Truthdig: A Week in the ‘Real America’

[marmar]

A Week in the ‘Real America’
Posted on Oct 21, 2008

By Bill Boyarsky


“Abortion is a civil rights issue, and I’m not open to compromise on that,” Jim Broestler told me. I didn’t agree with a word he said. But he was smart, thoughtful and likeable and we talked about politics in a mutually respectful way.

This conversation took place during my week in conservative Appalachian Ohio. On my way there, I thought I had three strikes against me: I am a journalist, a liberal and I live in Los Angeles. But people like Broestler were friendly. What struck me was how different this was from the America of the McCain-Palin campaign, a divided place where the Republicans pit one part of the country against another with vicious robocalls at the dinner hour. These computer-generated phone calls convey, in a variety of ways, a divisive message: “Barack Obama and his liberal Democrats are too extreme for America. Please vote—vote for the candidates who share our values.”

Many others share my feelings about the divisive nature of the McCain-Palin campaign. One is someone I also don’t agree with, former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell, who last weekend endorsed Barack Obama for president. He, too, is offended by the robocalls, particularly the one linking Obama to ex-terrorist Bill Ayers.

He told Tom Brokaw on “Meet the Press,” “Why do we have these robocalls going on around the country trying to suggest that, because of this very, very limited relationship that Senator Obama has had with Mr. Ayers, somehow, Mr. Obama is tainted. What they’re trying to connect him to be some kind of terrorist feelings. And I think that’s inappropriate,” he said. “I’m also troubled by, not what Senator McCain says, but what members of the party say … such things as, ‘Well, you know that Mr. Obama is a Muslim.’ Well, the correct answer is, he is not a Muslim, he’s a Christian. He’s always been a Christian. But the really right answer is, what if he is? Is there something wrong with being a Muslim in this country? The answer’s no, that’s not America. Is there something wrong with some seven-year-old Muslim-American kid believing that he or she could be president?”

In Ohio, I’d met Jim Broestler at the McCain-Palin headquarters in Ironton, an old rural and industrial town across the Ohio River from Kentucky. It was located in a fairly new shopping center on a hill above the town. His daughter, about two, was happily trying to dust the furniture. He cared for her during the days while his wife worked. He worked nights in a manufacturing plant in neighboring West Virginia. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/20081022_a_week_in_the_real_america/