Today I heard from a friend who's a Republican -- so Republican, in fact, that he voted that way in yesterday's election. He's Republican in a cultural way, socially conservative. Economically he's neither Republican nor remotely informed. So I think he speaks for a lot of similarly minded people when he reacts to the election of Barack Obama by blithering about the impending loss of our national identity, culture and laws to a dangerous international community, and then goes on to say that Obama doesn't represent him culturally. Truly, he went off the rails. But I think this is the attitude people mistook for racism during the campaign. And now that I've heard it out, I see that it is not racism at all. It's xenophobia.
Obama and McCain can ameliorate this by sharing some great bear hugs when they get back to work this winter. The photo op will not be lost. After my friend finished blithering and left the bus stop in a huff, I said to a lady nearby, "I think McCain and Obama really like each other." She said, "Yeah, I don't know what that guy was talking about."
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