This is an essay that has been brewing in my thoughts for some time. First I introduce myself... then I introduce three separate, but intertwined concepts that seem to have brought us to where we are today...
Me:
I consider myself a very informal student of human nature. I have been intensely interested in why people do what they do... their motivations, the life experiences that have shaped them and all that good stuff. Being a nurse in public health, I almost feel like I'm in the catbird seat as far as observation goes. Every week, my job brings work in the WIC clinic, giving immunizations (esp. flu shots this time of year), investigating communicable disease, dealing with public fears about the bug of the moment, etc. So my curiosity is never fulfilled... it's a bottomless well.
- The Fear of the Other that I'm seeing in my small town co-workers:
My co-workers also give me a lot to observe and ponder. I was raised in suburban St. Louis, pretty much as white bread middle class as you can find... but my parents were an anomaly... high school educated readers with the desire to explore and learn and know everything they could. My mom used to say, "we did pretty good for two dumb old country kids." However, if there is one thing that my parents WEREN'T is dumb!
So anyway, back to the co-workers... by and large, they were born & raised in and around Fulton, Missouri... small town Missouri, very rural. Most of them are very intelligent people and all of them are very GOOD people. But politically, only 3 of the 12 people in my office are voting for Obama, or at least being open about it.
For the majority supporting McCain, I hear a great deal of fear of Obama and I'm trying to understand why. Some quotes:
"I'm scared to think of the explosion in social services if Obama gets elected. We'll have to go back to doing home health visits again."
"Obama is just scary." (this is the from the woman who will date men of other races, she is also the one who passes around every negative thing about Obama without checking the veracity of it)
"With the terrorism out there, I'm just scared."
"I like Sarah Palin, I think she'll go to Washington and shake things up."
"I just didn't like the lifestyle and all those different people." (reflection on recent trip to Miami by co-worker)
- The REAL America Mythos
I started out calling the idea the American Suburban Mythos... but have since added the American Smalltown mythos corollary to it, and have really boiled it down (thanks the Republicans), to the "REAL" America Mythos. Simply defined, is an idolization of 1950s as the epitome of American cultural perfection. It also has sort of wild west/rugged individualism/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps sheen on it as well. It seems that so many yearn to turn the clock back to that time that never really existed.
- The Believers
This is well-illustrated in the movie Serenity... In short, a Believer is committed to the concept of the Perfect World, so much so that any means employed in reaching that goal are justified. These people are RIGHT and they are therefore doing what "they have to" in order to create that Perfect World, because of this, they are not innocent but they are absolved in some way.So now we come to 2008. It makes me think of a documentary I once saw about about 1968, which called it a Crack in Time. We have reach another crack, precipice, or whatever else you want to call it. We are 40 years from that great social upheaval which led directly to the Conservative backlash under which we have lived since Reagan took office.
We really do have ideas and beliefs and economics clashing. It feels momentous, nigh on cataclysmic for those of us living through it. The 1960s/the 1860s all over again. I also find it interesting that both of those time periods had presidential assassinations in them, it also frightens me.
I think that those supporting McCain are deeply afraid of having a black democratic president. Most of these people are good people, just like my co-workers. If you asked of them about their racial views, 95% of them would not admit to being racist, BUT you would hear a lot of things about the evils of the welfare state and socialized medicine... seemingly, a black president is an icon of those and similar ideas for them. Interestingly enough, the county in which I work is overwhelmingly white.
The nexus where the REAL America mythos, the Believers and fear meet is a place where scary things are very possible. Fear is a very powerful motivator and the effects of it are often unpredictable. We have seen that clearly in the video from Republican rallies. The hate is thinly veiled, these people Believe they are right and the ends justify the lengths they would be willing to undertake in bringing about their vision of a perfect world. And their vision is born out of their longing for the past and a fear of what might happen.
It's not really surprising that someone such as Sarah Palin was chosen to run with John McCain. She is the epitome of this nexus. She is from small town America, where things have changed more slowly than in bigger cities. In that she represents the REAL America Mythos perfectly. She also is a Believer, her actions as governor illustrate that... she has broken ethics rules and done plenty of things that don't seem to sync with her religious views, but the ends again justify the means. So couple that with the fear so many have of change or whatever, and it's easy to see why some gravitate towards her.
This year however, the focus on the culture wars and the broad strategies so successfully employed by the Republicans since 1994 have been obscured by the real world economic crisis. Generally speaking, when people have to worry about food & shelter, they don't care so much about culture war issues. Right now, the Republicans are the ones who don't seem to get it and are seemingly trying to run last year's campaign in a new political & economic climate.
No doubt, we are at a veritable crossroads for our country and world. We have the rise of Believers all over the globe, it really doesn't matter what belief system they espouse. What matters is the fact that they each have their own Big Picture of the Perfect World (TM) and they don't really care what it takes to achieve it, as long as it happens. We have a Big Distrust of America... and whomever is elected will have a lot of work to recover the damage done by BushCheneyCo. The Global $$ Debacle is stressing the world, and when people don't have money (ie food & shelter), violence & vileness become much more commonplace. The US is also losing some of its economic might and scientific edge to countries like China & India, so the next president will have yet another uphill battle to fight on that front. The last key challenge our next president will face is truly being a Uniter and not a Divider.... our country has been been far too polarized for far too long, and it will take a person of extraordinary skill to knit it back together.
No real conclusion... except THINK & VOTE! I'm hopeful for change, but I won't really be comfortable until all the votes are counted.