Totally out of touch with middle America

I saw families holding hands and bowing to pray over their meal in a public setting. I saw lights and trees and festively festooned homes and Main Street businesses, whose owners are not shy or ashamed to refer to the ornaments as Christmas decorations. It would never cross the minds of these good people to remove C-h-r-i-s-t from the word Christmas and replace it with an “X,” nor would they think of referring to that tall evergreen decoration in the corner of their living room as a “holiday tree,” as our White House and the politically correct establishment now prefers.

These people eschew the generic “Happy Holidays” greeting, preferring to wish friends and loved ones a very warm and heartfelt “Merry Christmas,” and never even considering the political incorrectness of such.

While many of these people I’ve mentioned believe the White House and Congress are totally out of touch with them and their values, none of them have ever attended a Tea Party. They are, however, every bit as disgusted with Washington spending, Washington bailouts and Washington corruption as are the peaceful protesters most of the networks ignore.

Last Sunday, my wife and I stopped at a local dining establishment for our after-church meal. There, when we witnessed a family praying over their meal in a public place, as my wife and I do, I was tempted to ask these good people what they thought of the Washington elite being in such a bubble that they would consider this family’s conduct to be ungracious, insensitive or politically incorrect at the least.

Folks like this family in rural Oklahoma are, I believe, a microcosm of traditional families across the country. They feel that Washington, Congress and President Obama are 50,000 miles away. Not even in their hemisphere. When they watch the newscasts, or when they read about a bridge that serves 50 people costing $250 million, or a stimulus package costing more than $150,000 per job, when they hear of people wanting to read Miranda rights to Osama bin Laden (no kidding), they rightly conclude this new reality is downright obscene and foreign to them. This isn’t the America they grew up to love.

They puzzle over the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on a stimulus package that’s not stimulating. They see the federal government getting bigger and bigger, and of taxes being raised. They hear of the government taking over the automobile industry and the health care system in America. They hear politicians and the press telling them that government is the answer. But in all of this, they never hear anything about values.

You see, these people are less concerned about money, but are extremely concerned about values. They weep for the country in which they raise their children and grandchildren. Their only concern about money is in the hopes that their government won’t take any more of their hard-earned dollars, and would rightly stay out of their wallets and purses.

These people still take American pride in saluting the flag, honoring veterans, and they still think Dec. 25 is the most significant birthday celebration in history. You see, these people still believe that America is an exceptional nation, and they have no desire to see their grandkids inherit a merely normal nation. These people still believe that this place you and I call home and the rest of the world calls America is pretty special. However, in talking to folks from places in Oklahoma such as Eufaula, Stillwater, Davenport and Luther, they feel we are doing much to water down our specialness.

Another interesting thing is that so many of these people have identified with Republicans or Democrats in the past, but today they tell me they are thoroughly disgruntled with both parties. While these people are too busy raising their families and running their small businesses to attend any tea parties, they cheer from the sidelines, believing the Tea Party participants are speaking for them.

J.C. Watts (JCWatts01@jcwatts.com), chairman of J.C. Watts Companies, a business consulting group, is former chairman of the Republican Conference of the U.S. House, where he served as an Oklahoma representative from 1995 to 2002. He writes twice monthly for the Review-Journal.