Imagine two men.
Man #1 is a 29 year old married white man who has lived in rural West Virginia his entire life. He has taken some college classes but on the whole has no desire to go back and get a degree. He says, “yes ma’am” and “yes, sir” instead of “yeah.” He and his father work the farm that has supported the family for five generations. He loves to take his nephews for tractor rides. In his spare time he goes fishing and turkey hunting. He is an expert sharp shooter – he has no competitive bone in his body, but if he wanted to he could be a nationally recognized target shooter. He wants his children to be home-schooled and he changes his own oil. He registered to vote as a Republican on his 18th birthday and voted for Bush in 2000.
Man #2 is also white and 29 years old. He has been married for four years and lives on the East Coast. He loves to listen to National Public Radio and has been to two live productions of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion. His favorite food is Thai and Ethiopian and he knows how to fix killer tofu, which he does on a regular basis. He spends his Sunday afternoons relaxing with his wife reading the Sunday Washington Post. He thinks drugs should be legalized and that there are instances when abortion is permissible. He supports his wife in her career choices and encourages her to keep advancing. He does the laundry as often as she does. He sees nothing wrong with civil marriages for gays and lesbians and thinks that American needs a system of universal health care. He voted for Kerry in 2004.
Obama might classify man #1 as someone who “holds fast to his religion and his guns;” someone who is backward and againstprogress. A conservative who is satisfied with the status quo and isn’t creative or intelligent enough to realize that there is more to life than hunting and farming.
McCain and his conservative supporters would write off man #2 as a “liberal elite.” They see him as a man out of touch. Only “liberal elites” eat tofu and listen to NPR on the radio as they drive to their favorite Ethiopian restaurant.
The problem for both Obama and McCain is that there is no such thing as man #1 and man #2. There is only Gabe – my husband.
That is the reality, folks. Both man #1 and man #2 are one in the same.
To those fellow Republicans who would label him as an East Coast elitist: you are free to dismiss him if you want to, but you need to realize exactly what it is you are dismissing. He’s far from a radical leftist and more in touch with the needs and concerns of the working and middle class Americans than any Republican who serves in DC.
To the Obama supports who write him off as a red-neck or hillbilly: to ignore him is to do so at your peril. He may own more rifles than most people own coffee mugs, but you need him to win this election. You may think his work ethic and morals are quaint and old-fashioned, but he is living life the way his mother and father taught him.
Why can’t we stop the name calling, the stereotyping, the misrepresentations, the negative campaign ads, and address the issues that have actual meaning to the electorate?
Oh, I remember: this is an American presidential election. Talking about things that really matter isn’t allowed.
