The Beltway Is Different From the Rest of Us

And the rest of the US. This (and the other map Digby has) is very telling.

click to view

There is a reason why the Great Recession, Mini-Depression, whatever you want to call it, gets little notice and even less concern in Washington. It never touched them.

The professional political class lives in a different world than the rest of us and they really can't understand what all the fuss is about among the rabble. The world they live in is rich and prosperous.

Where they live a six figure income is barely above the poverty line. Where they live the malls are always busy, the little tots are all well fed, and health care is as available and affordable as ice cream. The pain in the rest of the country is quite literally beyond their ability to believe.

What is striking to me is how much worse off the Deep South and Midwest are than my little corner of California. Compared to what they are experiencing I am living in a slice of heaven.