"Did you watch last night's debate?" Thus started my conversation with a cabbie who was referring to the VP debate that took place a couple of weeks ago. It was a very interesting conversation as the cabbie was a white male in his 50s who was very passionate about American politics and a life long Democrat supporter. We talked for almost 45 minutes while driving to La Guardia Airport from my place. This conversation brought about quite a few notable points which make a lot of sense in the context of current political scenario in US.
He began by ridiculing Palin and calling her the most foolish politician he had come across in his entire life. "If a person can not name the newspapers she reads, how can she become the VP of United States?" He said McCain was even a bigger fool to select this lady as his VP pick.
And he confessed, as an American, that America is still largely, though not openly, racist. He said what else could explain a very narrow lead of Obama over McCain? If Obama had been white, he would be leading McCain by a huge margin. He said Americans are still racists and that's why the Republican party can get away with such weak candidates as McCain and Palin. He said Republicans are largely the party of folks who are stinking rich with tie-ups with huge corporations and influential churches.
He also said American people will vote for whoever looks smart on TV. I said then what went wrong last two times with John Kerry and Al Gore? He said both of them were horribly unfriendly on TV and they could never appeal the American public. And that is also one of the reasons that Obama has managed to stay ahead in the polls as he is very presentable on camera.
And the conversation went on. The most important point I could take from this was his confession as an American about prevailing racism in the country. The post is in response to Soham's comment on my previous post here.
P.S. The conversation happened for real and the views expressed here are the cabbie's own.
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6 comments:
Have you heard about the Bradley Effect? A lot people are worrying that's why Obama even -has- a lead in the polls. I mean, I'd like to believe it's because he's doing better than McCain, but who really knows.
I know about Bradley Effect. I was really surprised to know about it. Very interesting! But at the same time people say this could be a myth as well. Bradly's loss was well within the error of margin of polls. So it just shows inherent ineffectiveness of polls perhaps.
Well, I completely agree what Cabbie said !!
I used to car pool with an africa-american fellow working in my company and suddenly one day I asked him reluctuntly that hv u ever faced racism in USA??
He just laughed and said hell yeah .. And gave one example like during his visit to florida, at the LA airport, all the white men were not asked to remove clothes for security purposes while most of the african- american guys had to pass through thorough screening and they made them remove their clothes too .. So I really was taken back by his statements and I realized that the grass is certainly not the greenest in america ..
But it's good to know that Obama has got a narrow lead and I hope bradley effect does not pop-up on Ameican people's minds ..
Nice post though .. cleared so many doubts of mine ..
To make a point besides racism, I have read and watched documentaries about the influence of Christianity in American politics and society as a whole. Dawkins says in one of his interviews that it is impossible to move up the ladder in American politics if you are not a christian. Also, you must have read news reports of atheist soldiers and cops filing lawsuits against US government for discrimination. Dawkins quotes one of his friends and says that that person was not helped by the cops just because he was an atheist. When this person went to the station, he was ridiculed by the cops there and said he should not expect any help from them.
Our own pseudo-secularists should see this and appreciate the situation in India. Who is more tolerant, secular and liberal?
That's an interesting thing.. I was not aware of it ..
U gave me a real good point to argue when I'm debating and defending us ( True secular people) from the pseudo-secular ones ..
I encountered such people in plenty !!
On dollar bills, it is written that 'In GOD we trust' .. So this statement on a currency notes tell the whole story ..
While in India, Doordarshan had to remove 'Satyam Shivam Sundaram' as their punchline because minorities (Read: Muslims) felt that satyam and sundaram are ok but shivam is related to Hinduism and hence the punchline is communal .. so after a violent protest from them, Doordarshan had to remove it ..
we r great .. truly great !!
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