There may be some hope for a backlash against the Right Wing's grip on the redder parts of the map.
I am a weirdo, I am very politically liberal in most areas of my life, but somehow I end up working in situations with people on the opposite end of the spectrum. A good part of that is the fact that I live in the (now) very-red-and-only-getting-redder state of Missouri and work in a very rural county.
My co-workers are good people, they honestly want the best for their families and community, I would also classify most of them as reasonably intelligent, some very much so.
However, their faith in Fox News and Rush Limbaugh, et al. makes me twitchy. One of them thought that the Paul Ryan budget plan was the bee’s knees… and she has elderly parents and she herself is in her mid-50s. She missed the memo that she would have fewer benefits if Ryan’s plan were to become law. Another co-worker, hates Obama, and though she would never call it racial, she has made disparaging comments about his being African American and yet, she has dated black men. My boss is elated that most of the elected officials in County Government are Republicans, stating, “we have almost taken over.” Yet another co-worker, a very very smart man, is in the habit of comparing the government checkbook to a family checkbook. So this sets the stage…
Now, though, I think the buyer’s remorse is starting to set in. The Presiding Commissioner in this county was a Democrat for over 12 years, the same guy, and my co-workers complained about him up one side and down the other. He was swept out of office in 2010 with so many incumbents & Democrats. Just yesterday I heard the first nice thing said about the ex-commish… I almost went in search of a cotton swab.
Here in Missouri, we have been hit with a large amount of snow in the last 2 week (over 20 inches), and there was rather a kerfuffle when employees were told that they had to use vacation time to cover the hours they were let off early on one of the snow days, even though the County Courthouse was officially closed at 12 noon, per listings on local media. They Powers That Be relented a little bit, allowing us to use sick time instead. But in the discussion yesterday, one co-worker actually said, “The Old Commish would have just said ‘go home’ and not worried about it.” The Paul Ryan fan said, “Yeah. These new guys, we need to vote ‘em out.”
My cotton swab moment was also a grim (internal) headshaking moment, thinking, “you get the government you deserve.” If you want government that cares about you as an employee, you better be voting for those who care about people in general and not some bottom line or special interest. If you don’t vote your real values, you get exactly what you vote for.