Venturing Into Deepest Darkest Africa The Midwest

I read this article in the Washington Post and I don't know what to make of it. It's about one man's journey into the Red States to find out what kind of people would vote for George Bush. The author made it very clear that he didn't want this to be about him venturing into "enemy territory" but more about getting to know people who disagreed with him. I'm all for getting to know people who disagree with you, and I'm inclined to take this effort as sincere.

I have to say, though, that I would be one of the people he mentions who were hesitant to even talk to him. Part of me finds it offensive that he ever conceptualized this part of the country as "the Red Sea" and spoke of it as a National Geographic reporter might speak of a different country with an alien culture. It strikes me as being just as patronizing as the white colonialists who ventured into Deepest Darkest Africa to bring religion to the Poor Benighted Darkies. Iowahawk plays on this aspect of it in his satire of the article.