Owen, I'm afraid part of (y)our problem in understanding this
phenomenon is that the people you get "up close and personal" with are
likely not remotely representative of the population as a whole. I can
confirm, for starters, that my wife Maggie and I have experienced the
most amazing culture shock in many places when we drive back and forth
between here and cozy New England (which appears to be safely and
uniformly in the Obama camp, including Live Free or Die New
Hampshire). Not that people are hostile, but they are just living in
an entirely different culture in most parts of the country between
here and there(Iowa being an interesting kind of an exception, on
which subject I had a very interesting FRIAM conversation with Carl a
couple of weeks back).
The fear factor is also huge. I'm afraid a much larger fraction of the
Muslim Arab terrorist socialist marxist Malcolm X's love-child crap is
sticking to the wall than you or I could ever imagine possible.
Data point: I have a Massachusetts friend who works for a nuclear
energy company part of which is Duke Engineering in NC. Well-educated
colleagues he works with from Virginia (the "more southern in nature"
parts ) and NC often express openly that if a Democrat is elected
president -- ANY democrat, this was true even four years ago -- Arab
terrorists will completely take over the US. People actually believe
this.
Another data point: I have a good friend in NH, sixty-something,
highly educated engineer, who I find it absolutely impossible to have
a political conversation with, not because we disagree, but because
his opening gambit in any conversation seems to come straight from
what I (and I suspect you) would consider total whacko right-wing AM
talk radio, whether the subject is mocking my brother in law for
buying a Prius, or the US occupation of Iraq, or how liberals
inevitably have ill-behaved children, etc.etc. There simply isn't even
a starting point for a conversation -- very discouraging. I'm afraid
it's a big ugly world out there.
Now I'm really sorry I missed FRIAM this morning, but I'll hope to see
you all next week.
john
On Oct 31, 2008, at 10:53 AM, Owen Densmore wrote:
Just as in the earlier elections with George Bush, I'm astonished at
how close the race is, not just who is winning.
When Bush won, it was really hard to believe: he's clearly
incapable. The Dems on the other hand, chose a poor candidate in
the 04 race, so that could be part of it. And he did steal the
race, but he could only do so because the separation was so small.
But given the obvious failure of the Bush administration, why in
hell is this race so close? Obama will likely win, but I simply
cannot understand why 45% or so really think McCain is better!
Its easy to shrug, and say most people are idiots. Maybe. But up
close and personal, you find this isn't true. So what is the "ghost
in the works"?
-- Owen
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============================================================
FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv
Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College
lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
