I am a lifetime liberal and I own a NASCAR related business and have always worked for the most leftwing of policies.

If YOU had ever been to a NASCAR race or event, YOU might have some credibility to talk about who NASCAR fans are and what they represent.  But, I’d guess your only experience with it is via the stereotypical things presented by the rightwingnut press.

I deal with NASCAR fans, drivers, vendors, sponsors, etc on almost a daily basis. And, yes, some voted Republican ... but just as many voted Democratic. They are not a stereotype, they are a microcosm of AMERICA.  They did not as a group put “W” into power, they voted individually for the candidates they thought best.

Yes, military recruiters hit the NASCAR races hard and sponsor vehicles.  More soldiers are recruited at NASCAR events than any other sporting events.  However, there are MORE NASCAR races yearly than any other major league sports events.  It isn’t NASCAR that is responsible for sending these people to their death in Iraq, it is the people in D.C. ... and that isn’t NASCAR central.  I doubt GWB has a clue how NASCAR works, and Chaingangster (after a visit THIS year to the pits) admitted he didn’t know how sophisticated it is.

Can anyone become President without gaining the votes of a majority of NASCAR related folks?  No.  This is a group that includes everything from rocket scientists and physicists to your curbside trash pickup workers.  It is diverse to the extreme.  And woe to ANY candidate, or candidate’s advisor, who doesn’t understand that.

Economic Inequality is a very big deal.  Here’s one for you - Who is going to buy the your house?  Support the new restaurant that just opened on your way home? To attend the sporting events, concerts, theater etc.?  What I’m getting at is, purchases, assumptions and activities that were a common thread among middle-class families of the past are not going to be afforded by the next generation if there are not dramatic changes.  When Walmart is your biggest employer, when health care costs are rising and those costs are being ladled onto the plate of the workers, when wages are stagnant, when college graduates are coming out with monster loans with rising interest rates - you’ve got a problem brewing in your economy.  A problem I believe is especially related to the rapacious salaries, and irresponsible tax breaks given to the economic elite.  If people can’t afford to buy your products guys - your gonna feel the pain.

The difference between Stewart/Colbert vis-a-vis Limpbaugh is the level of truthiness. Where as Limpbaugh sticks to the wing nut talking points, the Daily Show and Colbert Report staff ridicule all sides when they venture too far from the truthiness of things. Stewart/Colbert are more concerned with reality and philosophy, as opposed to the fantasy/ideology of the right. Hopefully, with this new cool, we will find ourselves venturing into a world governed by more reality based people in both parties, where honest, open debate can drive constructive policy that actually helps people.

I used to watch NASCAR before it was in vogue.  I was liberal than and I am still a liberal.  Of course when the republicans started taking over the course well I stopped watching.  I am glad the country is finally getting smart and realizing the government should help middle america. There is something wrong with this country when companies don’t put their employees first.  The CEO’s make millions of dollars and they can’t give mimimum wage increases.

Funny you should mention fake NASCAR fans. Until a couple years ago, I had been a race fan (and a libertarian) all of my adult life—grinning and bearing the praying, the flag-waving, the “Good Lord” hillbilly theology, and pre-race ceremonies that resembled the Nazi rallies in 1930s Nuremburg, because I found the sport individualistic and exciting.

Then Donald Rumsfeld led the Pledge of Allegiance—emphasizing the words “under God”—prior to the start of a September Nextel Cup race at Richmond. I won’t go into how I think the pledge is designed to instill a sense of patriotism in grammar-school children—not adults—or how a member of the Cabinet should not be promoting religion. Suffice it to say that I gave up my top-row seat priorities at Martinsville and Las Vegas, divested myself of caps and other NASCAR artifacts I had accrued, and haven’t even watched a race on television since.

I consider NASCAR culpable in the needless deaths of American GIs in Bush’s self-indulgent war in Iraq, and the loss of my civil liberties in the name of the medieval concept of patriotism that NASCAR promotes.

Gentlemen, start your engines … and drive south.