Tuesday, June 26, 2012

What is a Republican?



I suppose this is an unsophisticated question.  After all, we all know country club Republicans and we know what they think about most things: They are rich and want to stay that way and want to pass all they have on to their children. But then there are the Joe Sixpack Republicans who drive trucks or maybe they own a gas station/garage or maybe they put on siding or do HVAC.  These people are more interesting. These are people who have not made enough money to join a country club and never will, but what are they thinking?

Well, for one thing they think "government" is essentially just another incarnation of the vice principle in charge of discipline they hated in high school. They may like their friend, the cop, but in general they don't like police. They certainly do not like the IRS or the federal government, although they love the Armed Forces and they cross their hearts and take off their hats when the national anthem is played at ball games. They own guns, or at least they like shooting them at gun ranges and it makes them feel as powerful as any black man who might happen to be President. They may harbor the dream of someday moving to Idaho and living off the grid, where no government can find them.  On the other hand, they love the idea of government agents stopping a car of Hispanic looking men and demanding "their papers" and dragging off these criminal invaders to some jail for the crime of   wanting to pick crops or build homes or bus dishes for minimum wages.

They agree with Ron Paul that Social Security and Medicare are unconstitutional, although they make no provision for their own retirement or health insurance and their parents are dependent on both federal programs and if their parents didn't have these programs, then their parents would become dependent on them.

They hate the idea they are not lone gunslingers riding across the endless grassy plains, dependent on no one. They live in fact in a technicolor fantasy world which is deeply contradictory in its beliefs and unconnected to reality.

But they like it. 

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