My family and I took a huge road trip out West this past month. From our home in East Tennessee we went through Memphis, Arkansas, Oklahoma, the Texas Pandhandle, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, southeast Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Missouri, southern Illinois, western Kentucky and back to Tennessee. It was a wonderful family trip and we saw tons of national parks along the way.
But I couldn't help also tracking bumper stickers and signs for the two candidates. Bumper stickers don't reveal preferences as much as they do enthusiasm. Here in East Tennessee John McCain will assuredly win over 65% of the vote, as Republicans always do. But I have yet to see a single McCain sticker or sign. Not one.
I figured that out closer to McCain's home state, or in the Mormon belt, I'd see more support for McCain. I didn't.
In fact, I saw a grand total of three McCain bumper stickers. One on a car with Virginia tags that said "Veterans for McCain." Ironically enough it was on I-40 West in Arizona. The second was on a beat-up van with Minnesota tags, alongside a Mitt Romney sticker. And the third was on a car with Kentucky tags at the hotel in Paducah. Not a single house sign. Just three bumper stickers in 16 states - all but one of which voted for Bush in 2004.
So how about Obama? Sadly there are few Obama stickers here in East TN, but there are many more than there are for McCain. Out West, however, there were tons. Random cars passing along I-40 had Obama stickers. I saw about 50 in Santa Fe, a handful in Sedona, AZ (supposedly McCain's hometown, though nobody there could verify it and nobody cared either). About 20 in Bozeman, MT, three signs in Paducah, KY, a bunch in Yellowstone National Park, and about 80 in Salt Lake City of all places. I had no idea there were so many Democrats in Salt Lake City but apparently there are.
I couldn't help but remember back in the fall of 1994 when I visited my then girlfriend (now wife) in California and noticed all the creepy anti-government, right-wing signs popping up along farms. It was the height of the sagebrush rebellion. But now the West has turned blue. And Obama seems perfectly situated to capitalize on the reformer spirit of the West.
But another comparison I thought about was 2004. There were "W" stickers everywhere that Republicans lived. Even in Democratic areas, Bush voters proudly displayed their Bush signs and stickers. The enthusiasm for him among Republicans was open and obvious. I'll never forget canvassing for Kerry in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in a neighborhood where literally every other house had a Bush sign up. I couldn't believe Kerry ended up winning that state.
The contrast with this year is striking. I saw no evidence of enthusiasm for McCain. My brother-in-law's father - a diehard Republican - hates McCain and would seriously consider voting for Obama if only he had more experience. This guy was an actual Swift Boater who served with John Kerry and turned down a request to appear on one of those ads, not because he liked Kerry but because he didn't want to dredge up that stuff again. He lives in Colorado and sees evidence of Democratic revival everywhere there. He might leave the Presidential spot blank on the ballot.
Not surprisingly, the Obama signs were most prevalent in the college towns like Bozeman, or the "latte-sipping" enclaves like Santa Fe. But I also saw plenty along the highway in Wyoming, Nebraska and Idaho. The heavily Republican and Mormon towns in Utah, southern Idaho and southwestern Wyoming showed no evidence of a political race whatsoever.
I hadn't really traveled out West in several years. The mentality is much different than here in the South. I love living near the Smoky Mountains and within Southern Appalachian culture. But I found the West quite refreshing in many ways. Unlike Appalachia, where one is defined by ten generations of kinship ties, the West is a land where people redefine themselves on a regular basis. I think that Obama's earnest self-appraisal as evidenced in his memoir and in much of his message really resonates with Westerners. That was my surface observation at least.
Anyway, it was so nice being away from a computer for a month and only catching up on snippets of the news. The polls have hardly budged since mid-June, which, as far as I am concerned, is perfectly alright. The race has reached a sort of stasis where the media gropes for daily outrages and gaffes. But at the heart of this race are two very different voting bases: one committed and the other deflated and apathetic. Remember that as much as we gripe about Obama, it's nothing compared to the Right and McCain.
Is there anywhere in America where support for McCain is anything on the level of support for Bush in 2004? If not here in the Republican South, or in the Republican West, then where?
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