni Weekly didn’t print my letter to the editor after quite a laudatory cover piece on extreme-conservative Prof. Robert George, that I would take his student acolytes more seriously, who are emphasizing his politico-economic beliefs, when they stop trying to get laid on the weekends. (If the movement has in fact taken that direction, I apologize, but if so, it didn’t make it to the magazine.)
The other half of Purple America are the unionized blue-collar workers which vote Democratic. Certainly a smaller group than they once were, but still significant.
I think that there are a LOT of us out there, and it is great that someone has put together a cogent description of where we are. We aren’t on the extremes of either the red or blue sides, because we are pragmatic, and want to enjoy life and not die in a ditch in the “culture wars”. Both sides condemn us for this attitude – the right calls us godless, while the left calls us unfeeling and uncaring. We just want to get on with life, and let everyone/anyone else do their own thing, as well.
Unfortunately, by staying out of the political fray, we have left the debate to the extremists. I have a theory that this is the way that human society works, and has always worked, with the extremists driving change, because the vast majority of people are too busy living life to get involved, unless living conditions become truely intolerable, which they clearly are not, at this time.
The rest of just have to periodically check who is winning the culture wars, and if one side seems to be too far ahead, we have to “moderate” their progress, a bit.
I agree that “Purple America” is an interesting, potentially fruitful concept, and I’d like to see it developed. I didn’t mean to imply that I think it’s wrong, only that I have some questions. Andy, I think Andrew Sullivan is a good example. Otherwise, I’m not sure in what sense union members and pro-abortion women who vote Democratic are Purple instead of, you know, Blue.
John, I think there are a number of voters, esp women who remember the world pre-Roe, for whom legal abortion (I dislike the pro-* labels equally) is a make-or-break issue, but who would otherwise be at least potential Republican voters.
Case in point: watch the percentage of California women who voted for Schwarzenegger (grope allegations notwithstanding) compared to how many will be voting for Bill Jones, GOP Senate candidate, who opposes legal abortion on demand. Probably 15 points difference.
Bush is running for the opposite Purple vote—red culture, blue economics. Look at his culture-based pitch for Roman Catholics. That’s where I think the purple union vote is, not with Ilya Shapiro at all.
My reaction on reading this piece (after realizing that it was a good topic for John’s blog) was that most of the country probably fits this purple description today. I would even go so far as to presume that John’s general position on affirmative action is fundamentally purple. But I do somewhat disagree with the characterizations of some of the other posters here.
Shapiro writes that Purple America welcomes diversity, but “not the false diversity that considers a black lawyer’s kid from Brentwood more worthy than the son of a West Virginia coal miner or of a Vietnamese fisherman.”
I suspect that this is an accurate characterization of where purples are on most issues. Most purples probably think abortion should be safe and legal, but that we should also be doing everything we can to see that it is a rarely used option of last resort.
Most purples probably think that gays should be able to live openly, but that children should be raised by the natural mother and natural father who created them.
Most purples probably think that, while it’s one thing to say that we should always do as much as we can to get other countries on our side, it’s another thing entirely to say that we will never act militarily unless we have a permission slip from the UN.
And those “unionized blue-collar workers who vote Democratic”? They’re purples too. They voted overwhelmingly for Reagan in the 80s.
And don’t take blacks for granted as Reds either. A big percentage of blacks are a lot more conservative on many social issues than you might think. Bill Cosby is not an aberration.
And Bill Clinton was also a purple. He may have been the quintessential purple. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” was a classic purple policy. So was his pronouncement that abortion should be “safe and legal, but rare.”
It’s the “true believer” Reds and Blues who most vocally criticize such positions. And, of course, they are the voices that we hear every night on the TV news and read every morning in our papers, because they’re the ones who yell the loudest. But most big decisions in this country are ultimately made by the purples. The Reds and Blues can’t really accomplish anything without us. Just ask Howard Dean and Bob Dole.
“Purples,” as described by Shapiro are nothing more than country-club Republicans–and I don’t mean this as a pejorative. Disdain for “sensitivity,” “diversity,” “multiculturalism,” and other religious totems of the Left are the driving force for many Republicans.
That Shapiro also enjoys Belgian ale, Italian suits, and German performance vehicles means nothing more than he is a man of some means. Who wouldn’t prefer these over Miller Lite, Dockers, and a Chevy Malibu? I agree with Shapiro’s sentiments, though don’t really see much political insight here.
As for his concluding paragraph re-printed in John’s post regarding the children of lawyers and coal miners–I am STILL patiently waiting for the house marxist to explain why this form of “diversity” is just.
See above
Burgundy, they’re more burgundy.
Did I spell that right?
Haven’t spelled that color in a long, long time.
Either that or I’ve got Passage to Pimlico stuck in my head.