Archive for May 18th, 2008

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I’d had your piece sent to me by relatives there in KS as part of a general blast sending it to all their friends. It struck me how very different sides of the fence there really is, and I wonder if there’s any way around it. I grew up in Smalltown, KS (Emporia to be specific), and now have lived in San Francisco since I came out here for college. 

When I first heard Obama’s comments, I thought ouch, he’s going to get smacked around for that – but that also the words were rather true. Emporia recently had some Somali’s imported into town by a local company as a new labor force, and the racism, fear, and loathing (not that they took any already existing jobs) was just profound. From my days in KS, IA, and MS, I always remembered with fondness the open doors, the friendly, the everyone knew your name, and it’s what I was always so wistful about being able to return one day and settle back down. But the short-sighted fear and venom of anything different than themselves was just stunning. There were actual posts about the diseases carried by these people, how they’ll rape your daughters. Effectively the very same kinds of things said about Mexicans, or about the Irish when their last migration came in during the turn of the last century, and so it goes.

If it’s true that small-town folks don’t like government trying to solve problems for them – so if I’m reading it right (and from the general tenor of things), small towns don’t like federal social programs (giving money to people who don’t help themselves) and whatever else happens to be the democratic cry of the day. But how is that fundamentally different to the opposition that Democrats have of Republicans trying to solve their perceived lack of morality. Perhaps the dividing line is republicans are concerned with  imposing right-wing Christian morals, and democrats with imposing “responsibility” for whomever or whatever crosses their path.

Is there such a difference in intrusive government between one side forcing me to believe abortion is a sin, and the other side that welfare is a necessary element? I think that after reading your post, there’s no common frame of reference for both sides. It’s so alien to each other’s experience – for big towns, immigrants are inherently useful to doing jobs that Americans don’t take anyway (due to the cost of living, it’s simply preposterous for anyone college age or above to take those 7-11 or mcdonalds jobs). But in a small town where the economy base is very different, then they may well be taking someone’s job. Ok, I can go with that but consider how the perspective flips at a certain point. Republicans don’t like immigrant policy by and large. But they do tend to support corporations, so it’s the Repub’s that have always supported and pushed through the H1-B visa quota – which allow professional work-visas (mostly from India). Those threaten the large city professional’s job, but those legal immigrants are supported by Republicans but Decried by Democrats.

If I were to ever get laid off, unemployment can’t do anything for me (are you aware that it only gives a % of a salary, but only to a certain point, after which it cap’s off – effectively if you make 75k a year or 200k, your amount you would receive would be the same, doing zero good). So economy is more important in a large economy base in the sense that a worker making 40k has a short term safety net of unemployment. Someone making 120k does not. The same amount that helps the one person at least make rent and get groceries can’t help the other person nearly at all.

I can respect the difference views. I was small town once, and had harbored the illusion of still being a small town boy at heart. But I’m not scared of illegal immigrants nearly as much as I am of people who kneejerk (on either side of the spectrum). Or who simply spout out the same fear-mongering that was thrown about 200 years ago when the Germans were first arriving in droves, and been pretty consistent since then.

I used to be a proud war-hawk. But with the Iraq debacle, we lost all moral high ground we had achieved since WWII and up to and including Afghanistan. But starting with his unilateral dismissal of SALT II, through an invasion on known-bogus pretences, the role which used to be the Republicans badge of honor (that America was the world’s role model), has all but evaporated in under 8 years. Even Regan would have been disgusted.

Anyway, thanks for the chance to vent/write. I did appreciate your article in that you were eloquent in responding without just ranting that he’s a jerk. And that you showed that there’s such a divide in perspective that it’s sad that no matter what happens on November 4^th, on the 5^th, 50% of the country will feel deeply/profoundly wounded.

Perhaps there is no way for the sides to come together. It’s hard enough to see the other side, let alone to be able to merge them together.