A Midwestern Perspective

   Usually, when you bring up politics in a bar, the room takes an akward, silent turn and right as tensions thicken in the air, the subject is changed to something – anything – else.  As a bartender, I’ve seen it a thousand times.  That is, until this election.  As a person that loves politics, loves government, loves freedom, loves conversation and debate – this may sound like a change I am excited about but … I miss the akward silence ( a little…).

   The problem you see, is the disappointment. It never fails – someone innocently asks if anyone caught the debate, the speech, the attack ad, the accusation, and in doing so, sparks the conversation. Inevitably, this lite exchange leads to, “So who are you voting for…”, essentially drawing the line in the sand, calling for all within earshot to choose sides. Me against you. Here we go…

   As an Obama-supporter in midwestern Missouri, in a bar where the largest portion of our buisness comes from middle-aged, white, blue-collar-males,  this conversation often seems daunting from the start.  I tend to tread lightly, ask more questions than make statments, and speak soflty.  That doesn’t mean I don’t have a big stick, too.

   The disappointment comes when I ask questions.  I want to know what makes people not want to vote for this candidate, what they see that I may not. How it is that our perceptions of a man can bee so different. Every once in a while I hear something that resembles a justified answer – “I don’t agree with his stance on abortion” or “I don’t think government should have a hand in healthcare”. These are valid and debateworthy topics, that I respectfully enjoy discussing. These types of answers are also rare – I would say for every 10 times politics is discussed, I hear this type of rederic once, if I’m lucky.

   All too often, when I ask someone what it is about Barack Obama that they don’t like – I get this : “You know he wants to kill babies?!?” ~ “I ain’t votin’ for no Muslim.” ~ “Didn’t you hear that Rev. Wright stuff?” ~ “I can’t trust that guy.” ~ “Cause his wife doesn’t really love this country.” ~ “Who? Osama-Hussein-Obama? “ ~ “He won’t even say the pledge of alligence.” ~ “He wants to be sworn in on the Koran!!!” ~ “We can’t have a black president…maybe Hillary cause Bill would be there, but not a black person.” *sigh* And for content purposes, I have taken the liberty of “cleaning up” the language – keep in mind these are drinkers, so the conversation tends to be a little more “colorful” (no pun intended).

   This is where my dissappointment settles in – well, not “settles” really, more like a slap in the face.  These same people qoute the bible, John McCain, and Rush Limbaugh to reinforce their loosely strung together arguments. They spit out the latest rumours and “scandals” like regergitated Talking Points.  (Not to say that every person is informed enough to actually recieve talking points like Limbaugh and O’Reilly, but it obviously filters down to the average Joe like children playing “telephone” – what actually starts as a complicated issue in an abortion bill, once whispered down the lines, people are eventually shouting “Obama kills babies!!!!!”) Once, I actually heard (within the same arguement) an older “gentleman” claim that Barack was both a Muslim and a Christian…”Well, see he’s a Muslim in secret – I hope you like wearing those damn head wraps cause that’s what he wants! But he sat in that church for twenty years pretendin’ to be Christian so he could marry Michelle and get into politics. But he wasn’t pretendin’ to listen to Rev. Wright – they both hate white people.” At this point my head nearly imploded onto itself, surely to spare my poor brain from trying to find the logic, from trying to tolerate the underlying rascism, from trying to make any kind of sense out of such ignorance and hatered.

   Even though my blood boils, I breathe.  I count to ten.  I ask more questions…”Have you read his book?”, “Do you know his father’s real country of origin?”, “Don’t you think that line of thinking is racist?”.  I don’t know why I’m still shocked to hear “no, no, and no” in response.  This is usually where I give up. I walk away. I know this may not be the right thing to do. I know I should stand up for what I believe, and to those who disagree I should stand the firmest. But there’s such a bigger part of me that just doesn’t want to give any more attention to bigotry, to igorance, to intolerance, to racism, to hate, to division. 

   How is it so common for people to still feel this way? I often feel like I am in the Twilight Zone –  wisked away in a nightmare paralell universe where ignorance and intolerance are cloaked in patriotism and religion, and I am the wackjob for saying things like “global warming” and “religious tolerance”.  You would think the generation of Americans that can still remember Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy, Bobby Kennedy, Jimmy Carter, Ted Kennedy, the feminst movement, the Vietnam War, the Selma Marches, and so many other countless accomlishments in our recent history..surely these Americans learned the moral lessons we all did in history class. Surley, the Americans raised by parents of the Depression, parents of WWI and II and the devastation of the Nazi’s would understand the importance of unity and freedom and peace. Ahhhh, the disappointment.

   Maybe I do get too emotional, a little too invested.  But I haven’t really mentioned the worst of it.  What scares me the most, are the nods to assassination that are becoming more and more frequent. Recently, many of these people have told me they fully believe that he will be assassinated before he reaches office. They are convinced that there is “no way he will ever make it to the oval office.”  Now, it’s not that I give much credit to what they are saying at this point. They cannot convince me that the “KKK is stronger than ever” or that the “plans are already in place”. 

   What scares me is the amount of times I have heard this, and the amount of people that have said it. If Bobby could be shot giving a speech, if JFK could be shot in a car, if MLK could be shot in a public balconey, who’s to say that some right-wing-white-supremisict-christian-conservative-gun-rights-wackjob couldn’t do the same?   Three men were arrested the first day of the convention that had rifles and have been accused of saying they wanted to kill Obama. This is what I fear.  Not just the ugly result of ignorance and hatred, not just the loss of another patriot to the people, and not just the violence that such bigotry ensures. But the vision that follows such a tragic possibility. The world where we again will be devided by color and class. The world where people will find more reasons why we are different and less on why we are the same. The world without Barack, and the millions of people that have stood up for him.