Hello, Stephen, Munro here reporting for duty.

As you know I am on assignment in the Deep South (well almost, Charlottesville, Virginia; its true I hear a lot of New York accents except among those who wash dishes and wait tables THOSE people the non-grads or High School bluegrass listening grads speak Spanish or speak with a Southern Twang.)

Interesting enough BOTH groups are most likely to have relatives or friends in the service. Among the tie-wearing group with the New York accents the big issue was 'well -Kerry is prochoice but Bush puts money in my pocket and if there is a draft I want you to go to Canada.

Among the working class types there was a completely different attitude. The working stiffs worried about rise health costs and co-payments. They blamed trial lawyers like Edwards. They worried about gas prices. They blamed 9/11 and the terrorists. They didn't talk about the draft; THEIR brothers, friends, relatives and in one case, husband ALREADY SIGNED UP or were called up from the National Guard or Reserve. The consensus was 'better over there than here", :Blair and Howard were heroes and Bush well he was an OK guy. Their brothers, friends and relatives serving on active duty urged EVERYONE in their families to support the president. Kerry is deeply unpopular among large sections of ordinary working class people who care about issues like
1) Gay Marriage and defense of traditional marriage...guess what New York and San Franny
in the heartland Billy Graham and the Bible -the word of God- one lady said to me is DEEPLY respected.
2) respect for life. most Americans are pro-choice and pro-life. They are realistic about birth control but realize the sexual revolution has gotten out of hand. "Not with my daughter" said one
3) gun control ...one LADY joked 'gun control means hitting the target'; she wanted to be able to defend herself. She said "my neighborhood is not that safe after dark."
4) death penalty...their for it and they don't believe Kerry is
5) national security...they trust the president and they don't trust Kerry
6) they believe being a housewife is an important job..SEVERAL SAID THEY HAD DONE IT AND WISH THEY COULD STILL DO IT...one said when my kid turned five I just had to go back to work...how else could we make ends meet?

They dislike Mrs. Kerry and let's not pull punches they consider Mrs Bush to be a "true American" and one said " isn't Teresa Heinz a foreigner who married into money. People talked about boycotting Heinz, This may seem like "nativism" to big liberals but this is reality. The people distrust Big Europhiliac Liberals from Taxachusetts.
7) taxes everyone agree that producers would pay more taxes with Kerry and non-producers would get more of a free ride than they have now. The consensus among working Janes and Joes was that they were paying through the nose for slackers and not getting any benefits themselves.
8) illegal immigration and terrorism are big issues :people worry about a possible school massacre happening here. They believe Bush will stop at nothing to protect America and punish the terrorists. Most agree that Iraq is a lightning rod for world wide terrorists. They are spending all their resources and men in a desperate attempt to regain use of Iraq's oil for terrorism and Iraq as a base for terrorism.
9) jobs...people are worried about jobs
10) health care people are worried about costs
11) social security ...there were lots of complaints...people are getting squeezed by a 15% SS tax plus high gas payments and most agree that it was uncertain they would ever get benefits. Many "retired" people are working out of necessity.

THIS IS a REPORT FROM THE FRONT....KERRY is TSOURUS (I hope my spelling is good here my Scottish Gaelic is better than my Yiddish).

Oh yes, one Italian immigrant said "if Kerry wins, I'll seriously consider moving to Australia or back to Italy. I hate that guy. Absolutely hate him. Even Mrs. Clinton would be better. The Democrats have to be crazy to put up another Dukakis. A guy who is more liberal than Ted Kennedy.

Oh yes, people worried about their expanding waistlines and asked me if I thought Corteslim would work. Not being a medical expert I said in my opinion the best thing we could do for our health would be to drink less beer, eat less and exercise more. The common people don't look like Kerry. They don't have time to do calesthenics. They complained that they were tied down to their jobs and had to drive constantly. One man joked if gas got any higher everybody would have to buy bicycles. If that happened no one would nead corteslim. How about them Red Sox was another topic of conversation.

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)

URL:
Remember me? YesNo

Comments: