Voters identify with Bush because he's like a clannish, white-trash, pissed-off-outsider NASCAR driver: He won't take the Lord's name in vain, but he calls people "assholes" a lot, and when asked to explain a bald-faced lie, he responds with a look that, if it were a T-shirt, would say, "Fuck You, You Fucking Fuck." He presides over a republic that looks more and more like Iraq, politically speaking: an uneasy, trustless coalition of warlike tribes—not a union anymore, no way, more like a New American Confederacy of demographic constituencies, red state, blue state, Soccer Moms, NASCAR Dads, Gordon fans, Earnhardt fans, gun nuts, gun banners, right-to-lifers, right-to-choosers, all of them demonizing each other like sniping Shiites, Sunnis, and insurgent Kurds. Bush and his extremist supporters control every branch of government and much of the media, and still they feel bitterly dealt out by society. They plunder the masses on behalf of the few, and yet they feel like they're somehow the victims.
That victimized feeling resonates for more and more Americans. Maybe NASCAR is rising, not as a manifestation of the Old South, but a sign of the fraying patchwork of America. NASCAR nation is not a crowd but a large collection of nations of one, each against the other. The New Deal ideal was: We look out for each other, even the most unfortunate. The New American Confederacy says: We look out for each other, to blow each other away in a Social Darwinist Grand Theft Auto fantasy. It's a Mad Max world—if you blow a tire, I'll smash you into the wall, seize the prize money, and join the tribe inside the winner's circle. I'll trade paint with you so hard your head will bear my sponsor's logo backward!
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The region's own homegrown NASCAR star, Enumclaw's Kasey Kahne.
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The Northwest NASCAR track could be fun, whichever county it winds up in. No doubt our local culture will change it in interesting ways: fresh crab cakes instead of stale Carolina corn dogs, anyone? Chateau Ste. Michelle champagne flutes instead of beer funnels? Or maybe things won't change that much after all. "I don't think it's the red zone invading the blue zone," says Dunshee. He thinks an ISC track would simply give thousands of current local fans now glued to the tube a place to congregate besides a NASCAR bar. He's also suspicious about the putative cash bonanza we're supposed to get. "The taxpayers end up footing a bill. There's some economic growth, but there's some cost to it. I don't think we should roll over people—I think we should make sure it has the minimal negative impact. We can say, 'Screw those people,' but what if it was your neighborhood, what if it was your house that was bein' impacted?"
Uh-oh! That sounds like antiquated New Deal thinking. Get with the program, Dunshee! Stop thinking about others as your fellow Americans! Get in that car and trade some paint. Because what NASCAR signifies is the decline of the idea that we're all in this together. In a NASCAR world, we're all in this alone.
tappelo@seattleweekly.com
