Orange County = Red County?

After having had the opportunity to hear Ann Coulter speak at UC Irvine last week, I realize that Bill O’Reilly is nothing in comparison to her. One of the most frightening aspects of her appearance at the Pacific Ballroom at UCI’s Student Center on Thursday was the vast number of people that were there in support of her. I guess it shouldn’t have been a surprise given how “Red” Orange County is, but the fact that such a conservative, right-wing speaker could get so much praise on a college campus was both eerie and disappointing at the same time.

I suppose that if you’re rich like Ann Coulter (and like many people in Orange County), you really don’t know what it’s like to be middle-class or to be a working-class citizen. Of course, even most of the fairly wealthy members of the community have always tended to label themselves as “middle-class” or “upper-middle-class”, while in reality they are probably among the top 5% of income earners or wealth holders in this country. People like this are often so out of touch with the daily struggles endured by so many across America that the only reason politics is relevant for them is to help them secure the wealth that they already have, not to look out for the welfare of others possibly at the expense of their own fortune. Sadly, these people will allow themselves to be spoon-fed whatever their leaders tell them, swallowing lies and deceptions like spoon-fed children too young to be able to feed themselves.

This is not intended to be an indictment on all Republicans in general or on the Republican Party in general. My observation is simply that many Democrats are accused of being ignorant because they don’t vote. The fact is that there are more registered Democrats in this country than Republicans, and it has been this way for quite a few years now. So if all Democrats voted, we should have ended up with Al Gore in 2000 or John Kerry in 2004. However, this Republican ignorance is different in the sense that it is blind obedience or submission to the viewpoints of their party leaders. I’m scared for the future of this country should both of these kinds of ignorance continue, but particularly the ignorance of the Republicans who should know better because they are generally more well-educated than the rest.