THE DAILY KOS 
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First, for some background information to this diary, I suggest reading through a previous diary of mine
here if you haven't already. I'll sum up the important info here. I have never met my father in my entire life, and earlier this year I finally met one of his brothers and started connecting with his side of the family. I saw my uncle in January, and I recently visited him again. That side of the family lives in a
DEEP red district on the other side of the state, Ottowa county, a district so red it voted for Republicans for the last 150 years. I was raised in the bluer, more unionized section of the state with my mom so the culture shock was pretty big. I met with my uncle again today so I could meet another one of my uncles. The circle of family I'm getting to know is growing larger.
Let me tell you, it's like being in another world. When we drove in, there was a big trailer on the side of the highway that read "Marxism and Socialism = Poverty and Hunger." My uncle and I were bumming around the beach on Lake Michigan, and I saw a shirt that read "Democracy and Capitalism: 1776 to 2008." Not exactly Obama country. My uncle told me he was one of the 10 Democrats in the whole city. He regaled me with stories of his neighbor who had moved into a Christian Reformation neighborhood, only to have his
grill tipped over because he was cooking meat on Friday, and wasn't allowed to mow his
lawn on Sunday. The church goes into Southeast Asian villages, and in exchange for converting them to Christianity, they bring them to America...where they pretty much stay the same way they were before. There are a lot of highly religious people in the town, and you can pretty much trace any affluence to a select group of rich people or corporations.
This is like limbo land to me.
But, I wanted to maintain a critical eye. The town was not poor, and there was of course corporate money from Dow and DeVos to be had. A lot of buildings bear Devos' name. I'm sure he's donated millions. In fact my uncle told me that way back when, Devos and another zillionaire basically came in to save the town before it died by pumping it full of money. Some of the money paid dividends while some didn't. The houses were modest, but there were people who had lake houses on the coast and lived in the expensive part of town where they had boats on the marina. I saw really nice
cars everywhere, and it seemed like people were able to take care of themselves. The neighborhoods were so peaceful you could hear a pin drop. The farmland was nice too, as I'm used to urban hellscape, and my uncle laughed as I actually found corn fields and blueberry bushes to be interesting.
I tried to put myself in their shoes. I'm not liberal or progressive myself. I don't know what category I fall into, as I sympathize with the left way more than the right. I took a political test once and it said I was "anarcho-Syndicalist," whatever that means. But it hit me today:
What if my dad had not abandoned me and raised me? I would have probably lived in Ottowa county. How would I think then? I notice many on this site are convinced Republicans vote that way because they're rich themselves or, if they're not, they vote against their pocketbooks on social issues. There is some truth to that, that much is sure, but I don't think it's the total picture. First off, I've seen poverty, and the area I was in was not it. Even if someone made 15k working at McDonald's, the many corporate stores can make that income stretch further while still making a person feel as if they're middle class. I also get the sense that the lower middle class and poorer people in the city don't expect much in the way of help, and they are satisfied with their income level and the material experience they have access to.
These people work extremely hard in labor intensive industries. A lot of the industries there were built up from the ground, piece by piece, often with a person's own two hands. People are taught to cleave to their families to provide the necessary social structure to take on the huge pressure of having to bring home the bacon no matter how much you hate your boss or whether or not you feel like you're going to be downsized. The idea is then "Work hard, play harder." There is a sense of pride in one's accomplishment, so from their perspective, why feel sympathy for someone who won't make the sacrifice to do better with their life? Why should society feel any sympathy for a woman who is loose in morals and won't marry her man and provide a stable home for their children?
Clearly, to them, you can use self discipline to enjoy what you have. Anyone that says they should be richer must be lazy and refuse to work or accept their lot in life and be thankful for what they have. Besides, some rich person like DeVos will donate a new library or revitalize business, so the rich should not be hindered in their natural gift giving. There is a strict social order that, when maintained, brings about harmony that can be enjoyed by those who are disciplined enough. What about social issues? Well, if people are driving their SUVs down the street and enjoying lake Michigan, then their mind goes away from economics and onto Jesus and the fact Democrats are pro-choice. Nuff said.
Another thing: The community is first, so while you or I would say that our deficit reduction ideas are better, or that our jobs plans brings more jobs into the entire country, or that corporations already rake in the dough, so why coddle them, people in the county might think it's bad for them specifically and be against it, wondering why the rest of America has not adopted their model. They'll think about themselves first before looking at the big picture.
Of course, that's all B.S. My own existence proves it.
I'm the son of a guy from Dutch conservative home town America who fathered a child out of wedlock and didn't step up to the plate to raise him and hid it from his family for years. There's divorce and broken marriages all throughout the city, which happens for a variety of reasons too numerous to put here. The small government, low tax mantra nearly crippled the city and required huge investment from DeVos and other gazillionaires to make up the difference. Not all of those investments panned out, and there was plenty of pork spending to go around, just from a private source. Yet, Obama's jobs plan which asks for a fraction of a percent from a small percentage of the population is abject socialism, even though it's for rebuilding a country that needs it. Underneath the hard, conservative veneer is a lot of suffering and people doing things behind closed doors instead of dealing with them in the open. Sure, my unionized blue section of the state is filled with godless heathens as far as these people are concerned, but we recognize that setting the bar infinitely high would require us to act like professional hypocrites, and we'd rather work through our own vices honestly. It's easier for me to think about what benefits the United States as a whole. I don't care that Louisianans feel defensive of the oil industry. From a policy perspective, we could take the money we give to oil companies that do not need state sponsorship and put that money elsewhere, or not even spend it at all.
As far as news concerning whether or not my father will actually meet me, my uncle (the hippie) decided he was tired of lying by omission to the rest of the family and figures he'll be the one to step up to the plate and talk directly to my Dad. We'll see what happens. I have mixed feelings, but I've come too far to look back.
7:44 AM PT: Thanks for all of the great comments! I'd first like to say that things always change. The uncle that I met is super conservative, and just think, he's looked down on single mothers and their broken families for years, and now his long lost (college educated) nephew was raised by a spectacular single mother, and its -his- brother that didn't step up to the plate. That's going to take some re-ordering on his part.
Originally posted to sujigu on Sun Jul 08, 2012 at 09:53 PM PDT.
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