The people voting for George W. Bush

Intel­li­gent Repub­li­cans or oth­er­wise con­ser­v­a­tive vot­ers are re-registering as Inde­pen­dents, announc­ing they will not vote Repub­li­can, or out and out say­ing they will vote for Kerry as the bet­ter of two bad (in their view) choices.

Here’s who I think are the peo­ple still vot­ing for George W. Bush.

Peo­ple who don’t under­stand finances beyond their own check­book. Peo­ple who don’t care about any com­mu­nity beyond their own church. Peo­ple who are not exposed to any cul­ture beyond what they find on TV. Peo­ple who do not think for them­selves. Peo­ple who have no curios­ity, no desire to learn, noth­ing to reach for, no hope of any­thing better.

They want a leader who will tell them every­thing is all right, and will only get bet­ter. They want a Pres­i­dent who tells them that they don’t need to under­stand the details, because he’s tak­ing care of it. When he says, “I’m here to tell you that this coun­try is on the right track,” they feel com­forted because they don’t have to decide for themselves.

Hand them a dol­lar while you take two away from their schools/firemen/towns and they think they got a good deal. New­com­ers, out­siders, peo­ple who are _different_ are viewed with sus­pi­cion. They do not value diver­sity, ques­tion­ing, or intel­li­gence. Instead they value tra­di­tion, obe­di­ence, and loy­alty. And while those are good things, sure, they are not enough to sus­tain a vibrant, grow­ing, Demo­c­ra­tic society.

Do you know some of these peo­ple? Get them a vaca­tion to India. Or Brazil. Give their chil­dren books for birth­days. Show them pic­tures of your last trip. Tell them a funny story about your black/white/latino friend. Get them to see that the world is larger than they think, but closer, too.

If you can, ask them why they believe what they do.

Thanks.