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In election 2008, don’t
forget Angry White Man
Gary Hubbell
February 9, 2008
There is a great amount of interest in this
year’s presidential elections, as everybody
seems to recognize that our next president
has to be a lot better than George Bush. The
Democrats are riding high with two
groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an
African-American — while the conservative
Republicans are in a quandary about their
party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick,
John McCain.
Each candidate is carefully pandering to a
smorgasbord of special-interest groups,
ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender
people to children of illegal immigrants to
working mothers to evangelical Christians.
There is one group no one has recognized,
and it is the group that will decide the
election: the Angry White Man. The Angry
White Man comes from all economic
backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich.
He represents all geographic areas in
America, from urban sophisticate to rural
redneck, deep South to mountain West, left
Coast to Eastern Seaboard.
His common traits are that he isn’t looking
for anything from anyone — just the promise
to be able to make his own way on a level
playing field. In many cases, he is an
independent businessman and employs several
people. He pays more than his share of taxes
and works hard.
The victimhood syndrome buzzwords —
“disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and
“voiceless” — don’t resonate with him.
“Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to
him. He’s used to picking up the tab,
whether it’s the company Christmas party,
three sets of braces, three college
educations or a beautiful wedding.
He believes the Constitution is to be
interpreted literally, not as a “living
document” open to the whims and vagaries of
a panel of judges who have never worked an
honest day in their lives.
The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s
willing to pick up a gun to defend his home
and his country. He is willing to lay down
his life to defend the freedom and safety of
others, and the thought of killing someone
who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.
The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a
homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him
drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his
people together and got the hell out, then
went back in to rescue those too helpless
and stupid to help themselves, often as a
police officer, a National Guard soldier or
a volunteer firefighter.
His last name and religion don’t matter. His
background might be Italian, English,
Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian,
and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or
Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers
himself a white American.
He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes
to play poker, watch football, hunt
white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf,
spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a
blue moon, change his own oil and build
things. He coaches baseball, soccer and
football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny.
He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition
on his house with a couple of friends, drill
an oil well, weld a new bumper for his
truck, design a factory and publish books.
He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of
coal and get it to the power plant on time
so that you keep the lights on and never
know what it took to flip that light switch.
Women either love him or hate him, but they
know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re
looking for someone to walk all over,
they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up
straight, opens doors for women and says
“Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”
He might be a Republican and he might be a
Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a
Green. He knows that his wife is more
emotional than rational, and he guides the
family in a rational manner.
He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and
disappointed when people of certain
backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies
the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s
willing to give everybody a fair chance if
they work hard, play by the rules and learn
English.
Most important, the Angry White Man is
pissed off. When his job site becomes
flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay
taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he
gets righteously angry. When his job gets
shipped overseas, and he has to speak to
some incomprehensible idiot in India for
tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton
comes on TV, leading some rally for
reparations for slavery or some such
nonsense, he bites his tongue and he
remembers. When a child gets charged with
carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly
bringing a penknife to school, he takes note
of who the local idiots are in education and
law enforcement.
He also votes, and the Angry White Man
loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds
him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils
at the mere sight of her on television. Her
very image disgusts him, and he cannot
fathom why anyone would want her as their
leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s
that she is who she is. It’s the liberal
victim groups she panders to, the “poor me”
attitude that she represents, her inability
to give a straight answer to an honest
question, his tax dollars that she wants to
give to people who refuse to do anything for
themselves.
There are many millions of Angry White Men.
Four million Angry White Men are members of
the National Rifle Association, and all of
them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just
as the great majority of them voted for
George Bush.
He hopes that she will be the Democratic
nominee for president in 2008, and he will
make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.
Gary Hubbell is a regular columnist with
the Aspen Times Weekly
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