Opinion
GOP stoops too low for Joe Sixpack to stomach
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Also by Jack Garigliano:
- Liberal arts need funds and focus (November 12, 2008)
- Obama is first step, now get off your ass and work (November 6, 2008)
- GOP stoops too low for Joe Sixpack to stomach (October 30, 2008)
- Pluralism failed by UW's silence (October 16, 2008)
- Holistic admissions hurt the best (October 9, 2008)
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In every election, candidates promise to fight for the average citizen, John Q. Public. Candidates from around the world pledge to fight for the politically powerless, for he who has no voice in the course of public policy. The Germans call this figure Otto Normalburger, the Russians call him Ivan Ivanovich and the British call him Joe Bloggs. Here in the United States, Republicans John McCain and Sarah Palin continually invoke the name of Joe Sixpack, and place all their hopes of winning the election this Tuesday on him. However, their dependence on Joe Sixpack is outdated, obsolete and bound to fail.
So who is Joe Sixpack?
Joe Sixpack is an abstraction and a stereotype, but very real to the Republican ticket. According to McCain and Palin, Joe Sixpack is a normal, everyday American. Joe lives in a small town in the heartland of America. Every morning he wakes up and goes to his 9 to 5 job at the factory or the office. He works hard at his job, knowing his family depends on him to earn the food on their table and the roof over their heads. Every evening, Joe punches out and goes home. Weary from a hard day of work, he sits back, flips the TV to SportsCenter and enjoys a beer or two. Or six.
McCain and Palin tell us constantly Joe Sixpack is furious at the big-city coastal elites. Joe Sixpack has had enough of the greedy corporate fat cats who have wrecked the economy. Joe despises the liberal fat cats in Washington who raise his taxes. Joe resents the stuck-up media and Harvard graduates who sneer contemptuously at Joe and call him a redneck. Joe, according to McCain and Palin, plans to vote for the Republican ticket next week. He can especially relate to Sarah Palin, who is a walking, talking Joe Sixpack minus the working class job. She promises not to rest until the “normal Joe Sixpack American is finally represented in the position of vice presidency.” She’s part of the “real” America, ready to shake things up among the elitist establishment on the coast. McCain and Palin alike promise to keep Joe’s taxes low, secure his job and uphold his values in office.
In appealing to the Joe Sixpack persona, the Republican campaign is following nearly three decades of established tradition in American politics. Small-town, high school-educated white males like Joe Sixpack have traditionally voted Republican in droves, while urban coastal minorities and women have leaned heavily Democratic. Democrats and Republicans alike have typically exploited this divide. Republicans have sneered at the pretentious, pointy-headed, secular socialists of the coasts, and vowed to champion Joe Sixpack’s low taxes and small-town Christian values. Democrats derided the ignorant, selfish rednecks of the heartland and promised to fight for the little guy’s welfare programs and a separated church and state.
Yet as hard as McCain and Palin try to spark the same old, tired class warfare by claiming to speak for the small-town, white male Everyman, they will only meet with failure this election cycle. The unpopularity of the current administration and the current economic crisis has already set the Republican ticket back among those who normally support them. This election marks the first time in three decades that a Democratic candidate is pulling even with Republicans among white males. Joe isn’t as dependable anymore.
Meanwhile, McCain and Palin focus on such a narrow definition of the “normal” American among their Republican base that they have excluded and alienated every other kind of “normal” American stereotype. José Sixpack resents McCain’s unwillingness to address his party’s xenophobic stance on immigration. Jamal Sixpack is turned off by the racists who lurk among McCain and Palin’s supporters at rallies, and the candidates’ tepid response to them. Yusuf Sixpack probably dislikes the constant invocation of Barack Obama’s middle name and the repeated reference to Obama as a Muslim (as if it would be a bad thing even if he were). And let’s not forget Joe “I’m Gay” Sixpack’s reaction to McCain’s opposition to gay adoption.
Obama also pledges to fight for the Everyman, but his rhetoric expands beyond the Joe Sixpack American. Obama gears his rhetoric to all middle- and lower-income Americans, and hardly needs to lift a finger to encourage blame on the current administration for wrecking the country as a whole. He runs on a platform of unity among the red states and the blue states, and an end to the culture wars of the last several decades. On top of that, he is one of the most moderate Democrats we have had in a while, more moderate, I think, than most of his ardent followers realize. Whether he will succeed or not in ending political cultural spite is debatable. But based on his poll numbers, it seems like Joe Sixpacks of all kinds are already growing tired of being fought over for the last several elections.
Jack Garigliano (garigliano@wisc.edu) is a junior majoring in history and English.
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Joe Sixpack is the only one drunk enough to ignore the past 8 years and vote for McCain. Bat-shit-crazy old ladies and alcoholics are all McCain (and the GOP) have left.
Jack, there are an equal number of Democrats who stoop even lower, like, say, the last Democratic president. And when Hillary wasin bed asleep he stooped even lower, if you get my drift.
The McCain camp promises nothing for people who aren’t the “norm.” And that norm is derived much from 1950s America (John McCain would know…), and doesn’t truly reflect the American people of today. And these promises are just that….promises. Unsubstantiated and illogical. Joe Sixpacks and non need to realize that Obama is the one who will stand up for them, will act upon his promises.
But I think you forgot Jill Sixpack. Well, let me tell you, she’l be voting for Obama to protect her rights and extend her freedoms
I’m Joe Six Pack, you lotion handed pasty faced class warfare twirp!
I’ve shoveled out barns, worked in foundries, been a steel worker, a welder, a plow jockey, and a mechanic. I’ve put myself through both technical school and college, earning a technical diploma in auto mechanics as well a bachelors and a masters degrees in engineering. I hike and hunt and canoe and have owned and flew my own plane. I know how to field dress most game animals and I eat them with relish.
I am not an abstract. I’m a hard knuckled, caloused hand guy who deals with whatever problem comes along and gets the job done. I am never a victim. I know life isn’t fair, but shit happens and you just gotta suck it up and push on through to better day. You can trust my words and seal a deal with a hand shake. And I damn well expect you to keep you part of the agreement or I will deal with you in a hard knuckle fashion.
I have the deepest respect for John McCain and I will vote for him and Sarah Palin. John McCain has been tested to the limits of human endurance and proven his merit, his unflagging service to country, and the depth and breadth of his character. Barrack Hussein Mohammed Obama is a no experience, untested ant, by comparison. To call that terrorist loving, wealth redistributing marxist a moderate is the height of deceit.
Joe SixPack says “Don’t be a Wuss, Vote for John McCain”. He has the Experience We Need. And as a bonus, you can do what the lying democrats will not do: Put A Woman In The White House This Year!
Joe Invictus Maneo SixPack
@8:26,
Yeah….Bill Clinton was such a failure.
@9:35,
Bob Seeger could not have said it differently
Armstrong (Invictus Maneo) is totally engulfed by the Obama Derangement Syndrome. Now he knows how all the Democrats feel about Bush. Look, dude, you cannot believe everything Limbaugh says, nor can you believe everything on the wingnut blogs. Obama is a US Senator, just like John McCain.
McCain’s service in the military is honorable, but is certainly not a reliable indicator of presidential success (see Ulysses S. Grant). I guarantee that you didn’t vote for John Kerry over George W. Bush, despite Kerry’s actual war time military experience(Swift Boat denigrated service, sir, is still service that Bush did not possess).
Armstrong, would you like your personal shot at the White House, your hard work as an auto mechanic and engineer, your rosy palmed hands, to be belittled by a wealthy admiral’s son who crashed five planes 40 years ago? Right, he’s better than you, he’s a POW. He knows how us common folk live, give me a break.
I ain’t no Admiral’s son, perhaps you’re the fortunate one.
Anonimouse 12:33pm
Limbaugh who? Unlike the goose stepping acolytes of BO, my thoughts are my own, based in verifiable facts. I repeat: Barrack Hussein Mohammed Obama is a no experience, untested ant. To call that terrorist loving, wealth redistributing marxist wannabe a moderate is the height of deceit.
Moderate Barry stated “the biggest impediment to real change for minority rights and economic equality is the US Constitution”. There’s a moderate position for you, eh?
All president elects must take the oath of office, swearing to uphold the Constitution and protect the nation from all enemies, both foreign and domestic. Will Barry deny his tape recorded statement that he is not willing to uphold the Constitution because it is “an impediment” to his myopic view of social justice (ugh! what schlock!) or will he lie under oath and swear to uphold the Constitution…. and then work to undercut it?
Pesky details……. and lying one way or the other. There is no defense you can offer to refute that.
You ain’t no Senators son, sir… and you are no son that a father could be proud of either.
Don’t be a Wuss, Vote for John McCain. He has the Experience We Need. And as a bonus, you can do what the lying democrats will not do.
Put A Woman In The White House This Year!
Joe Invictus Maneo SixPack
“You can trust my words and seal a deal with a hand shake.”
Can you trust McCain’s word? I don’t know, ask his first wife.
BO, a moderate??? Who in the senate has a more extreme, leftist voting record? No one! Not one senator is more extreme than Lefty BO. None. If your political position is some where to the left of BO, he may appear to be more moderate than you.
Don’t let the facts get in your way when you throw your opinion out there. Like all good Neo-Comms, you think ignoring the facts is OK and justified. The end justifies the means.
Remember the last time Democrats had complete control of our government? Those halcion years of the Carter administration with double digit inflation, unemployment and interest rates make our current financial problems seem very mild in comparison. The Democrat Party has since jettisoned any one who is even remotely moderate and moved strongly to the left.
Those who are ignorant of(or choose to ignore)the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.
I’m with JIMS.
BO, a moderate??? Who in the senate has a more extreme, leftist voting record? No one! Not one senator is more extreme than Lefty BO. None. If your political position is some where to the left of BO, he may appear to be more moderate than you.
Don’t let the facts get in your way when you throw your opinion out there. Like all good Neo-Comms, you think ignoring the facts is OK and justified. The end justifies the means.
Remember the last time Democrats had complete control of our government? Those halcion years of the Carter administration with double digit inflation, unemployment and interest rates make our current financial problems seem very mild in comparison. The Democrat Party has since jettisoned any one who is even remotely moderate and moved strongly to the left.
Those who are ignorant of(or choose to ignore)the mistakes of the past are doomed to repeat them.
I’m with JIMS.
9:35am - Rednecks for McCain.
2:31pm, were you in a coma from 1992-2000? Bill Clinton was the last Democratic president, not Carter.