For the July 4th break I was looking forward to driving solo from my current home in Golden, CO to my childhood home in rural eastern Kansas. This was to be a journey of rediscovery of a day when voting Republican was a default position. An attempt to understand past perspectives and mid-western values. What follows is a stream of consciousness diary that attempts to capture random thoughts, observations and unintentional humor. For the sake of clarity verbiage from signs is
underlined.
Gawd, eastern CO and western KS are flat. I wonder if a person is more likely to look inward when there is less to look at outside. And if that person doesn't see anything purposeful within is that person more motivated and susceptible to have someone or something lead them? Strong religious and political opinions do seem to flourish out here. Naw, Boulder is a beautiful place and there is certainly a lot of navel gazing and internal searching going on.
Approaching the city of Colby. A motel sign features a Christian fish symbol with "nice" listed next to it. What's with that? I feel like I'm being excluded from understanding this secret code. Looks a bit cultish to me. Creepy. Not much on the AM dial. The strongest stations feature crop reports, old and tinny C&W and an evangelist blathering on about what the bible REALLY says and how we have it all wrong. Of course this guy has the southern accent and over-pronounces odd syllables. Is there some sort of college that trains these nut jobs? They all sounds alike and they always focus on the supernatural aspects of the New Testament and the vengeful God aspects of the Old Testament. Lots of Jesus references but I never hear any mention of the Beatitudes, which would seem to reflect what an honest Christian should be focusing on. Guess this "you're either with us or against us, 10 Commandments, I'm right and you're wrong attitude" is reflected in the Fundamentalist attitude that is in vogue in DC these days.
Lots of wheat and it's harvest time. Very cool. It makes sense why this is considered the breadbasket of the US. A KS farmer feeds 128 people plus you. I still have a few friends from Kansas State that live out here. Smart folks. One guy, who I also went to grad school with, believes that Fox News is truly fair and balanced and that Rush does a pretty good job of maintaining a balance. Other sources are tools of the radical left. Still trying to figure this out. A news update announces that O'Conner is retiring from the SCOTUS. Shit! Didn't expect that. Wasn't she one of the justices that appointed Bush? Mmmm. This might turn into a silver lining when Roe V. Wade becomes truly at risk. This will bring in a huge number of women voters who will vote against the anti-choicers in '06 and '08. Get out the popcorn. Still looking around for a Rush station. Wonder what he's going to say about this?
I figure that there are 20% of voters on the far right and 20% on the far left. These are the party storm troopers that are straight ticket voters who really believe everyone on the other side is stupid and evil. Don't waste your breath trying to reach these folks. There's probably another 40% who are apathetic about political issues and usually won't vote. Might be able to reach these folks with single-issue causes though. Wow, that leaves 20% of us who can, should and do make a difference. Keep up the good fight my friends. Nothing on the radio so in goes some Steve Ray Vaughan. "Hey, hey, hey mama..." That man can play.
Thank you for choosing life, Adoption not abortion, Abortion stops a beating heart. I understand the sentiments and admire the emotional framing but this just leads to bad policies. Approaching Russell, which is still far out in the plains of KS. Russell - boyhood home of Bob Dole and Arlen Specter. I met Dole back in '81 at a conference in New Orleans. I was the representative from my fraternity and was serving on some conference committees. With one hour of sleep and reeking of excessive Bourbon Street Hurricanes I met Dole on the elevator going up to a session. He was actually quite pleasant. Maybe it was my more conservative past but I feel that he could have made a good president. He's actually quite witty. Not sure why he's moved so far to the right and pushes BS issues like the Flag Amendment and the general I-Hat- Liberals attitude. On the outskirts of Russell; Lion's Den - Adult Superstore, too funny. Must be related to Bob's Viagra.
Finally tune into Rush. He's prattling on about the recent SCOTUS eminent domain ruling. I agree with him. That was an awful ruling and the right is certainly milking this against our side. WTF was that all about!? That'll come back and haunt us for years to come. Idiots. Live8 concert. Why should we help those Africans when they can't even help themselves? Forgiving loans is the same thing as a tax increase and a transfer of money from Producers to Non-producers. So very compassionate. When did liberalism start? It all started with Karl Marx. God that man is a fricken windbag with mean spirited and poorly informed positions. I notice that Rush constantly uses broad generalities and groups anyone who's not in his corner as a monolithic "They", and that liberals are "always" and "can't help themselves". No nuance here. Free land for industry. Now that's a sad commentary on the local economy. Looks like these little towns are trying to survive.
Rush: blah, blah, blah. In goes Joe Cocker. "Leave your hat on". Love that song. Passing exit 313 to KSU. Woo Hoo! Lots of great memories. Church of Christ The Church of no discrimination. Puts a smile on my face. Notice that I've seen lots of Support the Troops ribbons but not one single Bush/Cheney or Kerry/Edwards bumper stickers until mile 640! All drivers are courteous and there are lots of Walmart trucks out and about. Abortion kills what God creates. See the world's largest prairie dog. See live rattlesnake 37'' long live donkey (my favorite).
Many of my old buddies still vote Republican. A common thread among these folks seems to be a general ignorance (relative to the hyper-awareness of Kossacks) of the current scandals and a voting pattern strongly affected by the rightward leanings of AM radio and the MSM. Finally, there seems to be a pattern of voting out of habit or tradition. Even if some of these folks are single-issue voters (the rural folks do love their guns) they all want what everyone else wants. A secure country, a sense of hope for the future, a way to earn a living, and a longing for national leadership with integrity and a vision.
Perhaps the reader of this tale will arrive at his or her own message. To me it was a gentle reminder that we're all one people with different opinions and similar desires. Despite the current administration's desires to divide us we are not enemies and we do love this country and want to see it survive and prosper. We need to keep the pressure on Bushco, keep chipping away at these scandals and stay on the high moral ground. Finally, the shrieking that comes from our own 20% on the far left does us much harm in the red zone. To reach Middle America our message needs to be positive, simple and trustworthy. Keep up the good fight.