the misinformed

The word spews out of his mouth like acid, burning as he places his blame.  Liberals, he mutters, upon watching the TVs in the corner of the sandwich shop play a Barack Obama campaign ad.  He finishes his Pepsi and wipes the crumbs from his chin.  His hands, worn and dirty from what I can only imagine must be a hard days work and his clothes, tired, torn, old, hang off his jagged frame. 

He’s probably experienced rising taxes over the past several years.  He’s probably been forced to work overtime to pay his rising mortgage and housing costs, variable interest fees crushing his wallet and his ego.  His kids probably go without things their friends might have and his beat up Ford pickup suggests its seen better days. 

He stands up and exits, propping the door of his pickup open, revealing a Vets sticker on the lower right side.  Ah.  He’s been to war and made it back.  He’s fought for this country – who can tell if he even knows why.  His life is a daily struggle, never quite making the two ends of the string meet and always running a few steps behind. 

He grew up with parents both staunchly religious and outright intolerant.  They are red in a blue state but so are many of their friends, their extended family – the working class, representing a different belief system. 

They aren’t stupid, just naive.  They believe the Right when they say the Left is terribly unpatriotic because they don’t support the war.  It doesn’t matter that the Left actually believe the war is wrong because it is without reason or cause or basic logic even and it is killing their sons and their daughters.  They hear “tax cuts” and think it’s for them and praise Jesus, they’ll get a bit of a break this year.  Thank God for Republicans.  No one tells them they don’t make $250 grand a year or more (more!) and therefore won’t be graced with a break on this year’s tax form.  They watch the TV explain to them that it is liberals that want to raise their taxes for social welfare programs and they scoff – they don’t believe in welfare programs even though they don’t realize that more revenue could mean better education for their kids.  Cheaper in-state tuition at the local colleges, more opportunities for small businesses in the area to succeed and compete, a more secure housing market with fair lending opportunities. 

No, the TV tells them that Democrat equals liberal and liberal equals everything that is wrong with this country.  They listen and nod as the conservative Right talk about gays and abortion and they agree – those things are wrong.  They must be stopped.  They either tune out or disconnect when they hear bad news about Iraq, the growing deficit, the economic shitstorm. 

They click on their online banking and see the  balance.  They wonder how they’ll get through the week. 

And on November 4, they’ll vote for the war hero and the chick with the Tina Fey glasses.   They just can’t see anything else.