What Democrats don't understand by Bud Beck

What Democrats don't understand by Bud Beck


What Democrats don't understand

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Category: Political Commentary - Moderate
Posted Sun Aug 21,2005 4:02 AM Last Edited:

I've been sparing with my comments regarding Cindy Sheehan and her crusade. I have also stayed away from the John Roberts debate. So many others, obviously more learned and informed than me, on both sides, have very profound things to say regarding both of the people and the issues that surround them. What more could I possibly add? Anything I might say would seem to only serve to contribute to the redundancy.

This summer I've been teaching four college English Composition courses - two in the day, and two at night. My students range in age from eighteen to sixty-two. They are white, Hispanic, African American, and any mixture that you can imagine. Women out number the men three to one and most of them are holding full time jobs and raising families while they pursue their college careers. They are not what we typically imagine college students to be, but they represent a significant segment of those who are seeking higher education as a way to better themselves and their lives. Most of them are serious and they all understand what it means to excel in their studies.

English Composition has never been high on anyone's list of courses to take unless they are a journalism major. The school I teach at keys in on Medical Assisting, Nursing, Business, and Information Technology. English Comp is a required course and a necessary "evil."

The course syllabus I've developed exposes students to basic sentence and paragraph construction, as well as basic essay development. I also place a large amount of emphasis on "Truth" in writing.

It is not necessarily my truth, or what I perceive truth to be, but the truth the students have inside of them and the ability to express it in their writing. That includes making them address controversial subjects and write how they feel regarding them. As long as they can factually support their thesis and not become emotionally wrapped up in rhetoric and jingoism, they are never wrong. Using that premise, I decided to make the week's assignment interesting and informative, while conducting an experiment at the same time.

I wrote the name Cindy Sheehan on the board in my Wednesday day and my first Wednesday evening classes. I asked who knew who that person was? No one raised their hands because no one knew. There was a time when I might have been surprised, but now, realizing the situations and the circumstances my students live in, I wasn't. It was exactly what I expected.

Instead of telling them about Cindy Sheehan as I might have done in the past, I sent them off to the library to do research and form an analysis of the woman and the circumstances surrounding her. The students were aware that when they returned for the second half of the class they would be required to write an argumentative essay either supporting or not supporting the woman and her cause. I repeated the process with my second Wednesday evening English Comp class and my Thursday day class, except I used the name of John Roberts. Again, no one knew who he was and again I sent them off to do research.

Now if you are a pundit, a party activist, or a person with a cause, you might find this hard to believe. How is it possible anyone living in these times does not know Cindy Sheehan or John Roberts? How is it people do not understand the significance of the issues that surround both of these people?

As startling as it might sound, it was true. My students, adult college students, did not know either person. They were more concerned with their families, their jobs, and succeeding in their studies that they were regarding a mother set on embarrassing the President of the United States or a man who was appointed to the Supreme Court of the nation. Neither person nor the issues surrounding them figured into the students' circles of important issues.

My experiment or study was far from scientific and credible. It involved a total of only fifty students. I don't know if I could call them a cross section of anything or representative of any group other than adult students in a north central Florida college. But as unscientific as it might have been, it certainly did represent something that the people who live and die for causes like supporting Cindy Sheehan or opposing John Roberts all seem to either ignore or completely miss. That is the average American just doesn't know.

We tend to judge other people and their interests by our own. For some reason Democrats are more guilty of this than are Republicans. Republicans, from the days of Ronald Reagan, grasped the concept of a short, hard hitting, sound bite. Bill Clinton stole it from them with "It's the economy, stupid", and it cost the first George Bush the election. What "Bubba" knew instinctively, Gore, Kerry, and the rest of the Democrats all missed as they expounded thoughts and high minded concepts lost to the average person caught up in worrying about their safety and trying to afford a tank of gas and rent. It became very apparent as I read the finished essays.

Cindy Sheehan and John Roberts had little impact on my students. Alone or together, they are no more major issues than were the Downing Street memos or Weapons of Mass Destruction. That fact is reflected in what my students wrote in their assessments.

"What will another meeting with Bush accomplish?" one student wrote. "I feel sorry for her, but the president can't meet with everyone. Her son knew what he was doing when he volunteered and reenlisted."

Another student, a woman, wrote: " Mrs. Sheehan needs to pack it up and get on with her life." She saw no reason for her to be doing what she was.

Still another said: "I think Mrs. Sheehan needs to come to terms with her son's death. She should hold her head high and be proud of the hero that volunteered to save his county."

Of nineteen students who did their own research on a subject they knew nothing about, sixteen were sympathetic to her, but did not agree with what she was doing. Only three supported her completely.

The same held true for John Roberts.

"I think Roberts would be a good replacement. He is at a good age to setting in to this position. If I had to vote I would say yes for him," one student wrote.

Another student, someone who is not a Bush supporter, said: "I agree with the President on how much impact John Roberts can have on society. I also share the President's respect for John Roberts."

Even women who caught on to his stand on Rove v Wade and other issues, including voter's rights, had faith that he would judge issues fairly. "I am for Judge Roberts in spite of some of the issues he has fought against and for. He was doing a job and the people he represented expected him to present their case. That is all he was doing."

I was surprised at the depth and insight some of the students exhibited. Of thirty-one students, twenty supported Roberts rather than opposing him. That is two to one and it shocked me. However, the more I thought about it the more I understood the reason for the outcome.

I had given each class fifty minutes to research subjects they originally knew nothing about. Fifty minutes is a long time and in that time a person can certainly find facts to form an opinion. It is also about forty-five minutes more than most people who recognize the names Cindy Sheehan and John Roberts have spent considering the issues.

I made no attempt to influence their thinking. I let them find their own sources and form their own conclusions. They did not accept Cindy Sheehan as a credible source in opposition to the war and they saw no reason why a bright, young, Federal Appeals Court Judge should not be appointed to the Supreme Court.

What are major issues to the Democrats are of no real importance to my students. I had to think about it. Why? Are the Democrats really disconnected from a large segment of society that for all practical purposes they should own?

I thought about it. These adults were low paid hourly workers, many of them heads of single parent households, all struggling to make ends meet. They are not the wealthy upper or upper middle class. Tax cuts mean nothing to them and a vacation is a week in which they don't have to go to school. They are not in tune with the issues because they are too busy working and trying to make that last buck so they can hang in there one more week.

Not one of them has a moment of spare time to participate in evening vigils, nor can they take a Friday morning to oppose the privatization of Social Security. They don't travel to Washington to demonstrate and they certainly can't take a week to go to Crawford to join Cindy. They can't because they are busy trying to survive their lives.

What was once a party of the common man has now manifested itself into an erudite group of elitists who are too good to deal with the problems that really affect the people who genuinely need some relief. Should we be surprised that Democrats continually lose at the polls?

The Democratic Party has become issue oriented. It responds to the issue at hand and has not set forth an agenda with a clear direction for this nation. While they might understand and embrace their issues with zeal, people worried about day to day life and life issues could really care less. Cindy Sheehan and John Roberts might as well be Cleopatra and Mark Antony.

Even when they are forced to care, as I forced them with the assignment, the issue has to have a major impact on them individually before they will break with the President of the United States. Neither issue has that kind of impact on these adult college students.

The war in Iraq is being fought by a volunteer army and as much as they each dislike the war and the fact our soldiers are dying, it has no personal impact on them. If there was a mandatory draft and their sons and daughters were eligible to fight, then it would become a different issue. That, however, is not the case.

The same holds true for John Roberts. He has even less of an impact on their daily lives than the war in Iraq. They truthfully don't care. If the president believes John Roberts is the man for the job, they will go along with him.

A brutal fact of life, one the Democrats are missing, is my fifty students are representative of Mr., Mrs. and Ms. America. Forget the polls and forget popularity and approval ratings. They mean nothing until an issue has some sort of impact on them. They complain more about the price of a gallon of gas and a gallon of milk than the war or a judicial appointment.

Where are the Democrats on those issues? Why haven't we been hearing Ted Kennedy, Hillary Clinton, or Joe Biden speaking out about the price of oil and food? Why aren't they feeling our pain? Why do they go along with the Republicans and remain silent as these real issues slowly strangle the life out of the working people at the bottom? What am I missing here and why are we so wrapped up with concepts rather than fixes?

Could it be they are on the same gravy train as the Republicans? Is it possible the three I mentioned, along with a whole lot more, are very busy cashing in on the generous donations and gifts from the corporations who are cleaning up at our expense?

Maybe, just maybe, Ted, Hillary and Joe have caught on, as have the other Democrats, that being in the minority has its benefits. You really don't have to do a whole lot, just act and talk as if you want to. It is an ingenious concept. No one will ever hold you responsible for anything, and isn't that the dream of every politician?

Perhaps the Democrats, or at least the Democratic leadership isn't missing anything. Perhaps they have finally perfected what they are doing down to a very fine science. Perhaps we are the ones who are missing what has and is really going on. Perhaps, but even a blind dog can occasionally find a flea that is biting it. The leaders might want to take that into consideration.


Bud Beck, also known as Harold Thomas Beck is the former host of the Bud Beck Show and the author of: Ripe For The Picking (The Story of the Kathy Wilson Murder), Cornplanter Chronicles, The First Terrorist Act, and Tyrannus Bush? He is currently teaching English at Webster College.