Monday, April 15, 2013

Voting Democrat, Yet Living Republican Lives

I was watching Bill Moyers on PBS last night, and he was interviewing Native American author Sherman Alexie.  What particularly interested me was this statement that Alexie made:

"One of the misconceptions about Indians, you know, because liberals love Indians, you know? White liberals worship Indians. But actually, Indians are a conservative lot. I mean, we by and large we vote Democrat, but we live very Republican lives, you know? Indian communities, there's no separation of church and state, war is a virtue, guns are everywhere, by and large pro-life. So, you know, once again, it's a very bipolar existence.  You know, this, you know, knowing that Democrats, by and large, are going to support us more. But still behaving like Republicans. You know, it occurs to me it's like a big city Republicans, who live these incredibly liberal, secular lives in the city, while espousing small town religious politics."

The entire interview is worth watching, for Alexie gets into such issues as social media, manic depression, alcoholism, and religion.  See here.