An old friend, a musician, came in from
out of town. His band was playing a barbecue festival in south KC, so
I went. It was a thing I would never have gone to otherwise; in fact,
I had never heard of the event before.
It was something like 77 teams of
barbecuers; the band was hosted by one of them and the dressing room
was that team's RV (the teams tend to travel to different events, and
they stay on the grounds in RVs; non-team members have to be off the
grounds by midnight).
These were totally nice guys, in the
circumstances. They were very concerned with our comfort, and were
generous with their food and their booze. They were guys who like
their comforts. They really enjoyed the music and we all had a good
time.
While we were sitting in the trailer
before the set, two of the guys got to talking about the Roger Waters
show at the Sprint Center the previous Friday night. Waters had
really reamed out Trump. Tim Finn, the rock writer at the Star, had
posted on his Facebook page something to the effect that, “If you
went to Waters' show and left because of the politics, you obviously
never really listened to Pink Floyd.” So these guys were talking,
and they said, “The music was great, but he really dumped on
Trump,” and then they turned to my friend and said, “I hope
you're going to stay away from politics.” To which he answered, “Of
course!”
That's when I realized I was probably
surrounded by Trump voters. White guys, probably in the beginnings of
middle age, used to having America be for them. I didn't ask them,
but if they're mad about Roger Waters' politics they probably weren't
wearing pussy hats in January.
Of course, most people don't think or
talk about politics in the obsessive way that my friends and I do.
These guys are just happy to be driving around in RVs, cooking up
huge hunks of meat, drinking bourbon and listening to rock music.
Life is good; they don't want to be bothered by politics.
My friend actually has progressive
politics, but one thing you learn playing frat parties and such is
that you give the people what they want. (The band played the Dead's
“New Speedway Boogie,” which I pointed out later is actually
pretty political, not that anyone would notice.)
One of the most significant
conversations coming out of the election has been about the necessity
of reaching across cultural lines (to say it that way) to people who
feel themselves being left behind in contemporary America, and who
had found comfort, or a weapon, in Trump. This has been Bernie
Sanders' approach. Of course, the presumption is that this “reaching
out” only has to be to white folks. The other side of the argument
(often, but not always, coming from African Americans) is that this
is kowtowing to the dark racist underbelly of the American
electorate. I'm of the dedicated opinion that racial justice and
economic justice are deeply intertwined, and also that you can't win
an election in the US, even on the state level, without white votes.
If white non-progressives are going to be written off from the
political equation, there are going to be a lot more Donald Trumps in
our future.
So that's it, really. I didn't talk
politics with these guys and my friend and I left right after the
show. I didn't ask them why Hillary didn't appeal to them or what it
would take to make a Left message do so. I didn't ask them what they
thought about Trump pulling out the Paris agreement. (Truth be told,
I'm assuming their politics based on a random comment.) But those are
conversations that I need to have, and with people exactly like them,
in order to be effective in my job.
But I also know that the expectation
that “we shouldn't talk about politics” (which I've come across
plenty in the Jewish community as well) is a luxury that not everyone
can afford – in fact, it is itself an indicator of privilege, and
as such, must always be questioned. Except at private parties, I
guess.
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