politics

The Actual America

Lowen Baumgarten

19 Mar 2012 — 1 min read

I posted this as my Facebook status last week:

Santorum's wins in MS and AL prompted me to coin a term for those of us (working in cities, using contraception, friends with gay people, going to college) who are bewildered by his success: The Actual America. Because I don't really know if The Real America and The Actual America have much in common at all.

And when a friend commented that Santorum's appeal to voters in PA, MS and AL wasn't that surprising, this was my response and explanation:

I understand that he appeals to white working class voters, "Reagan Democrats," and evangelicals, etc. What I'm saying is that I don't understand white working class voters, Reagan Democrats, and evangelicals. They represent the Real and True America, certainly, but they don't seem to live in the actual America with the rest of us.

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