Somewhere on the plains of Kansas there are a man and a woman, husband and wife. They’re married, straight (of course) and devoutly Christian. What they do for a living isn’t really important; what they believe is.
Here is what they (let’s call them Merle and Mabel) believe:
They believe in the Christian God from the bible.
They believe that same God has eternally blessed America and wills it to be the “shining city on the Hill” as their favourite President, Ronald Reagan, once said.
They believe in clean living, sound money, thrift, motherhood, apple pie and propriety.
Another thing they’ve been conditioned to believe from both their bible and their adherence to their American history lessons is that authority is bestowed by God and authority must be obeyed as such whether that be a power mad cop or a power mad President.
They probably never travelled outside the United States and while they personally would not practice overt prejudice, they remain suspicious if not outright xenophobic against anything and anyone that isn’t familiarly white bread American.
They don’t get irony.
They do believe Kyoto is a socialist plot as are any measures to save a planet over which God has been placed in charge.
And they believe passionately in self-denial, especially of pleasure and gratification. That’s why appeals by progressives based on their working harder for declining incomes don’t work — Merle and Mabel believe life was not built for pleasure-seeking but for work and sacrifice.
And that’s why they also remain stoic about the war dead.
Here’s another thing they believe in — voting. And Merle and Mabel vote like fiends — straight GOP ticket.
They watch Fox News, they listen to Rush Limbaugh and they believe what they are told.
And of course, they believe in supporting the troops — no matter what. And why shouldn’t they? Folks like Merle and Mabel are far closer to actually knowing some of them personally than most Americans.
The reason I draw the caricature of Merle and Mabel is to assure my Canadian and international readers that such stereotypes actually exist and are legion in Middle America. I have seen and interviewed people like them for years.
And they are why, in no small measure, House speaker Nancy Pelosi says she will “support the troops” by not “pulling money” from them. As if the President has nothing to do with continuing to commit troops to Iraq once Congress decides to de-fund the effort. Pelosi knows that Merle and Mabel won’t blame the leader, the Commander-in-Chief, but Congress. The President knows this as well.
You may ask why Ms. Pelosi and the Democratic leaders are so afraid of Merle and Mabel? What about playing to their base, the anti-war progressives?
Ah, but there’s the rub — our not-so-mythical Kansans vote in disproportionately higher numbers and thus have a disproportionate influence in American civic life. Piss off an anti-war progressive and they go home to fume on the Internet. Piss off Merle and Mabel and they and their neighbours extract a horrible revenge at church, at the town hall, at the editor’s office, in the Congressional mailroom and in the voting booth.
They are the 25-30 per cent who still support the war, still support George W. Bush. But they are also strong among the other 30-40 per cent who would support the war and Bush again if there was another terrorist attack on the “homeland.”
So in no small way, America is held hostage by the politicians’ fears of the Merles and Mabels of America. But in a way, these Middle Americans, whom Richard Nixon referred to as “the silent majority” have earned their power in ways that would school progressives — they know instinctively what they believe, they act passionately on those beliefs, they buy into civic power structures, and they won’t be bought off or compromised.
They live in a world most of us who are progressives can only dimly conceive of but need to understand. The double mindedness of these Middle Americans is, perhaps, best captured by this blogger:
“They cheer when McCain wants to send more of our children to die in Iraq. But they swoon when we write ‘fuck’ on our blogs because it’s obscene.” — Arlin Lando, Politics Now.
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