Dispatch From Unreal America

So the Washington Post published a series about what it's like to be gay in some country called "real America." The terminology really says it all, so I'm not going to link, but I am going to excerpt this Matt Yglesias post, with which I concur whole-heartedly:

[N]othing pisses me off more than the implication that some parts of the country are more "really" America than others...[W]e're none of us masquerading pseudoamericans here. Indeed, it's bizarre that the Northeastern part of the country -- the part that was settled first, the part that led the Revolution, the part that led the nation to victory in the Civil War -- has somehow acquired a reputation as less authentically American than a lot of Johnny-come-lately squarish ersatz states and a big swathe of the southeast that decided one time to launch a violent, treasonous effort to maintain the institution of chattel slavery and turn North America into a British sphere of influence.

Indeed. One of the ancillary benefits of Kerry victory would be a forced reconsideration on the part of the CW-makers of just what constitutes the heartland.

And one more thought: subtract the 2000 Blue states from the Union and it's no longer a first world nation, let alone an unchallenged global hegemon. The heart of America is somewhere between New York harbor and Long Island sound---not the fucking Great Salt Lake.