Angry White Men

[n0Mad]

Gary Hubbell

February 9, 2008

There is a great amount of interest in this year’s presidential elections, as everybody seems to recognize that our next president has to be a lot better than George Bush. The Democrats are riding high with two groundbreaking candidates — a woman and an African-American — while the conservative Republicans are in a quandary about their party’s nod to a quasi-liberal maverick, John McCain.

Each candidate is carefully pandering to a smorgasbord of special-interest groups, ranging from gay, lesbian and transgender people to children of illegal immigrants to working mothers to evangelical Christians.

There is one group no one has recognized, and it is the group that will decide the election: the Angry White Man. The Angry White Man comes from all economic backgrounds, from dirt-poor to filthy rich. He represents all geographic areas in America, from urban sophisticate to rural redneck, deep South to mountain West, left Coast to Eastern Seaboard.

His common traits are that he isn’t looking for anything from anyone — just the promise to be able to make his own way on a level playing field. In many cases, he is an independent businessman and employs several people. He pays more than his share of taxes and works hard.

The victimhood syndrome buzzwords — “disenfranchised,” “marginalized” and “voiceless” — don’t resonate with him. “Press ‘one’ for English” is a curse-word to him. He’s used to picking up the tab, whether it’s the company Christmas party, three sets of braces, three college educations or a beautiful wedding.

He believes the Constitution is to be interpreted literally, not as a “living document” open to the whims and vagaries of a panel of judges who have never worked an honest day in their lives.

The Angry White Man owns firearms, and he’s willing to pick up a gun to defend his home and his country. He is willing to lay down his life to defend the freedom and safety of others, and the thought of killing someone who needs killing really doesn’t bother him.

The Angry White Man is not a metrosexual, a homosexual or a victim. Nobody like him drowned in Hurricane Katrina — he got his people together and got the hell out, then went back in to rescue those too helpless and stupid to help themselves, often as a police officer, a National Guard soldier or a volunteer firefighter.

His last name and religion don’t matter. His background might be Italian, English, Polish, German, Slavic, Irish, or Russian, and he might have Cherokee, Mexican, or Puerto Rican mixed in, but he considers himself a white American.

He’s a man’s man, the kind of guy who likes to play poker, watch football, hunt white-tailed deer, call turkeys, play golf, spend a few bucks at a strip club once in a blue moon, change his own oil and build things. He coaches baseball, soccer and football teams and doesn’t ask for a penny. He’s the kind of guy who can put an addition on his house with a couple of friends, drill an oil well, weld a new bumper for his truck, design a factory and publish books. He can fill a train with 100,000 tons of coal and get it to the power plant on time so that you keep the lights on and never know what it took to flip that light switch.

Women either love him or hate him, but they know he’s a man, not a dishrag. If they’re looking for someone to walk all over, they’ve got the wrong guy. He stands up straight, opens doors for women and says “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am.”

He might be a Republican and he might be a Democrat; he might be a Libertarian or a Green. He knows that his wife is more emotional than rational, and he guides the family in a rational manner.

He’s not a racist, but he is annoyed and disappointed when people of certain backgrounds exhibit behavior that typifies the worst stereotypes of their race. He’s willing to give everybody a fair chance if they work hard, play by the rules and learn English.

Most important, the Angry White Man is pissed off. When his job site becomes flooded with illegal workers who don’t pay taxes and his wages drop like a stone, he gets righteously angry. When his job gets shipped overseas, and he has to speak to some incomprehensible idiot in India for tech support, he simmers. When Al Sharpton comes on TV, leading some rally for reparations for slavery or some such nonsense, he bites his tongue and he remembers. When a child gets charged with carrying a concealed weapon for mistakenly bringing a penknife to school, he takes note of who the local idiots are in education and law enforcement.

He also votes, and the Angry White Man loathes Hillary Clinton. Her voice reminds him of a shovel scraping a rock. He recoils at the mere sight of her on television. Her very image disgusts him, and he cannot fathom why anyone would want her as their leader. It’s not that she is a woman. It’s that she is who she is. It’s the liberal victim groups she panders to, the “poor me” attitude that she represents, her inability to give a straight answer to an honest question, his tax dollars that she wants to give to people who refuse to do anything for themselves.

There are many millions of Angry White Men. Four million Angry White Men are members of the National Rifle Association, and all of them will vote against Hillary Clinton, just as the great majority of them voted for George Bush.

He hopes that she will be the Democratic nominee for president in 2008, and he will make sure that she gets beaten like a drum.

Gary Hubbell is a regular columnist with the Aspen Times Weekly.

http://www.aspentimes.com/article/2008198091324

[jadnifer]

for the angry white man.

[Msterbeau]

[jadnifer]

Please explain the rolling of the eyes. I'm very curious to hear your viewpoint on it.

[creatureofthenyte]

I wish skin color wasn't such a noteworthy detail.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Skin color , gender and/or race seems to be an acceptable attribute to use as a positive self-label for your own advancement or the race or ethnic group. It's perfectly acceptable to have a "black" organization or a "women's" group, tv show or anything else and I'm all for it in theory.

But, the outcry of sexism and racism would be deafening if there was ever a publicly declared "Center For The Advancement Of The White Man" of any size and visibility. I guess the assumption being that the current white-men are to blame for the actions all the previous generations of white men, thus they aren't allowed the same free expression of self-interest.

Theoretically we are supposed to be color-blind and gender-neutral. Sounds good to me. Unfortunately it seems to only be actually expected of "the man" while other groups are left to self-identify and create exclusionary groups that include only their special interests. Even to point out this fact will tend to label one a sexist or a racist, how dare anyone point out the emperor is not wearing any clothes.

There's the "intent" of that message. Unfortunately its very card-carrying conservative in tone, likely to turn off half the intended audience despite the token reference to "any political persuasion".

[n0Mad]

Very well said Troy. To touch upon one thing you said:

There's the "intent" of that message. Unfortunately its very card-carrying conservative in tone, likely to turn off half the intended audience despite the token reference to "any political persuasion".

I agree. I thought the article was great up until the very end when the author mentioned the NRA and voting for George Bush. Admittedly, I liked GB senior. GWB started off pretty good too and led us through 9-11 fairly well but quickly went downhill after that. Lately, I'm ashamed to even admit I'm right-bent as I don't want to be associated with him. Also, I'm a fanatic about gun rights but I do not belong to the NRA. That being said though, those last bits in the article soured up the whole thing. He should've just quit while he was ahead.

[Shade Everdark]

Wow, what a paragon of civic virtue this Angry White Man must be.

If you ever meet any, who isn't a bigot or so full of his damn self that he's about to burst, introduce me to him; I'd love to meet him.

Why does it not surprise me that this self-important git lives/writes in Aspen, Colorado.

[sass_in_the_pants]

Stop oppressing me!!!

[Gaf The Horse With Tears]

You most likely meet them every day.There are a few of them on this board. I think I have even seen some Angry White Women.

Why is White Pride evil, yet Black Pride is just peachy?

Why are the Black Panthers heros and the KKK demons?

[Kit Kat P]

Wow, what a paragon of civic virtue this Angry White Man must be.

If you ever meet any, who isn't a bigot or so full of his damn self that he's about to burst, introduce me to him; I'd love to meet him.

Why does it not surprise me that this self-important git lives/writes in Aspen, Colorado.

Actually Shade my dad is that Angry White Man. Okay, well, not that one but that article describes him to a tee. And he isn't a bigot or full of himself. Actually he works 9-10 hours a day and then turns around and works some more to help so-and-so out. He takes my Mom dancing and has met quite of few of his daughters' boyfriends regardless of the man's color or race. My dad is pretty much the person I aspire to be. Now he's not perfect and he was raised to be racist and he has fought that and pretty much won, but here in CA it is a constant battle for him. He does not know how to deal w/ the fact that I'm gay. But he's trying, and that's more than anyone would have said for him 30 yr.s ago; and while our relationship is fragile because of it, I'll take what I can get.

[TygerLili]

I can't really pick apart his message because a good portion of it is valid, but it's delivered in such an arrogant and bigoted tone that it's hard to care.

As I was reading this I just kept thinking: If I was on a date with this guy I wouldn't even make it through my appetizer.

This type of attitude is why I'd love to go live in another country some day.

[Troy Spiral (13)]

Very well said Troy. To touch upon one thing you said:

I agree. I thought the article was great up until the very end when the author mentioned the NRA and voting for George Bush. Admittedly, I liked GB senior. GWB started off pretty good too and led us through 9-11 fairly well but quickly went downhill after that. Lately, I'm ashamed to even admit I'm right-bent as I don't want to be associated with him. Also, I'm a fanatic about gun rights but I do not belong to the NRA. That being said though, those last bits in the article soured up the whole thing. He should've just quit while he was ahead.

Yeah. & Yeah at Tiger Lilly as well.

I think the "angry (and somewhat ignorant)" parts screwed what would have otherwise been interesting points.