I just got off the phone with Kevin Coleman, the Grove, Oklahoma man challenging reactionary Democrat Dan Boren in the July 29 primary. Jane was at my house one time when someone running for the Democratic nomination to challenge California’s most corrupt member of Congress, Jerry Lewis, called to ask for a Blue America endorsement. Jane was blogging while I talked with him on the phone and she wasn’t paying close attention, but she was rolling on the floor laughing when she heard me ask the candidate why he was running as a Democrat instead of a Republican. After 15 minutes on the phone with Kevin, I asked him the same question. And he had a good answer.
First and foremost, Kevin seems like a sincere, forthright and “regular” guy. He had never heard the term “populist” when I told him that the economic policies he was espousing were pure populism, but I was very encouraged to hear him railing against the Republican agenda of so-called “free” trade and special treatment for the special interests. His economic concerns reflect the basic concerns of the vast majority of working American families. His analysis of how Bush got into office offering one thing and then turning around and doing something else– both in terms of the economy and in terms of foreign policy (especially Iraq)– was similar to what most American voters seem to be thinking these days.
I was so encouraged after hearing this, thinking that perhaps Blue America could get behind another populist Democrat and help him get rid of corporatist Dan Boren, that I started asking him the standard questions I ask all the candidates we endorse at Blue America. After the first two, I realized I was barking up the wrong tree. Kevin is convinced, absolutely sincerely, that the cells that result from conception are children and that the state is obligated to protect the children from irresponsible women who want to kill them. OK… and then came a few lines about God creating Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
When I asked Kevin why he decided to run as a Democrat instead of a Republican, he took the question very seriously and he had a good, solid answer about how Bush came into the presidency wearing a white hat and how that hat is now stained red with blood. Kevin feels very let down by the GOP and by the tenor of the federal government and by what passes for American political leadership. I had the impression, though, that he gets an awful lot of his information from conspiracy-oriented web sites and from Hate Talk radio. I asked him if he listens to radio. He does– all day. He’s in construction work, remodeling homes and he has the radio on. He listens to Neil Boortz, Limbaugh, and Hannity. And then the final show of the day is hosted by his favorite talk-jock of all, “a kindred spirit,” he told me: Michael Savage.
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