Flyover Dis

My fellow Hoosier Lauren has a great piece in The American Prospect called "Dispatches from Flyover Country," in which she bemoans the coverage of Indiana—and its residents—in the national media.

Hoosiers have been in the national spotlight over the past few weeks, and I’ve noted that many disparaging stereotypes make it into the national media coverage of my fair state -- stereotypes that reinforce the myth of a beer-drinking, pickup-driving Republican stronghold that is hopelessly out of touch with coastal progressivism. As a life-long Indiana resident, I personally vouch for blue veins running through this state and throughout the Midwest, a fact frequently ignored in favor of maintaining the awestruck-hillbilly myth. If reporters and pundits took a look past the stereotypes, they’d see that Indiana is a lot more complex and important than they think it is.

The whole thing is worth a read, just because it's so right on, not that it will change the opinion of anyone who can't be arsed to paint Hoosiers as anything but a sea of Woody Boyd clones in the first place.

The funny thing is that I wrote a post that echoes many of the same complaints—right down to Hoosiers being a practical lot and our decidedly purply hue—on my fourth day of blogging (although my piece was directed specifically at lefty writers, rather than the MSM). The ideas underlying my Notes from a Red State were a big part of the reason I started blogging in the first place.

They're the same ideas underlying Lauren's piece, and a big part of the reason I'm still at it.