where did we go wrong?

We order Reubens and hot plates. We ask the waitress who she is voting for and she says everybody asks her that. She says she hasn't voted yet but she's voting for Bush. She feels he's a good person. She says she's very worried that Kerry is going to win. She can't sleep she's so worried.

"I don't trust him," she says. "He's going to pull all of our troops out of Iraq and it's going to be a mess there." We ask her where she gets her news and she says she gets her news from her mother, who is a Republican. The waitress says she is an Independent. She is not religious. She is not bothered by gay marriage. She is pro-choice.

We talk with her for a long time. We tell her we are pollsters and we don't have opinions; we're just interested in what other people think. Technically, this is a lie, and Josh almost blows it by asking angrily if she had seen Colin Powell admitting that the war is lost, that Iraq is another Vietnam. (I hadn't seen this myself. Apparently, it was a couple of days ago and got eclipsed by the bin Laden tape.)

Her big issue, it turns out, is education. She wants to be in school but she has to work at the same time, just to have enough money to go to a community college, which costs $1,000 a semester. "I don't qualify for financial aid," she says, "because my mother makes $60,000. But neither candidate is going to change that."

What she's saying isn't true, and on the issues she cares most about, she would appear to be a Kerry supporter. But she has no idea who Kerry is and she feels strongly that Bush understands people like her. She refers to Kerry as rich and snobby. She despises Teresa Heinz. And it's obvious to all of us, this is the core Bush voter. Once you remove all the religious loonies hoping to blur the lines between church and state, and the obscenely wealthy who are more than willing to sacrifice the rest of society from their golf communities with their private security forces, you have our waitress. She works in a crappy restaurant. (Don't order the roast-beef hot plate.) She lives or has friends who live in trailer parks. She thinks that George Bush understands people in trailer parks. The deficit is not her issue because she doesn't understand how the deficit affects funding for education. She doesn't like unions. She doesn't have health insurance. She gets her news from her mother.

« back to the crib | black wednesday » //-->

Here's another personal story about a "misguided" person:


I work at a domestic violence shelter in a rural conservative district in Mich. that is has had its economy gutted by NAFTA and where Christianity dominates the culture.

Yesterday while reflecting about 4 more years of Bush I was talking with a woman staying in the shelter. I will give her a fake name, lets call her Laura B. Laura is 28, pregnant, (never considered an abortion). She finished highschool and did a year of college before dropping out to have a couple of kids with her military husband. Living in Virginia on base with her autocratic mate (he doesn't allow the boys 3 and 4 to say "yeap" they have to answer "yes sir") drove her crazy and she was hospitalized for suicidal thoughts. Military dude divorced her and has custody.

She came home to Mom in Mich and ended up at our shelter to try and sort out her life. (Mom has no money either and her own problems.) We, like all secular agencies, have seen a steady erosion of funds.

Laura B. has found a job working in the kitchen at a local faith based Christian College. She makes $6/hour. She drives a dying Ford Escort wagon pays $2.15/gallon for gas. Her latest crisis is her insurance expired on Oct. 9 (her ex-partner cancelled policy). She needs to come up with $211 to get insurance for one month or face a $1,000 fine if she gets caught driving with no insurance. We have some public transportation, Dial-a Ride, minibus runs between 7 am and 6 p.m., M-F $1.50 one-way. She has to be at work at 6am.

She has been walking to work lately but it is about 2 miles she is 5 months pregnant, it is dark at 5 am, and winter is coming. Solution? Go begging at the churches who seem to have money for these things. They will give her the money if she attends bible school. So last night she was at bible school until 9 p.m.

She has never attended our domestic violence support groups as she is too tired at night and goes to bed early but the bible study was not optional.

She was excited about "God's message" when she came back.

This week she moves into low income subsidized housing. Her newest crisis is she has found out when the college is closed for the Christmas holiday (one month) she has no employment. She is hoping to find temporary employment as a seasonal retail worker if the Christmas sales are brisk to tide her over. She doesn't know what she will do when the baby is born, hopes she can work up till the last week (she is on her feet all day with this job). She will be eligible for subsidized daycare.

She voted for Bush because of his "family values."What will it take to open these peoples minds?

dropped by  Asthmatic American on 05 November, 2004 11:47 [*]  

~$$$~