So today I took off to the barbershop for a somewhat regular 2 week haircut, blissfully unaware of the kind of attitudes and political ignorance I would encounter there.
Let me first set the scene.
I live in Arizona on the outskirts of Phoenix. The area I currently live in used to be a small, rural area filled with orange orchards, dairies and other types of farms. More recently, the area has become the outpost of Phoenix's ever-expanding suburban sprawl, bringing middle-class transplants, snowbird retirement communities, strip malls and huge pre-planned homesites to this former desert farmland. The area is in a growth spurt, but still has rural, small town enclaves, though increasingly surrounded by sprawl. My barbershop is located in one of them.
So I walked in and after a short wait, I had a seat in the barber's chair. He was one of 4 working that day, (3 men and one woman), which is the total staff this small, traditional barbershop can support. There were also a couple of people seated in the waiting chairs directly across from the barbers.
Suddenly an older man seated in the waiting area started a discussion with the barbers. He wasn't speaking to anyone specifically, it was more of a group conversation. This is the closest approximation I can recreate from memory of what was said:
OLD MAN: So what about that presidential election?
MALE BARBER #1: Yeah, Hillary came in third.
OLD MAN: Who would want to vote for her anyway? Why would you want to vote for her, because she's a woman? As if that's a good enough reason.
FEMALE BARBER: But I'm not so sure about that Obama either. I have a problem with him not pledging allegiance.
OLD MAN: What do you mean?
FEMALE BARBER: He refuses to pledge allegiance to the flag.
OLD MAN: Really? I hadn't heard that.
FEMALE BARBER: Yeah.
MALE BARBER #2: It's because he's Muslim.
MALE BARBER #3: Well, part Muslim and part Christian.
FEMALE BARBER: Yeah... 90% Muslim and 10% Christian!
On that, the discussion turned to talk of the Republicans and how they were dissatisfied with all the candidates. They eventually started speaking about Colin Powell and how they kind of wished he was running, which made me believe that the earlier comments about Obama were perhaps not founded on racism. Or maybe they were simply trying to gloss over any racist leanings to the other people in the room by speaking somewhat favorably about Powell. You know, a kind of "some of my best friends are" type of moment. Couldn't tell.
But what I got out of this discussion is the basic ignorance and attitudes about Democratic candidates that persist in this type of community. Not to mention the fact that they are spreading these types of false, negative portrayals to friends and neighbors, who seem to be willing to believe anything they hear from others in the community.
Very disturbing and quite sad.
DISCLAIMER - Now please note that this diary is in no way trying to raise questions about Obama's electability in a general election, although I myself will readily admit that I have questioned his electability in the past, mostly in relation to poll data. Anyone who has run into me on this site knows that I support, (actually, I mostly defend), another candidate, but I also dislike any candidate being smeared and bashed with negative exaggerations and slanderous falsehoods, be them my candidate or any other. I've even had heated arguments with members of my own family, (one of my aunts), in defense of Obama, when they forwarded an email to me from an uncle who was trying to spread the Obama madrassa story a few months back. So I will readily defend any of our candidates against the Republican attack machine.
No, this diary is a retelling of an actual event, involving real people and real sentiments. So this is definitely out there, it's not an illusion. How isolated or widespread it is, and whether or not the Republicans and swift boaters would use it, I couldn't tell you. But if Obama is our nominee, it's something we should be prepared to attack and dismantle in advance.