Walking Through the Horizon: Poems

Conclusion

Conclusion Bernie Babcock, Charles H. Brough, and Ham Moses must have been turning in their graves in the summer of 2000. Late-night comedians and political pundits must have been counting their lucky stars. The news coming out of Little Rock sounded like some sort of postmodern, ironic prank, as if Donald Harington had suddenly found himself in charge of public relations for his native state. Mike Huckabee and his family were temporarily vacating the aging governor’s mansion, long overdue for renovations, and their new dwelling place? A mobile home. Well, technically a “manufactured home,” as the first family and their handlers insisted, but no amount of euphemism repetition was going to keep the hounds at bay. Sure, this thing had no wheels and its underbelly was sealed up tighter than Dick’s hatband, but the crucial elements of the story were indisputable—the leader of the great state of Arkansas had worn out his house and was now living in a big ole trailer.1 It’s not that anyone with a pulse in Arkansas couldn’t sense what was coming. “I know,” sighed first lady Janet Huckabee, “of all the states in the world, for Arkansas to be the one with a governor living in manufactured housing—well, you can just hear the jokes already.” And the jokes, wisecracks , and condescending analysis did come. Scotland’s Sunday Herald reported the story under the headline “Possum Pie and Down-Home Hospitality for the ‘Trailer Trash’ Governor.” Noting that Little Rock was “known less for sophistication than for big hair, hillbillies and pick-up trucks,” the paper observed (correctly) that the Huckabees’ new triple-wide would be larger and more valuable than most immobile homes in the state. NBC’s Jay Leno, who made the story a key component of his Tonight Show monologues for the better part of a month, quipped that the new governor’s pad might even open the Huckabees up to charges that they were putting on airs. After about three weeks of ribbing from comedians around the nation, the Huckabees agreed to appear via remote camera on the Tonight Show. For a few minutes Mike and Janet Huckabee went toe-totoe with Leno, and viewers caught their first glimpse of yet another mediasavvy Arkansas first family. After playing along with the host’s put-downs, the governor drew the evening’s biggest laugh when he promised Leno that “it’s actually large enough so that we could get you and your chin inside,” a reference to the comedian’s most famous oversized facial feature. Like most other prominent Arkansans on whom the national or international spotlight had shone, the Huckabees had already become adept at 185 BLEVINSfinalpages:Layout 1 4/28/10 3:50 PM Page 185 defending themselves and their state with a little self-deprecating deflection .2 The manufactured home episode illustrated a few things. First, although it might have lost some of its cultural relevance in the decades since World War II, the Arkansaw image would survive into the new millennium. If nothing else, it seemed that Arkansas would make sure of that. Second, the reaction of the Huckabees, a mixture of defensiveness and self-deprecation, reminded us that Arkansas people remained first and foremost cognizant of the state’s place in the American consciousness and that they retained the ability to laugh at themselves. As Governor Huckabee explained it to Leno: “One of the things we want to do is to show that people in Arkansas aren’t all that sensitive about people making light of us. We know who we are.” Huckabee knew full well that there were a good many Arkansans who took exception to their state’s reoccurring role as the butt of national jokes and that more than a few resented his decision to knowingly invite derision with his triple-wide plan. Finally, Huckabee’s ultimate decision to subject his state to stereotyping and mirth-making in order to save taxpayers a few dollars reflected the old spirit of nonconformity that had inspired admiration for the natural Arkie. Speaking for defiant Arkansawyers through the generations, the governor told reporters at a Little Rock press conference, “Let the people laugh. I think the difference between an Arkansan and some uptight, wound-up northerner, is that . . . we’re laughing with you, because we like the way we live.” Pete Whetstone and Jacob Ingledew couldn’t have said it any better.3 We’ve come a long way since...