you are what you vote
by Ari Holtz
Published: September 19, 2008
After convention bounces for both Barack Obama and John McCain, the most recent polls indicate a return to the status quo. The race is a toss up, near tied nationally, with Obama perhaps up a point or two or three. As this column goes to press, Gallup and CBS New/New York Times have him up 5, Quinnipiac has him up 4, and a host of other polls have the race tied.
How in the world, may I ask, is this possible? How is it feasible for the Republican Party’s candidate to stay near-even with his opposition? The party, with its incumbent president, has presided over two wars and several devastating hurricanes with a mix of failure, incompetence and waning public support. It has been on duty as the economy has lapsed into what former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has called a once-in-a-century crisis. The values of Americans’ homes are degenerating. More and more of us are unemployed. Middle-class wages are stagnant while food and energy prices have skyrocketed. Our international standing is as low as low gets.
Somehow, some way, however, the party that has controlled the presidency and Supreme Court for the past eight years and the Congress for the majority of those eight has a solid shot of holding onto power.
What in the world are the American people thinking?
In essence, Americans are just being themselves. They are thinking about political-party affiliation and they are actualizing their identities. These two things have become intertwined for most of us. Our political identities have become frozen and part of how we define ourselves as individuals. It follows, then, that we will stick by our party, as it is part of ourselves, through thick and thin, failure or success.
It’s no longer about what’s best for the country. Rather, it’s what’s best for the team we each root for. Because if my team wins and yours loses, then, well, I must be right about the world and you must be wrong. I must be better than you.
There are other theories as to how McCain is even competitive in this race. Some point to a large swath of Americans still being reluctant to vote for an African-American. Others talk about an aloof Obama campaign, too lofty and high-minded to get down in the gutter and brawl with McCain, brawling being a prerequisite for winning any national contest.
There is likely some truth to both of these hypotheses. Still, though, we remain a country split along a myriad of lines. Urban America is for the Democratic team. Rural and exurban America is for the Republican team. Cultural conservatives are with the GOP, secularists are with the Dems. African-Americans are on the left, Evangelicals are on the right.
And God forbid a sophisticated urbanite gets grouped in with soulless suburbanites, a Southern Baptist share a view with a morally bankrupt New Yorker, or a man with a Confederate flag on his truck gets grouped in with a young woman with a Darwin fish on her Prius.
Those cheering for the Dems won’t budge even if we know our team is wrong. And clearly, those in the GOP fan base won’t trade allegiances even if their club has driven the nation into the ground.
We’ve been divided by where we live, how and if we worship, and how much education we have. We allow the parties to co-opt us and make us vote against our nation’s interests as long as it means voting in congruence with our own identities.
If you are a professor in Boston, you better be a Democrat or you are a traitor to your kind. A salesman in Summerville, South Carolina? You’d better not betray the sticker on your truck and the voice on your favorite radio station.
And what of the country’s fortunes? Eh, as long as our identities and allegiances are congruent, who cares? The empire probably won’t totally fall for a couple more generations, right?
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September 20th, 2008 at 7:53 am
I agree with this article but would like to expand on it… Yes, we are divided by are own special interests. As individuals we identify with the party that supports our interest. There are groups of people within each party who have a common interest and it involves greed, money and power. These politicians have by the incremental engineering of our laws and political placement of our supreme court judges over the years,…. have completely trashed our Constitution. All the protections that was there to allow individuals with a different view point that yours the right to exist are gone. When you have lost your job, your shelter(house), your opportunities, your health care…even your ability to to get food,,,do you think that special interest you had,,,, that you thought was so important,,,,, was worth that single issue vote you threw away….. for that political bum now in office?
I want to throw the bums out….all I can do is vote against the incumbent…that sucks..this two party system sucks…I want to vote for RON PAUL…we need a real option….we need a third party…one that will honor the Constitution,,, I do not support the new world order,…I do not support trashing our sovereignty…… I do not support using our military to uphold the ideals of the new world order….I do not support enslaving US citizens with repaying the losses of the greedy wall street bankers……..or the greedy Socialist,,,,or the greedy Fascist political leaders we now have…
September 20th, 2008 at 10:15 am
I agree wholeheartedly. Personally, I believe the words of the great Ralph Waldo Emerson sum it up, “A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.” The American people are now being caught up in the foolish consistencies held onto by their elected leaders and their religious leaders. Why is it so difficult for most people to walk away from the ideas they held in the past and move forward and grow into new ideas?
September 21st, 2008 at 1:51 pm
It’s not even that complicated. Obama is tied with McCain right now because he picked a horrible running mate that is dragging the ticket down. McCain is tied with Obama because he picked an incredible running mate who has become a superstar. It’s that simple.