If they went to Utah their heads would explode...

It's only 80 miles from the headquarters of the L.A. Times to Murrieta deep in "red California."

But, to the L.A. Times, it's like going to Mars: "In GOP They Trust":

...This devout Mormon couple, whose Boy Scout son Christopher marched on Veterans Day with his uniformed pals from Troop 524, will not see a movie that is rated R. They lump Whoopi Goldberg in with Dan Rather, the Dixie Chicks with CNN. They put Moore, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times and most of Hollywood in the same bad grab bag of the biased and the out-of-touch...

So where do the Blantons get their information? For Bruce, at least, the same place as many of his neighbors, men and women whose affordable homes are here in Murrieta but whose jobs are geographically undesirable. Trapped in their cars en route to the office, they listen to talk radio on their long commutes...

Joe Russo remembers the daily commute to Orange County from Encinitas, where he couldn't afford to buy a house and his wife, Juliana, had to work. That's the only way they could make ends meet. It was 1998. "On my commutes, I'd listen to Christian radio, getting a daily infusion while driving on the road," he said. "You have a lot of time on the road to think..."

[Russo's wife] says many of her family values likely come from Dr. Laura Schlessinger, the conservative talk radio personality and self-help author, whose books she reads when she can find the time in her hectic days with her two young children...

"Now I see the family values and the goodness of people," [another featuree] said, as she made Sunday dinner after Mass. "I thought you could be a good person and a good friend if you didn't live my values. Now, I trust the ones who follow my values. That's what I'm learning, living out here."

See also 2003's "Conservatives in the Mist".

Politics · Fri, 12/24/2004 - 10:45 · Importance: 1