I was reading trough a few political articles from realclearpolitic.com, and I stumbled upon this little gem of a quote:
I'm hoping to hear a good solid backup of why Obama is not what we need, of what's wrong with him and what he'll do to my child's future, and what he'll take from my parents and the contempt that that man has for the people in this room," she said. "The picture is there if you want to hear it, but I think [McCain] needs to drill it home."
This is from Anne Matthews, a chemist from Jeffersonville, who was commenting on McCain's campaign. Commenting? More like protesting about McCain's attitude.
Think about it for a minute. She doesn't want to hear what McCain's plan will be. She want him to use Obama as a scarecrow. She EXPECTS to be said "fear him".
I know, MAYBE she doesn't represent the majority of voters, but what does that say about the republican base? (I know the Democratic base is probably as bad, I just couldn't find a proper quote that illustrated my point. Please lay off the partisanship).
First, that woman already decided she won't vote for Obama. She just want to be given an excuse. It could be racism - many witch hunter would tell you it is -, but at the same time, it could be Arabophobia, Islamophobia, or simply sheer bigotery against the democrats. She has said clearly that she wants to worry about her children, her parents. She wants to be resentful against him, because she wants to hear that he hates people like her!
What does that say about America's psych? I have seen such example of "Looking out for fear, looking out for hate" attitude, in my homeland: Quebec.
For the few somewhat knowledgeable about the situation, skip this next paragraph. For the other, please bear with me, it's relevant. In Quebec - a part of Canada, we have a majority of french-speaking people, who lived until recently under the heel of the anglophone minority. But if you look at the complete pictore of Canada, the french-speaking people are a minority. We have different culture, different institution. And we have a very, very defensive attitude toward preserving our culture. You may have heard about law 101 for preserving french.
But many nationalists in my nation are always looking out for reason to hate the english-Canadians. They WANT to hear about how Don Cherry verbally shat on the Quebecker. They will find every single francophobe articles written in the rest of Canada, and find justification of their defensive attitude. "We are a treathened people". They thrive on "historical facts" about how the English-Canadians mistreated us at every turn of our history (the point that these facts are true should not obscure the point that these mistakes don't happen anymore).
Now, as I said, English-canadians and French-canadians are two different people. We call the country "The Two Lonelinesses", where there cultural sharings is minimal, and we mostly try to ignore the other. Some resentment between our people is natural, it's like the natural resentment between Texans and New Yorkers - only stronger, because of deeper roots (want it or not, the Americans are one people. Disparate, but still are "ONE" people - one language).
But the destructive attitude I've reported to you - the very one exemplified by Mrs. Matthews - isn't "natural" in a country that is supposed to be unified. What will it come to, when there is a natural despise against... against what, by the way? What does Obama represent? Liberals? the "lefties"? The morally decadent parts of America? The corrupted? The blacks?
At least, in Quebec, it's English Vs French (you can't beat good old receipes). It will always be there - unless until Quebec becomes a country. But in America? When two ideologies become to hate each other as profoundly as two nations could hate each other... that's frightening.
