Recently on the Daily Show, John Stewart expressed an annoyance that often the media and politicians seem to think of those of us in the flyover states as "real" Americans.

I see his point. Don’t the people on the coasts count? Stewart actually expressed more than an annoyance, he was genuinely insulted.

So why is it that those in the big media centers count less when it comes to what "America" thinks? I can think of a few reasons.

First of all, these are the people who are the gate keepers. The media in this country is run predominantly from New York City. It is run secondarily from Washington and L.A. The voting trends and opinions of people in these three municipalities aren’t exactly what one would consider a "cross-section" of Americana. If you look at the people who actually make the decisions on what runs in the media, the profile becomes even smaller. Basically it’s a large number of white, affluent, liberal males or WALMs. The Walms decide what goes in the New York Times. That pretty much decides what goes on CNN, that pretty much decides what goes on the network news and thus what goes in the "local" papers through out the country. You get the picture.

I use the term "local" because pretty much every major newspaper in the country is owned by one of maybe four giant media corporations. Despite what you might think and what is portrayed in movies, tv dramas and sitcoms, the people running these corporations are not conservative Republicans. They are Walms. One only need look at the donation patters to political funds. The corporate boardrooms of this country are very blue blood and they are very liberal.

This brings me to my big, important, monumental, revolutionary point - I know, the suspense is killing you.

The biggest single difference between the "real" America of the fly over states and the America of the coastal liberals is pretty simple.

They want to control us, we just want to be left alone.

Activist judges - appointed by liberals, legislators trying to protect us from everything from our eating habits to our very thoughts - public education, tv shows showing us just how meaningless our lives our because we don’t live like they do - all are pretty straight forward ways of trying to tell us how to run our lives.

Why wouldn’t you want to live in New York? What type of toothless, moronic bumpkin are you? Church is great, but every week? I believe in god, but do I have to take it so seriously? Why would anyone even need to own a gun, let alone want to? Why can’t you just let the schools go ahead and teach your children what we think they should know about sex, including homosexuality?

Someone who has been a liberal their entire life cannot come to grips with the answers to any of these questions. They simply don’t get the basic conservatism of most folks. This country is basically a pretty conservative one. People tend to vote Democratic out of family tradition and fear. Fear they won’t have enough to retire, or pay the doctor bills or enough to pay for gas. Republicans have themselves to blame for losing this battle. Reagan never petaled fear. He was the one who started the use of the word hope in politics. "It’s morning in America."