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Election 08: The Common Man and Woman

Posted by JAZZ SHAW, Assistant Editor in Politics.
May 3rd, 2008 | Comments

My wife and I went out last night to celebrate the birthday of our friend Jon. We met up with him and his fiancee, Stacey, along with our friends Tim and Carl at a local pub. Since I was there, the conversation around the billiards table quickly turned to politics. I had my pocket recorder going just in case the conversation got good.

“So,” I put out to the assembled crowd, “what did you think about all that stuff with Jeremiah Wright?”

I was met with a collection of blank stares. “You know… the church pastor for Obama?”

“What about him?” asked Stacey.

“Well, he said a lot of really controversial things. God damn America… that our government created AIDS to kill off black people..”

“Blacks?” asked Tim. “They cooked up AIDS to kill off the queers.” (This was delivered without a bit of irony. Tim is something of a homophobe.)

“Monkeys.” Said Jon. “The virus came from monkeys in Africa. People were eating them or ****ing them or something. And then people got it.”

“We might have created it and were testing it in Africa” offered Stacey. “We have weapons that use diseases and gas and stuff.”

Carl finally spoke up. “I saw a special on that on TV. About gas weapons they used in World War One. Man, that stuff messes people up.”

“Yeah, that was pretty bad.” I desperately tried to steer the conversation back on track. “But what about this Wright guy? Do you think that will hurt Obama? Will people not vote for him because of that?”

My friends broke down quickly into a display of political acumen to make George Will proud.

“He’s the Democrat, right?”

“No. Hillary Clinton is the Democrat.”

“No, no… they both are. Romney is the Republican.”

This went on for a few more comments before I broke in and tried one last time.

“So… have you all decided who you’re voting for? Does that stuff about Reverend Wright bother you?”

I got two responses of “I don’t vote.” Stacey said she would vote for the Democrats. (Whoever they might prove to be.) The last response was an uncommitted grunt and a pointed change of topic to the Kentucky Derby.

I went home wondering why I bother writing this column.

  • I shudder to think how conversation about actual issues would have gone. Still, I guess the skittish fluctuations of the polls shows the sound bites have an impact on enough voters to make a difference. Sadly, it appears that thoughtful consideration of the issues has little chance of competing with the horserace mentality and reporting, negatives, electability, attack ads and guilt by associations.
  • Neocon
    Your not going to vote for a Muslim are you?

    Folks. I don't know how many times I hear this response when I have a discussion about politics.

    Despite the internet. Despite Blogs Americans are just as ill informed and ill prepared to make sound decisions as they ever were.

    I propose that the reason they are this way is because our government always just works. It always is sound, stable and reliable(you know what I mean). Its there and it works.

    We get up everyday to a safe America, go to work on safe roads, and discuss politics at the waterfountain without worrying about the people we just had that contentious debate dragging us out of our homes at night and beheading us.

    America just works. Therefore Americans just dont have to worry about who is in the White House. They have other more important things to worry about.

    Some might call it Apathy. I call it faith that what was yesterday will be tomorrow. And so the fact that people dont know who Obama's pastor is should be no surprise at all.
  • JSpencer
    Jazz, I'm not surprised by the reactions you received (sorry to say). Those of us who expect a relatively informed and caring level of political discourse spend most of our discussion with others who have a similar interest. Random conversations or polling of the man in the street, or in the bars, etc. are apt to scare up a more representative slice, which (in my experience) is bound to reveal a greater level of ignorance and apathy among the electorate. Unfortunately those voters are exactly the target the MSM aims at in their lowest common denominator approach to covering politics, and they are exactly the kind of fodder the current Whitehouse has expoited all along in order to implement their downwardly status quo "leadership" unimpeded. This continuing phenomenon is why my own hopes for the election of the lesser of the evils this year are being firmly restrained.
  • Holly_in_Cincinnati
    Jazz, ugh!
  • runasim
    This post, plus Neocon's ''governnment always works' comment really jolted me.
    I also notice that he people attending book fairs (as per C-Span) are mostly late middle age or elderly, along with some politically obsessed or single issue fanatics .

    It seems that thinking is going out of style, especially analytical thinking. We'd rather be entertained. as we willingly lock ourselves into cages to which a relative handful of the powerful hold the keys.

    I wonder how much this has to do with our frenetic life styles: always scrambling to make a buck, single moms working two jobs. What role does engaging in wars that never touch us personally play? Or is it the complacency. of the too comfortable?

    I compare this to the families I know in Europe and Israel, who order books by the half-dozen and are interested, engaged, and well-informed. But even France, for the first time, is interested in Sarkozy's private life.

    I'm just glad I don't have a crysstal ball. I don't want to see the future,, as I odn't think I'd like what I would see.




    .
  • JSpencer
    "It seems that thinking is going out of style" ~ runasim

    You nailed it friend.
  • DLS
    Look at the bright side of a dim situation. At least some of them aren't voting.

    I've already been on record numerous times with other examples why the vote ideally should be qualified and even weighted.
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