Tweet
It’s kind of interesting to see prime examples of what we politely call “low information voters.” These are people who form their opinions based on little or no research, when they need to read a variety of news sources on complex issues like health care. They usually receive information about candidates from TV or maybe only commercials. Sometimes it’s just talk radio, with Glenn Beck, Rush and Hannity doing the thinking for them.
One of these “low info” voters happened upon Sirius Out Q on the dial and onto Mike Signorile’s show — Harley from Indiana. Mike’s description:
She is a trucker who drank about a gallon of the Glenn Beck Kool-Aid. We can laugh at people like her — and I certainly did, all in good fun — but let’s just take note that she represents the many people out there who are very angry, uneducated about the issues and don’t have the time (or say they don’t) to find out the facts.
The level of ignorance, arrogance and paranoia she spews is astonishing. You can tell that she doesn’t have anything in the realm of sanity to say about the health care reform debate, as Mike tries to tell her that her “death panel” views based on lies have been disproven long ago.
Harley talks about how her mother is terminally ill, and of course she’s getting all the wrong facts about the future of health care. From where? Harley mentions “Channel 32″ as her news source — it’s the Fox News channel, we later confirm, and I bet Glenn Beck is feeding her delusions. Her rage — including at me, for having a supposedly “luxurious” job — is quite notable. Pathetically, these people don’t realize many of their problems lead right back to the policies of George W. Bush, Ronald Reagan and the party they all no doubt supported. And of course, the media doesn’t ever point this out to them.
9 Comments
These people are BORDERERS!…the ‘ancestors’ of todays teabaggers…See this from DKos.
…including the map showing which counties voted MORE REPUBLICAN in 2008.
A very good piece. My gfather was a Scot from Missouri..and definitely a Borderer… though a quiet one.
H.L. Mencken said it perfectly:
Are ya listenin’, Harley?
*sigh*Living in a state (Oklahoma) that went from red to Technicolor red in 2008, it’s really easy to get worn down when you are surrounded by all these Right Wing lemmings. I know they are idiots but maybe I’m one for staying in this cesspool of bigotry.
Dena
This is why……the death of print newspapers is such a tragedy for American democracy.
Do you REALLYthink that these people are reading the major news papers? Do you think that their local papers are any more likely to give them factual information?
They may not be perfect, some even as bad.But many are still much better than getting “news” from Fox News or the corporate nuts channel, CNBC.
This woman’s attitude…is all to common on the right. Its always sad to hear from LGBT folks that buy into the right wing crap.
People who say this “debate” is not about race are not paying attention. This is ALL about race and some deep rooted white resentment. That woman’s comments were just oozing with resentment. Her comments about “busting her but for 20 years” and “handing over the country to illegals” is at the very heart of this discussion. These people vicerally feel that the government will be turning over their “hard earned money” to a bunch of lazy or illegal black and brown folks. They have this deep rooted sentiment that someone is trying to take something away from them rather than give them much needed help. They hear government assistance, universal health care, etc all they picture is their money going to people that are not “real Americans.”
THIS is the race issue that desperately needs to be addressed, not the flap with Obama. The fact is that this is a problem that ALL Democrats are increasingly comming up against. The GOP is almost an entirely white party for a reason…and its fortunes are dictated exclusively by their ability to keep poor whites on their side. The Democrats openly and proudly see their party as a “rainbow” coalition. Its a party where minorities and all our unique cultural differences are embraced and seen as a source of strength. However, that image alienates these scared whites that sees our coalition grown larger by the day. I’ve seen more than a few of these right wingers say that the Democrats are the party of minorities. Its a party beholden to its “special interests.” “Special interests” are not the corporate masters who have a lock on both parties. No they are the blacks, the hispanics, the immigrants, the jews, the muslims, the athiests, the “militant” women, the gays, the environmentalists, the peacenicks etc. In their mind, the Democrats include everyone “not like them” and it scares them to death.
This is the conversation that we need to have. So much of our economic and social policy is driven by this single block of ignorance that has concluded that it is “us v them” and that their way of life is dependent on holding for dear life to the people that look and sound most like they do.
Heck, the circles I ran inand we are talking about roughly 150 people (my workplace), never met a Jew, a Muslim or interacted with POC (unless it was to mow their yard). They did meet a “militant” women, a gay person, an environmentalists and a Peacenick (and a Transsexual) though. Unfortunately, I had to keep all that under wraps. I was dealing with enough crap as it was.
Dena
what Glenn Beck isn’t telling them……well, there are a lot of things he isn’t saying. But importantly, what’s not being said is that the majority of Americans in poverty are of European heritage.
This is not to deny there’s an underclass, and (in fairly recent history) white Americans have generally been those more likely to improve their economic situation. However the broader trend is redistribution of wealth upward: both to a tiny percentage of super-wealthy individuals, and also shifting the tax burden onto workers (who can barely stay afloat) while loosening or liberating corporations from tax liability.
Whenever lower-income whites blame their situation on an “other” (people generally even deeper in poverty, but of another skin color)–or on immigrants–the corporate elite are overjoyed. They welcome any diversion of attention from plummeting wages (and overall compensation including benefits…and working conditions which either make people sick, or die more quickly). Also please let’s not notice how deregulation allows them to “externalize,” i.e. get the taxpayer to pick up the tab for fixing economic and environmental messes, which ought to be borne by those responsible (who are also those most able to pay).
When you hear talk of holding down inflation, what it really means is keeping salaries from increasing. Which benefits the elite not only because their labor costs remain low. Inflation is a concern primarily for those who have a lot of assets (and don’t want their value to decrease). Most working people actually benefit from inflation: because it puts upward pressure on wages, and because the value of their debt decreases. No wonder then why Wall Street likes to see high unemployment. Workers benefitting from government programs feel more secure in their jobs, and are less afraid to demand a fair share. No wonder the New Deal (or what’s left of it) is being dismantled.