Polarization hits home

I live in what you might call a blue city in the middle of the state that has become the symbol of the worst kind of conservatism, the kind born of fear and stupidity and a misplaced regard for fake, John Wayne-ish masculinity from which our President came--Texas. It's a little unfair. We're not all that bad. But there is a vein of truth to the whole stereotype of the dumb redneck Texas, and Austin is bizarrely the result of that. Austin is an oasis, a place for people to flee who like being Texans with the cowboy boots and Lone Star beer, but don't agree whatsoever with the rising tide of racist, sexist, xenophobic redneckism that is taking over most of our state. The great joke of Austin is that almost everyone here is from somewhere else in Texas, having left behind families of varying degrees of downright embarrassing conservative ignorance. Me, I don't feel so bad myself. My family votes Republican, sure. But they don't hang around saying "nigger" all the time and they could care less if I live in sin and they are proud of me. We cheerfully agree to disagree on certain things but mostly we get along.
And most of my friends in this situation have a similiar way of dealing with their families. We blow off steam by laughing at those we kind of consider backwards hicks and they laugh at us and call us potheads and silly liberals and everyone drinks a Lone Star and agrees that Willie Nelson can write a good song. But in the past few years, the gap between the liberal runaways and the folks back home who voted for Bush has grown larger and larger and I don't know quite what to think about it.
A couple of weeks ago, I was hanging out with some friends and we were laughing and joking about politics. And suddenly, a girl said, "I still can't believe that Bush won. Who voted for him? No one here! I don't know anyone who voted for him." Well, we all had to point out that we knew people who voted for him, our friends and families back home. But yes, it was true. No one that we would spend time with probably voted for Bush. I went to a party with someone who admitted voting for Bush a couple months ago and I could hardly believe it. I couldn't believe that he would want to be around us.
Because lately it seems that after we leave our insular little liberal world, there is always the threat of being stared at or lectured or worse. Even if people mean well, it has become highly likely that you will be out reconnecting with the people back home and suddenly someone will start ragging on, say, homosexuals and next thing you know you are staring at your shoes and not knowing what is worse, being rude and correcting another party guest or being awful and not defending people in your life back home.
On the other side of it is the awful, deadening realization that people you have known and loved all your life are beginning to suspect that you are lost to some sort of nebulous enemy and they are pulling up the ladder. I have had friends accused of hating their country by their own families for not wanting to vote for Bush. Only semi-jokingly was my mother told that I shouldn't live in Austin, because I will "turn queer".
And now my poor boyfriend has been made to feel like he is trying to corrupt the youth of America. Upon finding out that his little sister who is graduating high school has chosen to stay in Beaumont for college (a choice he feels was made under more than a little pressure from the family) he thought it might be nice to bring her up to Austin for a visit for a few days for a graduation gift. I thought it was a great idea, as my aunt took me to Denver for a couple weeks of concerts and whatnot after I graduated so I didn't have to spend my entire summer hanging out in boring ass West Texas. But when he suggested this to his older sister he was told that his little sister cannot come to Austin. And pretty much because they are afraid that liberal, pot-smoking Austin will corrupt her in two days flat.
Of course, beyond being made to feel like a pariah, the whole situation has a sort of humorous bent. It's a textbook example of conservatives accusing liberals of doing exactly what they themselves are doing. In this case, by asking if he can take the girl to a rock show and a park and a restaraunt or two he is being all but accused of indocrination by people who are actively trying to keep her from knowing that there is even a shadow of a world outside of Beaumont. I wasn't overly shocked, since I spend a gazillion hours a week reading about people who are accusing liberals of trying to push a certain set of sexual values on kids and using that as an excuse to legally push their sexual morals and only their sexual morals on kids.
But mostly it's just sad. Rush Limbaugh and Pat Robertson and Ann Coulter and our Great Leader may think it's all fun and games to demonize liberalism to score political points, but people out there take what they say very seriously. When crass political operatives invoke people's sincere religious beliefs to score political points, they are toying with actual people with actual feelings and beliefs. And it's tearing families and friends apart and alienating people from their own homes and backgrounds. The sad thing is that then the Limbaughs of the world then look at us in our alienation and spit on us and call us "elitists".
But what's "elitism"? My boyfriend was told, "Everyone who goes to Austin turns weird," and then the whole city was accused of being moronic potheads. It's not that there aren't liberals who look down their noses at the "red" areas. Hell, my friends and I find making fun of the hick towns we come from to be a good old time, which is our right as survivors. Nonetheless, there's no doubt whose opinions get to dominate when we gather together for family and friend type reunions.
So fuck off, Limbaugh, etc. I'm tired of being nice and not jumping all over people who make ignorant and mean remarks to me while I just stare at my shoes. I'm tired of being told that I'm trying to indoctrinate people because I believe they should be allowed to know what all their options are. If that makes me an elitist, so be it. More people should be elitists if elitism means the desire to spread tolerance and education.