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Eve Fairbanks has a nice piece on James Webb and white anger in this week's New Republic. I'm particularly taken with her conclusion, which backs up my private theory about Webb's resonance among stereotypically pointy-headed liberal elites:
Thanks to their analogous symbolic roles, Webb and Obama have one more politically important and bizarre similarity: They appeal to the same voters, wine-track Democrats who come out in unprecedented droves to vote for a black man or a hillbilly white because they want their party to be bigger than themselves. While you'd expect Webb to attract poor, rural beer-trackers, in his 2006 Senate race he didn't do any better than the previous Democratic candidate had among Appalachian voters in southwestern Virginia; instead, he was propelled to victory by Northern Virginia suburbanites--Obama's base.Liberals have so internalized the Fox news/right wing critique of themselves that they honestly believe themselves a huge political liability for the party they love. They hate nothing more than the fact that the Democratic Party has come to be viewed as cerebral and ironic, over-educated and under-religious. That it's come to be identified, in other words, with them, rather than its beer track, union hall voters. And they don't know what to do about it.Along comes James Webb. Effortlessly tough with all the cultural signifiers of a heartland Republican, Webb isn't only a refreshing break from the party's normal politicians -- he's a refreshing break from liberals. He's not only unlike them, but he gives the impression of not liking them, which is all the more important. The fact that he's a recent Republican who endorsed George Allen in the 90s and was railing against Vietnam protesters decades after the war makes it all the more credible. Liberals love this about him, and they assume that it means he'll have tremendous resonance among downscale, culturally conservative voters. And maybe he will. But as Eve points out, that is, for now, only a theory. And as everyone is focused on Webb's political style, it's actually his intellectual journey, and his thoughtful positions on the issues, that really set him apart.
