Last night I took a break and was playing winster. For those of you who don't know its a social gaming site where you can chat and exchange pieces with 4 other people.
So one woman asks shortly after I get there, so who's decided who they are voting for? I reply that I have. I asked "are you undecided"? She said no, that she was a republican and would be voting McCain. Well I figured she brought it up so she must want to talk about it, so I engaged her.
She basically brought up all the republican talking points. First thing she was worried about was that Obama would affect her family's income, because they work in the coal industry. I replied that Obama is not against clean coal. She said that they do strip mining, and she said that she worries about the environment but that their immediate survival trumps that. I could understand that, and wasn't sure of Obama's stance on the issue. I simply said that I am an issues voter and that is why I'm voting Obama. I'm worried about the economy, and he has a plan to create millions of new jobs in the energy field. I suggested that if she wanted to know the stance of Obama on issues that she go to his website because its all there.
She went on to say that she thinks McCain will create jobs too, and that Obama's tax plan while it SOUNDS good to tax rich people, the real effect is to make them move their businesses and money out of the country. I said that Obama has a plan to give tax breaks to companies that stay and hire in the US, and I thought that was a better plan than blanket tax breaks for rich people and companies. I went on to say that the "trickle down" has stopped trickling, and in fact its been trickling up for quite some time. She didn't argue with that.
She said that she had made a mistake and voted for Bush. I thought that was a golden opening. I pointed out that McCain has voted with Bush over 90% of the time. Her response to that was well at least he's there to vote. She made a lot of the talking point that Obama voted "present" many times. I hadn't researched this point but she didn't seem any more knowledgeable than me. I just said that so had McCain, and in fact he's been absent way more than Obama. I said that all senators vote "present" when they don't want a vote one way or the other to be recorded. It's just how the senate works. I'm not sure I was right on that but I'm hoping so.
I said then, to defuse any feeling of being attacked that I am not anti-republican, I am pro Obama. I think that McCain is old and sick and thats just a fact. She said that she doesn't agree with Palin's stance on abortion but doesn't think anything will happen to McCain. She then said something I thought significant. She said that she is afraid there will be riots and anger whichever way the election goes. I never think that it is helpful to operate out of fear, so I just replied that I didn't think so. We have much bigger problems, people's savings and retirements are evaporating and people are suffering.
Well after several minutes of this kind of back and forth she finally said, "I know your right but I'm just afraid of Obama". She couldn't actually name her fear, it was all wrapped up into one person, Obama. I realized that if she couldn't name her fear then it was probably latent racism, so decided not to try to fight it. I simply replied that I am afraid of McCain, because he's getting more and more confused. I said that just the other day he referred to his fellow Americans as "My fellow prisoners". Well that seemed to flip some kind of switch in her. She wanted a reference. I found the link which took some time and she waited, and then left saying she had to see it.
So my final impression after my conversation with this mostly reasonable republican, was that she WANTED to vote for Obama, she's just afraid to.
The media could help us out here, after all its their retirements at risk too. If they would stop portraying republican talking points as reasonable and vet the facts like McCain DIDN'T vet Palin, a lot of these people would lose this nameless fear. And how about that confused moment getting some air play?