I just said goodbye to a repairman who came by to fix one of our appliances. I thought it important to sit down at the computer and memorialize the conversation we just had in the backyard, after he'd finished. I'll call him Dave.
Dave -- white guy, about mid-fifties, I'd say, a Dallas native who lives in a modest neighborhood -- came out back to tell us he'd finished, and noticed that Julie and I and the kids were working in the backyard, planting things. He said it was nice to see people putting in a garden. Times are getting hard, but people ought to be gardening anyway, he said.
We got to talking about the economy. He was furious -- I mean, really angry -- about the way things are going. We started talking about the city of Dallas and its politics. He spoke about how frustrating it is dealing with the roaming pit bull problem in his part of the city, and how the city won't deal with it effectively. I told him I work for the newspaper, and I'd looked into it; the city animal control folks are few and underfunded.
"I've lived in Dallas all my life," Dave said. "This used to be a city where things got taken care of. Not no more. They're too busy putting up big projects downtown. The Trinity River Project -- we voted bonds on that thing 10 years ago. Where is it now? They ain't done a damn thing for it. I voted against it, because I knew it was a put-up job. Here were are 10 years later, and all they have are pretty pictures about what they said they was gonna do."
We talked for a while about how no-good the city government and the political establishment is here. And then he started in on the Republicans.
"I'm a conservative Republican, but I voted Libertarian last time," he said. "I knew we wasn't gonna win, but I was sick and tired" -- here his voice rose -- "of those no-count Republicans, and I sure wasn't gonna vote for a liberal Democrat. Oh, now they saying they not going to go along with all that big spending. Well excuse me, mister, where were you these past eight years? George W. Bush, I voted for him twice, but he wasn't too smart, was he? 'The economy is looking up,' he said. Bull. It was all on paper.
"And Bush kept talking about putting everybody in his own house, and what a good thing that would be. They did it even if the people couldn't afford it! The banks throwing all this money around, and now who's got to pay for it? You and me, that's who!"
Dave was hot. And Dave was right. He went on.
"That guy in New York, Madoff? You see where they ain't even gonna indict him? Idn't that somethin'. They oughta put that guy on trial."
I told him that I agreed, but I'd bet that the authorities are going to work some deal to prevent Madoff from telling everything he knows, and revealing who in power enabled him over the years.
"That's for damn sure," Dave said. "Madoff and his wife ought to be out on the streets when this deal is over. But you watch, they won't be. She's saying that that big apartment they live in, that wasn't bought with money he stole."
Dave's tone of voice made it clear that he didn't think much of Mrs. Madoff's argument.
Our conversation went on like this for a while. A couple of things were clear to me. One, this working-class conservative voter had bitter contempt for the Republican Party in particular, and the political and financial elites in general. He believes, quite correctly in my view, that they're looking out only for themselves, that they will avoid a just reckoning for the disaster they've caused. And two, there's no telling what kind of backlash is brewing once people lose faith in the institutions of politics and finance. This is just one repairman in Texas on one day in the spring of 2009. But I am sure he's not alone.
"My dad, he's in his eighties now," Dave said just before he picked up his toolbox and left. "He lives down in [N.] County. He's only got a fourth-grade education, and has been a working man all his life. Even now, he can't wait to get up in the morning and get out to work on appliances. I talk to him every night, and we talk a lot about this economic mess. Sometimes he'll get to crying, saying he doesn't know where this country is going, and it scares him."
That's my report. I'm going back to the garden.
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Aren't there any "crunchy cons" besides Frank Schaeffer who bit the bullet and voted for Obama, realizing that the changes he offers, however imperfect it may be, is exactly what we need right now, and that a vote for McCain-Palin would have been a worse disaster for the country? http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/an-open-letter-to-america_b_171463.html
Hah. We had one of those common sense "do the right thing for the people" candidates. You know, a lot like the "Dave the repairman" types. Small businessperson, self educated, lives modestly and successfully... But Rod had a panic attack and ran screaming because SHE wasn't "politically elite" and "experienced in the crooked ways of washington DC".
Gee, Rod, that guy kinda sorta sounded like a Limbaugh-ite to me although I cannot recall Limbaugh calling for life-in-prison for Madoff, offhand.
S'pose that he'll be persuaded to join the "tender, loving, Big Gummint" Party of Frum?
Snoozer by first-round KO.
Dave's statements about Madoff are a bit off. He seems to have confused "pleading guilty" with "no trial," but instead, it now seems likely that Madoff will go to jail for life. I'm surprised Rod repeated this misstatement as fact (and also the reporting-in-dialect was more condescending than endearing). It makes me wonder how much Dave actually watches the news.
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