Redneck phonies

Great TNR article on George Allen's and George Bush's good-ole-boy schtick:

It's one thing for some redneck raised around all that racist, ignorance-is-bliss nonsense to buy into it. It's quite another for some privileged twit from the West Coast to fall so in love with the cartoon image of Johnny Reb that he starts collecting Confederate memorabilia and dipping Copenhagen just to feel macho. As for Bush's message that intellectual curiosity and academic striving are for elitist girly men: Way to be your own man and thumb your nose at the tediously accomplished Poppy, Georgie Boy. Unfortunately, you make a lousy role model for the vast majority of Americans, who, sadly, don't have a rich, well-connected, exceedingly forgiving daddy to bail their butts out every time they get busted for drunk driving, need a safe place to sit out a war, or manage to drive an oil company into the ground.