You're Too Stupid To Know What You Mean

Now, I'm just sayin'...

"You're too stupid to know what you mean."

That’s what John McCain is - in effect - saying to people like me from Lebanon, Virginia.

This is personal for me. I grew up in Lebanon, Virginia. It’s a beautiful town in the Appalachian mountains full of honest, hard-working people. It’s an example of America’s greatness and promise – it is the kind of economic success story we as Americans want to see replicated across the country. Lebanon even got special mention in Mark Warner’s keynote address at the DNC for these very reasons.

As an American from Lebanon, Virginia, John McCain has pissed me off royally.

Barack Obama took the time to visit Lebanon on Tuesday, putting a small town in the national limelight like we’ve never known before. This was a very big deal for another reason as well. The common sentiment in southwest Virginia is "Virginia ends at Roanoke". The meaning here is that we're often forgotten by the rest of the state when budget time comes around and, as a region, we're neglected or marginalized nationally. We often feel forgotten - as many do in Appalachian America. And we endure demeaning epithets like "white trash", and "hillbilly" on a regular basis.

During Senator Obama's speech, he used an aphorism immediately familiar to rural Americans – “You can put lipstick on a pig. It’s still a pig.” We know what that means. It means trying to present one thing as something better than it is. We grew up with that turn of phrase. We invented that turn of phrase. Hell, we own that turn of phrase.

To hear a man who could be our next president connecting with us, using familiar and identifiable language was exciting and it was wholly appreciated. The audience applauded and cheered.

So imagine my outrage when I hear John McCain and his spokespeople saying, “it’s not what you say, it’s how it’s perceived – the people in the Lebanon High School gym thought he was referring to Sarah Palin – “lipstick on a pig” is an inside-the-beltway term, they don’t know any better.”

Yes, sir, those poor, dumb hicks ain’t never heard of that fancy Washington pig 'n’ makeup gibberish.

That’s an insult to the intelligence of the people of Lebanon, Virginia and to rural America as a whole. Those in the audience understood what Senator Obama meant – he had just spent the last few minutes talking about John McCain presenting old policies in a new “change” wrapping. That’s putting lipstick on a pig. To say we don’t understand our own damn phrase proves to me that John McCain must think we’re stupid.

So as a demonstration to John McCain that yes, Senator, we know that expression and its proper use, I offer you this in closing:



I'm just sayin'...