I had volunteered during the Health Plan Townhall with the DCCC a week or so ago to talk to my neighbors about health care reform, and today, while out perusing the local garage sales, I had my chance. What ensued was the purchase of some of the most poorly-manufactured, used "As Seen on TV" items with photos of Billy Mays on them (complete with rust) I have ever had the misfortune to buy at a garage sale (but the prices were FIRM!) , and the most ridiculous argument I have ever had with a conservative Republican - two doors down from my house.
Follow me over the fold to listen to my personal head-on experience of how a close-minded conservative is being led down the garden path of shilling for the rich and the insurance companies, and her corporate masters - out of fear that the government, and the blacks, will take away what is left of their dwindling middle class life.
The woman I spoke to lives in abject fear that her marginal and dwindling lifestyle will be reduced to poverty... and it's all because of Obama and Nancy Pelosi. Senseless, yes! But we need to understand what is happening to people who are just like us, who live in homes just like ours, but who believe Glenn Beck when he opens his piehole and says Obama and Nancy Pelosi are going to make them poor.
I opened with a little story of my trip down to the hoity toity jewelry store a mile or two away, and described it to her: "Those men are wearing Armani suits behind the counter! And a customer asked him 'How is the recession been treating you?' and they said 'Well not bad at all! Business is still good!' And I wasn't surprised, because the rich have gotten richer to the tune of 65% during the Bush years!" And she scowled at me.
Neighbor: "Oh, everybody is going to be hit by the recession. Obama is going to raise the taxes on the middle class!"
Me: (ready for this one) Obama has already cut taxes under the stimulus bill to all working Americans making under $250,000. If you work you would have gotten a reduction in your withholding this spring."
Neighbor: (even more agitated now) "I don't work. I'm laid off, and I couldn't afford healthcare under COBRA."
Me: (gleeful now) Well under the stimulus bill you would have received a subsidy for your insurance premiums if you were laid off any time from September 2008, the beginning of the recession."
Neighbor: "No, I didn't. I couldn't afford it."
Me: "Were you laid off in 2008?"
Neighbor: "No, in 2007. I couldn't get health care until my husband's job picked it up."
Me: "Do you make less than $250,000 a year? If your husband is working he would receive a reduction in his tax withholding, that's a tax cut, as of April 2009."
Neighbor: "My husband got his hours cut by 15% thanks to Obama!"
Me: (surprised) you think that Obama cut your husband's hours at his job? Obama and the Congress are only responsible for the taxes, not the jobs. You hold him responsible for your husband's employer cutting his hours? Isn't that his employer's fault?"
Neighbor: (in high dudgeon, while her mother, in the background, smirks with amusement) "The company can't afford to keep everyone employed because Obama is taxing them, that's why they're cutting hours! Him and Nancy Pelosi!"
Me: "How could Obama do that? There haven't been any tax increases for corporations."
Neighbor: "But there will be. He's going to tax the rich, that's what he says, and the rich are the ones GIVING us the jobs, and they won't be able to afford it. Where do you think the jobs COME FROM? They come from the rich!"
Me: (stunned): "Do you really think you are going to get taxed more making under $250,000 even though 96% of all Americans have ALREADY received a tax cut under the Stimulus bill?"
Neighbor: "My sister in law makes really good money, over $500,000, and she says things are getting worse for her. And this health plan bill is going to cost $1 trillion dollars and add to the deficit, the deficit is already trillions of dollars and he's just going to make it worse for them!"
Me: "The health care bill is going to be paid for by a tax on the 4% of the richest Americans whose income went up by 65% during the Bush Years, and by increasing taxes on insurance companies and on reducing payments going to them from the Medicare system, not on average middle class Americans."
Neighbor: (changing the subject again) "I read that bill. It's going to cover millions of illegal aliens who aren't even Americans, and it's going to come out of my pocket!"
Me: "That's Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck lying to you. Those things aren't true, and you would know that if you looked at the health care bill. Coverage for illegal aliens is NOT in the bill."
Neighbor: "Yes it is."
Me: "They are lying to you. Look, this isn't about politics. This is about policy."
Neighbor: "Don't go off on Glenn Beck and Rush. I believe them. I'm a conservative Republican and I am NOT an Obama supporter. And the illegal aliens are going to get health care that I have to pay for and the insurance companies are going to go out of business and we won't have any health care anymore. We won't be able to afford it! You're a Democrat, I'm not going to convince you..."
Me: "I'm not a Democrat. I'm a registered Independent. And I can tell you from reading the bill, that only Americans will be covered by the health care program. And private insurance companies will not be forced out of business. That is Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh lying to you. Don't listen to them."
Neighbor: "I'm not going to listen to you."
Me: "Look it up yourself. Read the bill. Republicans put in amendments that will make sure that private insurance is not going to go away and that illegal aliens are not going to have free health care."
(Long discussion about how the rich pay their way and earn all of their money so that she can live...)
Neighbor: "I hate arguing politics, Obama is going to destroy this country." She buttonholes a young married couple half-listening from down the sidewalk. "Are you Obama supporters?" They both shake their heads, stunned and frightened. "I'm not going to argue with Obama supporters. I'm not an Obama supporter!"
Me: "Thanks for the stuff. Read the bill. Decide for yourself what the truth is."
This woman is afraid that her corporate masters, and her husband's corporate masters, will PUNISH THEM FURTHER, reduce his already marginal working hours, if Obama threatens their profits. She starts out as a racist, and allows in all of the lies and misrepresentations and distortions, and more than once shrilled at me "Obama is a Racist!" even though I never once defended Obama, nor claimed to be an Obama supporter. And if she does not do as Glenn Beck says, then the corporate masters will take away what little fragile security she and her husband still have, and GIVE IT TO THE BLACK PEOPLE.
This is why Glenn Beck needs to be held accountable for the rampant racist dogwhistling, and why, particularly us white people who look just like those fearful racists, need to confront the huge haystack of lies being shoveled onto them by ignorant hate-driven Fox News hosts and irresponsible politicians, because they are being convinced that instead of their taxes being cut (even though it's in her husband's payroll withholding) that they will be punished by the corporations for what Obama is going to do to them. That is how ignorant they are.
And no, I am NOT in a red state, or even a red county. This is a mixed neighborhood in a mixed county in a reliable blue state.
Folks: talk to your neighbors. Confront the ignorance head-on. It is deep, and it is getting deeper. And work to get Glenn Beck off the air.