Thoughts on Bush voters (November of 2004)

THIS WAS WRITTEN A LONG TIME AGO, AFTER ELECTION DAY IN NOVEMBER OF 2004.

Like most of us [in the FUSN community], I was discouraged when I learned of the election results. Personally, I tend to immediately look for ways of accepting what I cannot change. Maybe others who feel the anger for a while are taking a healthier path. The need to switch from early-evening good news -- enough to lead to celebration -- to the bad news of the darker hours made the feelings more intense. But we could remember that before the election started, Bush was leading by a little in most polls. That portion of the anger arising from the need to change course should pass without needing much explanation.

First, the big picture. We would have continued to be mortal in either case. Acts of hatred and selfishness are all about us. People everywhere love their children, and acts of kindness abound. There is unspeakable beauty and unspeakable horror throughout the world. A Kerry victory would not have changed those things.

Third-world poverty and environmental destruction continue unabated. War follows war, wreaking destruction in so many corners of the globe. Oppressed groups remain oppressed. A Kerry victory would have changed these things only, perhaps, as the first step with which a journey of a thousand miles begins.

If Kerry had beaten Bush by a margin of 51% to 48%, instead of losing by 48% to 51%, few of us would be searching our souls -- the Bush supporters would be. Maybe it's better to think of our soul-searching as something that should have happened anyway, with the election result only the nudge we needed. Zooming in some from the wide-angle view, a large question for many of us is: Who are the Bush voters, and how can we relate to them? There are always Republicans, but rarely are the differences as apparent as they were in this election. What voter could come to a different conclusion when we ourselves had no end of reasons to feel that Bush was so clearly the worse choice?

We can distinguish our feelings towards the leadership of the Bush campaign and ordinary voters. Whatever vile thoughts we can have about the Republican leadership, it's a less profound issue. Leaders are rarely virtuous in any simple way, and the Kerry campaign was run with its own share of less than complete candor and misleading statements.Those who gave Bush their vote did so out of a mix of two things: being misinformed, and having different values.

We can fault people for not taking the initiative to find out how the world actually works, for instance that the Iraq invasion made the US less safe from terrorism. But I doubt we can say that Kerry voters are much better informed. Many voters in both camps don't thoroughly investigate the factual situation or think too deeply about issues. They largely just vote the way their friends do. We can also rail against corporate (and mostly right-wing) control of the media and the resulting biased news. This is a grave and justified concern, but it's hard to blame the Bush voters for not understanding that. We could also lay at its feet why the Democratic positions are as conservative as they are.

It's also wrong to think of all 51% of Bush voters as being ardent supporters. Most disagree with him on some issue or other. I suspect a fair number disagree on a great many issues, and maybe some they feel strongly about. Their choice may have been an agonizing one, requiring them to hold their noses. Those of us who voted for Weld over Silber for governor in 1990 might remember how that felt.

But having tried my best to peel this onion, I'm getting down to the hard part, the values. How do we make sense of the conservative Christian mindset? I don't think it's so hard. We UUs speak a lot about the positive aspects of our exploration and uncertainty, as well we should, but I think for most of us there is at times a fair measure of profound unease and loneliness that comes with our freedom. Wouldn't it be nice to just know our place on this earth and what it all means? The Bible has the answers. The theory of evolution denies the need for a God, so it must be wrong. Atheists must be devoid of human decency, which comes only from belief in God. More broadly, the Bible aside, tolerance undercuts a sense of certainty about one's own life. If other views and choices are OK, how do I know mine are right? Homosexuality is seen as bad because it is different, but it has good company with other forms of deviance, including social drinking and sex before marriage.

So finally we come to the issue of gay marriage. I have an image of many thousands of people who feel the world at large is not their concern, that others know best, that some things are going OK, and others are going poorly but nothing can be done about it. But such people hear about gay marriage and say simply "This is wrong". They become voters, at least this once. They may well not be conservative Christians, but just have this gut sense of how the world should work.

Many people who may have anti-gay feelings could be motivated to vote on this issue because the vote actually does something concrete. The nonvoters may understand there isn't so much they can do about homosexuality for the most part. In a reasonably free society people can act pretty much as they want, and even if they favor a restriction, say, on gays teaching in schools, it may not do much, since as they know many gays are in the closet. But in the one instance of gay marriage, they are dealing with something legal. Civil marriage is a privilege bestowed by the state, and law can prevent it.

Hatred need not accompany such a position (though it surely could). A person could oppose gay marriag ebut also have a general sense of tolerance, and "not want to bother them if they don't bother me".

Most (all?) of us grew up with substantial homophobia. Overcoming it can be a long process, with many layers. Maybe you think you've got it settled but then yet another situation comes along you hadn't thought of before. Not so many years ago, FUSN members wrestled with their own feelings before voting to become a Welcoming Congregation. When I was young, same sex marriage was not only impossible, the concept never occurred to me, and no one else mentioned it.

When we in the liberal circles of which FUSN is a part embrace a new form of liberation, we tend to do so whole-heartedly, and then readily think of the laggarts, let alone the dissenters, as morally suspect. I think it is all too easy to forget where we were not so long ago. It is even easier not to account for the fact that others, for instance in the Bible Belt, haven't had the same exposure.

So it is on this basis of all the considerations above that I feel we can understand and engage the humanity of the Bush voters.