Fear, Toyota Corollas, And Flipping The Bird

Driving to work this morning I got stuck behind a beaten-up '84 Toyota Corolla. It was in pretty bad shape - smoke belched from the exhaust pipe every time the poor sucker driving it changed gear, and it was covered in dents and dings.

That's not what I noticed.

What I spent a lot of time thinking about, was the Bush campaign sticker on the back.

Ken Lay voting Republican, I can understand. Corruption is, after all, very much a Republican issue. People who take home hefty paychecks voting Republican, this I can also understand. After all, wealthy people get richer under Republican governments. People whose friends and families are employed in the defense industry voting Republican, this makes sense to me because there are more defense jobs under Bush than there have ever been before.

But people who drive crappy mid-eighties Corollas? What was this guy getting out of a Bush government? Economically, the person he helped elect is basically screwing him. Regressive taxes such as the price of gas and heating oil, cuts in social programs, education, healthcare - every way you look, this poor bastard in his $600 car is getting the shaft.

But then I remembered. Fear. The Republicans' only real weapon against the middle class and those living near or below the poverty line. Fear.

The Republicans are masters at manipulating fear, at striking terror into the hearts of those who would otherwise not dream of voting for them. They stoke the flames of fear with stories of how we're going to be attacked again any minute, of how Islam poses a threat to us all, of how the Democrats will ask Osama bin Laden to ride on a VP ticket with Hillary Clinton as the lead. They prey on the under-educated, the everyday folk who believe the 'news' they see on Fox and whose sons and daughters are being killed in Iraq.

Fear is stronger than almost any motivation when the voter gets to the polls. So what if Bush has presided over the most appalling economic years since the late 'twenties? So what if our civil liberties have been snatched from us by an ever-expanding government? So what if our leaders recklessly took us into a war that was unjust to begin with, and unwinnable now?

This poor Joe Schmoe in his tatty car voted for George Bush out of fear. Economically, socially, environmentally, there was no gain to be had in voting Republican. His job security was lower than it was five years ago. His salary had probably remained almost frozen. His family had less access to healthcare than at any time in the recent past.

But when he went to the polls, he was scared. And that's all the Republicans need to do to win again.

It's the ultimate irony - the family that can least afford to vote Republican, has been terrorized into doing exactly that. What skilful, crafty people these really are. What dangerous, sly individuals.

I flipped the guy in the Toyota the bird, anyway.

Comments

[Dave]

Voting for president isn't about getting ahead of everyone else. Your ideology is what breeds corrupt people. Some would say that yous should be taken out back and....