By John Brummett

The Washington Post sent a reporter to find someone alienated from all this historic excitement about Barack Obama’s inauguration. By gravity, the reporter wound up in eastern Arkansas.

Only one small strip of our nation, running smack-dab through Arkansas, went more Republican this time than last. To have taken more of a shine to John Kerry than to Obama and to have trended more Republican considering the economic and international state of affairs — now that took some doing.

But we did it, by golly, along with those other enlightened paradises called West Virginia, Oklahoma and Tennessee.

Because people who shouldn’t talk to the national press never can seem to resist, the reporter wound up focusing on a ball-capped, full-faced old white farm boy of 52 in the Brinkley region. This guy had a shotgun for duck hunting in the floorboard of his truck and Lynyrd Skynyrd on radio.

And he was probably the most sophisticated, tolerant person with whom the reporter spoke.

The old boy and his friends and associates welcomed the Post reporter and her photographer into their orbit. They talked about how they’re worried that Obama is going to take their guns and ammunition.

The farmer told of having gone out and loaded up with a new rifle and $400 worth of ammunition shortly after the election. The National Rifle Association had sent some information that got him all worked up that Obama might be intending to disarm him.

With this economy turning sour, people may turn more to thievery, enhancing the need for armed protection, a woman in town speculated.

The farm cooperative manager said folks in town wondered how a black man could handle the presidency when people of Obama’s color locally couldn’t seem to find their way out of the projects after three generations.

Back in the truck, the farmer took a little issue with that. He said he knew some stupid white people, too.

The farmer said he hopes the new president succeeds and that he’ll fist-bump with the celebrating local black folks if he does.

A friend of his has heard about the local black folks celebrating at the Kwik Stop, even breaking in line at the grocery store.

But the farmer said he fears that Obama simply doesn’t understand the rural way. The reporter managed to intimate in the piece that it was not altogether evident just what it was that was so precious there in Monroe County that commanded protecting from Obama’s Ivy League urbanized ways.

There were photographs. Oh, dear. One home in town had a Confederate flag on display over the garage. The farmer aimed his handgun for a photo. There was a downtown street of Brinkley showcased. It was not the town’s best side.

Some will say that this piece represented an unfair stereotype. They will complain about the national press parachuting in to take us out of context and make fun of us.

That’s baloney. The Post piece was a powerfully relevant case study of Arkansas politics.

Why are we dominated by nominal Democrats locally but decidedly red on national politics? This old boy featured in the Post said he was a Democrat. He said he was pro-choice. He said he liked Democratic policies on farm subsidies better than Republican policies. He wasn’t much for church.

It’s guns, baby, guns. It’s culture, baby, culture. With some, of course, it’s race, baby, race.

This old boy told the Post he voted for Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and John McCain. Here’s betting he voted for Mike Beebe, Marion Berry, Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln.

And get a load of this: The local Democratic chairman wouldn’t say whether he voted for Obama.

Some of us have spent years trying to explain all this. The Post did it in one article. They ought to get a Pulitzer. They probably will, for international reporting, maybe.

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John Brummett is a columnist for the Arkansas News Bureau in Little Rock. His e-mail address is jbrummett@arkansasnews.com; his telephone number is (501) 374-0699.