I was out with my mother a couple weeks back taking her to an appointment when a guy in a pick-up truck comes around the passenger side, bends his head down behind rolled up windows, and mouths something my way with a scowl on his face. I assume it had something to do with the bumper stickers on my car. I was talking with Mom about something, and just smiled really broadly and waved. The light changed and we all moved on.
A week later I was at another intersection when a woman on the other side of the car motioned for me to roll my window down. ‘Oh, God,’ I thought. ‘Now what kind of argument am I going to get?’ Quite the contrary, she wondered where I got my bumper sticker. She wanted one, too. In our before-the-light-changed 30 second conversation, she offered how she was ‘terminal’ and that her husband had worked in the sheet metal business for 39 years, not taking raises for 21 of them. Now his retirement and medical coverage were getting cut and what they are going to get will barely cover their mortgage. A couple days later, another spontaneous sympathetic conversation broke out in a parking lot regarding my If ‘No’ wins, America loses: Vote Democrat sticker. It seems that a lot of folks are emotionally involved in the problems our country and the world economy are having right now and they’re not afraid to talk about it with strangers.
I must admit, this winter was a pretty bleak time for me. I have walked neighborhoods for a few presidential elections, passing out literature and encouraging all registered voters to do their civic duty. And, oh, was I excited about the Obama election. As a youngster coming of age during the Kennedy years, I’ve called myself a Democrat for every primary I’ve ever voted in and do, indeed, write a check now and then to a candidate or election committee. That’s how I got my bumper sticker.
But this winter with the health care fix getting chewed up by Rush and Fox News every day, I just felt like holing up in by basement. I mean, if America doesn’t want to see protections in place to help other Americans keep their homes, jobs, and health, what the heck can I do about it? It’s nice to be the party in power, but it seems that so many Americans, Republicans, Tea Partiers, and Ditto Heads think such protections are socialist or the product of Nazi thinking. I don’t get it.
I read in this morning’s paper that it’s natural for folks to drift Right politically during financial hard times. And with a black man as President, the once-strong majority race -- soon to be a white plurality -- is not so willing to see such social change. I’ve heard it said on MSNBC more than once that the Tea Party is made up of angry white folks. From pictures in the news of their rallies, such seems pretty accurate to me.
Still, the Tea Party and the GOP get pretty good press at a time when the ruling and duly elected Democrats forge new laws based on their 2008 election platform. Seems like the American way to me. These folks were elected. Let them work. Americans get a chance to vote again this fall. Let’s see how the Dems do. If past practice holds true, they will lose seats in the House, maybe the Senate. Sitting Presidents usually lose seats in off-year elections, though this time it shouldn’t change the majority. But I would hope the Democrat’s difficult work reforming health care and the finance industry -- with no Republican help -- will swing some voters into the Democratic column who care about the folks who live on their street.
Sure seems like the compassionate thing to do.
I am surprised to read comments from some Facebook friends -- all younger than I, some former students -- about how conservative they are. Maybe it’s a religious thing. Abortion seems to be the acid test on morality. But it sure seems to me that corporate influence in government has been immoral, if not downright bad, for America. Think BP, Goldman Sachs, and Halliburton.
The Democrats aren’t perfect, but I’d rather put my money on them to re-shape and reform an America I can believe in.
Today’s elder idea: Yes, we can.
2008 Barack Obama slogan
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