What is clear is that they are a force to be reckoned with. A recentRasmussen poll revealed that if the Tea party were an actual party itwould eclipse the Republicans.
One of the paradoxes of being a foreign reporter in smalltown Americais that within any one day, you will hear people insist that they standat the centre of global affairs and simultaneously act as though theyreside at the very fringes of international interest.
As Americans,they feel their country stands as a beacon to the outside world – ashowcase for freedom, liberty, democracy and material comfort.
Asinhabitants of smalltown America, they feel marginalised from thenational narrative and isolated from the rest of the world. Within thespan of a single conversation you will be told that America is the bestcountry on earth and be asked why you – or indeed anyone – would cometo their particular town.
So it was last week in Leitchfield,a small town in central Kentucky. South-east of Louisville andsouth-west of Lexington, its 6,000 residents live between Nolin andRough River lakes on the way to nowhere in particular
Leitchfield has known better days, but few here can remember when.
Unemployment, long in double digits, has now reached 16%. One in fivelives below the poverty line and the median family income is less thantwo-thirds that of the rest of the nation.
Last year Republicanpresidential hopeful John McCain took the county handily, with 67% ofthe vote.On Monday night a young woman working at a localpharmacy first giggled at my accent and then asked what business Icould possibly have in Leitchfield.
When I asked her what young peopledo for kicks in a place that doesn’t serve alcohol, she shrugged: “Someof them take drugs and have sex. I watch videos with my sister.”
Just afew a minutes later I was at a town hall event where Republican Senatehopeful Rand Paul lamented the impending demise of America’s globalsupremacy