Ellington

God has a special corner of heaven for the people who cut hair—those people who manage to make us look stunning despite all the silly blather they must hear every day.

I initially thought this column would be about the need to vote locally, something about how the sleazebag dynamic rises with each rung of the political ladder. I've dubbed this phenomenon the jackass factor: When we fail to engage locally, blustery community pols rise to ever more prominent positions, until what we're left with are choices between bad and worse jackasses on a national scale. But a paragraph won't fill this space.

You can probably tell when it comes to politics, I default to cynicism.

Neither the guy who cuts my hair nor I are conservative Republicans, so our political banter naturally heads toward pessimistic and contemptuous disbelief: disbelief in progressives abandoning Barack Obama because he hasn't produced the requisite number of miracles, yet; disbelief over those who vote against their best interests; disbelief in the good Christians who would rather someone who doesn't look or think like them simply disappear instead of making an attempt to know, understand or reach out to them.

Inevitably, we end up "tsk, tsk-ing" about people who don't bother to become informed before they cast a vote, because surely, if only they knew who tea-partiers really are, voters would turn away from them in droves.

It's exactly that attitude that has conservatives calling progressives elitist and arrogant.

During the course of our latest conversation, my hairdresser, who is openly gay, told me about his boyfriend's grandmother, a woman who, he says, would rather her grandson bring his gay boyfriend to after-church Sunday supper than—heaven forbid—a black woman.

To me, grandma personifies those who have flocked to the Glenn Becks of America. They're probably the same folks who only watched during the 1960s social upheavals and then resigned to make a life in this crazy, upside-down, inside-out world, totally convinced it was all wrong.

They might have sympathized with the left once, but they regret it. They voted for Bush 43 twice.

They're the same folks who have watched in horror as every belief they grew up with has been challenged, examined, politicized and ridiculed; the same folks who want desperately to believe Obama wasn't born in the U.S., that he's a Muslim and wants to overthrow the world while seizing their guns, putting them in prison camps and euthanizing them.

It was just a matter of time before someone as demonic as Barack Hussein Obama took over, and they eagerly embrace anyone who echoes their fervent desire to return to a sane world of easily defined values of family, home and apple pie, along with good old-fashioned flag-waving patriotism. It's not change they're after, but security. They want it back.

I get it. People are scared. I'm not hard-hearted. Change is scary, despite its always turning out OK. Still, I don't know where that secure unscary world ever existed. I'm fairly certain that it hasn't been around in my lifetime or the generation preceding it.

I remember talking with my dad about the 1960s. He grew up with dearly held beliefs like his Christian faith, respect for his elders, authority and the rule of law. The ‘60s saw those beliefs put to the test. He was confused by my generation's embrace of philosophies that had scant relation to Christianity. He was shocked by our arrogant rejection of established wisdom in favor of youthful bravado and amazed by our audacity when we took to the streets in protest. He watched in impotent frustration as his well-fed middle-class daughters rejected his worldview.

"I'm your father; that's why!" resulted in our literally and metaphorically giving him the finger: Thanks, dad. Get over yourself.

Politically, though, he was mostly progressive. As tough as it was, he eventually made peace with a world that often left him gasping for air. In retrospect, he was prescient: 30 years before 9-11 and our perpetual war against terrorism, he told me unequivocally that the next world-wide conflict would begin in the Middle East over oil and dominion. He also said that the world couldn't withstand unending economic growth without monumental costs to humanity and the planet.

Papa called himself a realist. I come by cynicism honestly.

People gravitate toward the familiar. I get that, too. But what's most familiar about some of the rhetoric passing as legitimate these days is its tone of hatred.

I regularly get 1,000-plus-word e-mails from people I don't know, full of bold, underlined and highlighted phrases. I rarely make it to the end of one of these hate-filled missives, but I scan them, if for no other reason that to know what's being circulated as "truth."

I often wonder where the writers were before the Democrats' "big-spending, job-killing agenda" ushered in by that devil Obama and his succubus Nancy Pelosi. Does it make any difference to point out that Bush 43 increased the national debt by $4 trillion, took the nation into two wars, pushed through the bailouts of Wall Street and the auto industry and left the world on the brink of the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression? Not one iota. Does it shift their needles at all to inform them that the "grass roots" of the tea-party movement lie under the meticulously manicured lawns of multi-billionaires with ties to white-nationalist extremists or that conservative politicians come to them via funding from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with its undisclosed (foreign) donor list? Not yet.

But I have hope. In the midst of my inexorable cynicism, I remembered a lesson from my 25-year career in marketing. In that world, I fully expected to need a minimum of nine impressions before a customer took action, and I understood that my target only saw one out of three of my messages. To get to nine, I needed to repeat myself 27 times at least.

When it comes to the tea party and its hateful rhetoric, we progressives have a long, long way to go. And 27 repetitions of a message of change and hope may fall short. We have to haul our cynical, arrogant and elitist butts to the voting booth each opportunity we have, if we're to counter the jackass factor.

At least for this coming Election Day, my hair looks really cute.

Previous Comments

ID

160600

Comment

What a paragraph, Ronni: I often wonder where the writers were before the Democrats’ “big-spending, job-killing agenda” ushered in by that devil Obama and his succubus Nancy Pelosi. Does it make any difference to point out that Bush 43 increased the national debt by $4 trillion, took the nation into two wars, pushed through the bailouts of Wall Street and the auto industry and left the world on the brink of the biggest economic collapse since the Great Depression? Not one iota. Does it shift their needles at all to inform them that the “grass roots” of the tea-party movement lie under the meticulously manicured lawns of multi-billionaires with ties to white-nationalist extremists or that conservative politicians come to them via funding from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce with its undisclosed (foreign) donor list? Not yet.

Author

DonnaLadd

Date

2010-10-28T13:22:40-06:00

ID

160612

Comment

Ronni, I'm uninformed: Who are the multi-billionaires with ties to white-nationalist extremists? Slightly more informed: Are Republicans the only ones guilty of accepting money from foreign donors?

Author

jbreland

Date

2010-10-29T12:42:42-06:00

ID

160614

Comment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJWclx7H2tg Axelrod is a pro. If a journalist on national television accused me of throwing out baseless accusations, I'd have trouble rambling on about "special interests" or curbing the argument towards my "fundamental" concern without sweating profusely and asking to phone-a-friend. After seeing this performance, I'd want Axelrod in my corner any day of the week. BOB S.: Do you have any evidence that this isn't peanuts? AXELROD: Do you have any evidence that it's not? Good point!

Author

jbreland

Date

2010-10-29T12:58:07-06:00

ID

160617

Comment

Catch up, jbreland. Haven't you heard of the Koch brothers?

Author

Brian C Johnson

Date

2010-10-29T13:36:04-06:00

ID

160620

Comment

Brian, Oh right. My favorite part from the New Yorker article: William founded his own energy company, Oxbow, and turned to yachting; he spent an estimated 65 million dollars to win the America’s Cup, in 1992.

Author

jbreland

Date

2010-10-29T15:47:12-06:00

ID

160624

Comment

I feel you on this one, Ronni.

Author

Walt

Date

2010-10-29T16:52:41-06:00

ID

160633

Comment

jbreland, U.S. campaign finance law forbids taking contributions from foreign corporations. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, however, (the single largest Republican campaign contributor) has been funneling money for its political attack campaign out of its general account, which solicits foreign funding, and does not have to reveal its donors. Democrats have taken money from U.S. employees of subsidiaries of foreign companies ... BIG difference.

Author

Ronni_Mott

Date

2010-11-01T09:12:40-06:00

ID

160643

Comment

Just wanted to say great article, Ronni, & happy election day to you.

Author

Sara Anderson

Date

2010-11-01T19:28:39-06:00

ID

160677

Comment

great piece, ronni. thank you! ~brandi

Author

brandi hp

Date

2010-11-03T12:54:32-06:00