This is my first ever Diary so please be gentle.
I'm not going to go into all the myriad reasons why anyone who doesn't believe in the rapture or own an oil company ought to vote Democratic. Everybody here knows that already. A better question is why they don't.
Let me start with a true story.
I had just gotten back from Vietnam (where I had been injured by machine gun fire to the chest and shoulder incidentally). I was driving a taxi for the summer waiting for grad school to start in the fall. My hair was still short and my clothes gave no hint of who I was. Visually I couldn't yet be put in any category.
I'd grown up in a college town but I'd never understood why so many country folks seemed to hate college students. Mostly I just put it down to jealousy.
As an experiment, while I was driving my cab I put on a hillbilly accent to see what would happen. I never said anything stupid and I was always friendly. It was a revelation. So often I was treated contemptuously. It still makes my skin crawl when I think of those little smart asses making smarmy remarks sotto voce about me to their cute little girlfriends. Sometimes I wanted to climb over the back seat and strangle them.
The point is, country folks have put up with this condescension their whole lives. Of course they're pissed off. All you Volvo driving, white wine sipping sophisticates; can you see why someone you're looking down on might not want to get under the same tent with you?
One good thing I'll say for "W" (and believe me there's not much good I could say for him), he doesn't (or at least appears not to) feel uncomfortable with average people, maybe even people who aren't too bright. I know his policies are poison to them but frankly that's secondary to them. People vote less on issues and more on lifestyles. Cadillac Escalade people just don't care for Subaru drivers and vice versa.
Think for a minute of an honest, decent, hardworking, Christian family who try to live by The Golden Rule. They love Jesus and to show this they place the sacred symbol of the fish on the back of their car. Think for a moment of something or someone you hold in the highest regard. Gandhi, The Dali Lama, dolphin, it doesn't really matter. Now think of someone who totally mocks this person or creature. They ridicule it visually, make constant jokes about it. Now suppose at the same time they were trying to get you to vote with them. See what I mean?
I could go into any number of categories of people we've written off--cheerleaders, NASCAR fans, hunters, snowmobilers...........Instead of always preaching to the choir we need to start listening to people who aren't in the choir. Hell, we might even learn something new.
I believe that if we're going to start winning elections again, we are going to have to start regarding people as truly equal souls, each with their own right to be heard and respected. More than that, I think it's the best way to live.