From Romania... Thinking about America

I had an interesting conversation this morning with an American who self-identified as being very well-off who said he had done it without any help from the government.  He liked the “up by the bootstraps” phrase and used it several times to explain how superior he is morally to Bill Clinton (heavy emphasis on the cloakroom tryst), Lyndon Johnson (emphasis on Johnson’s getting rich from sucking at the government tit rather than “up from the bootstraps” efforts the way he, from Virginia coal mining country did).  He and his friend were in a particular rage about “the government conspiracy” to convince Americans and the world that there is such a thing as man-caused global warming.  They were talking about spotted owls and logging and gun control and what they generally consider the government’s insistence that they “give more” of what they have to the poor.  My friend Ted and I had a few things to say in favor of giving spotted owls a fair chance at survival, and the fellow from Virginia remarked that all of us “tree huggers” are all alike.  

After half-an-hour of discussion, Virginia fellow said he could always know which side of political issues school teachers are going to come down on because five of his brothers are school teachers and they are all “liberals.”  He said 95% of school teachers are liberal and the other five percent who say they aren’t are probably lying just to keep their jobs.  I asked if he knew that his friend’s career in an Oregon fire department and before that the Forest Service was a career working for “the Government.”  His friend was clearly not eager to comment.  The Virginia guy said school teachers have time to be liberal.  “People who work for a living” don’t have time for the foolishness that teachers have time for.”  I asked him where he got his education and if school teachers had anything to do with it.  He didn’t want to go there.  I asked him if he had ever though about the possibility that the reasons many school teachers are “liberal” is that they may have more education, may base their opinions on real, verifiable information than some people do... like the people who prefer to remain ignorant of facts and trust Fox News and obnoxious radio talking heads to tell them what to think.  He wanted to know what I don’t like about Rush Limbaugh.