At a diner this morning in an affluent Seattle suburb I overheard a woman in the next booth rage, "I told my husband if he votes for Obama it's the end of our marriage. He asks me why I all I watch is Fox News. Well, it's because the other media—NBC, CNN, CBS, ABC—is biased.
"Obama will destroy our quality of life. Tax, tax, tax and he'll reinstate the estate tax [at least she didn't say "death tax"]. There will be nothing to leave our kids. And these people are so stupid. If business owners are taxed, there will be no jobs. Who do they think people work for? Businesses are already making plans to move abroad if Obama wins.
"And the minimum wage! Why it's just for kids starting out. No one else earns minimum wage!"
It took all my restraint not to leap over the booth divider and ask her what world she lives in. But it clearly is a comfortable one where she doesn't understand that the short order cook who made her waffles is paid minimum wage and he's no youngster.
Two Americas...that's what Bill Maher calls it. Away from home, out of my comfort zone of friends and colleagues with similar views, there's no protective shield to prevent me from hearing this fury. The element of danger under the worst of the rants is frightening. Is it getting harsher because an Obama victory appears more likely?
My teammate Judy and I called a couple of hundred members of a vocational college local union today to ask them to volunteer one hour between now and Election Day. Many of the people we spoke with assured us that they had already voted or planned to do so. Some offered to help. But a few faculty members angrily said they were not supporting Governor Gregoire or Senator Obama. Interestingly, most of the angry ones were men, and they sounded like white men.
What creates the rage? Is it the possibility of a power shift after the election? The fear of being left out and left behind? I don't remember this kind of fury in 2004 or did I just forget?
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