Working-class Republicans....

You gotta admit, the Right knows how to organize. How to motivate activists to work--or at least, vote--against their own self-interests.

My brother, 57, is a case in point. All his working life he's busted his balls selling cars. Not the most esteemed profession, I know, but he's given it his all. And he's got a laundry list of stress-related health problems to prove it.

In fact, both he and his wife are suffering from a variety of serious health ailments. Yet the last time I checked, he still had no employer-paid health-insurance; instead, he was paying out-of-pocket for Blue Cross or some similar high-premium limited-coverage plan.

I don't think he's ever accrued in one year more than two week's paid vacation--and that's working since he was in his early 20's for the same employer. Who's done quite nicely, thank you very much, off the sweat and tears of my brother and others like him.

Nor has either of my brother's two sons earned a college-degree--at least in part due to no money to spare for college tuition.

So, does my brother support progressive politics? Does he vote for a candidate who promises healthcare reform or represents the interests of workers like him? Is he in favor of tax-reform to make corporations and the wealthy pay their fair share?

No. Not only has he been a staunch Republican since he cast his first presidential vote for Nixon, he is a devoted fan of such Right-Wing luminaries as Rush Limbaugh. He vehemently despises Bill Clinton and adores G.W. And, though we haven't dared broach the topic, I assume he's gung-ho pro-war. After all, he and his wife signed the papers for their first-born son to enlist in the Marines when he was just 17.

My nephew hasn't been the same since he was discharged--early, for some unnamed health reason. Now 33, he drifts across the country from menial job to menial job, embittered, no friends, fascinated with all sorts of war weaponry and spouting Right-Wing ideology, distorted historical points of view and reactionary Catholic dogma.

That's right, religion has long played a role in my brother's conservative stance. Doesn't it always? As I stroll the state university campus where I work, I see more religious and conservative political fliers than I ever see progressive tracts. Just now, for instance, there's a huge banner dominating the central quad advertising Billy Graham's mission to San Diego.

Graham and his entourage have reserved Qualcomm Stadium for the next 4 days. That's San Diego's football stadium--baseball, too, until construction on the controversial downtown ballpark is completed. A 166-acre, open-air amphitheater that holds between 66 and 70 thousand people.

Imagine. They're expecting that many people daily to attend Graham's religious revival....Will they come?

Judge for yourself: out of the blue yesterday, a woman who was assisting me on the phone at a local medical clinic burst out, in a whiny, nasal, 5-year-old tone, "I really wanna go!"

Not sure whom she was addressing, thinking she was wanting to leave for the day her wonderful phone-answering job as it was almost 5 p.m., I responded, "Long day, huh?"

"Ahhh, no," she said, as if on cue. "Actually, I was talking about something else...Billy Graham, you know, is going to be at Qualcomm this weekend? And I really wanna go!" (whiny voice again). She then proceeded to regale me with details of the televangelist's scheduled appearance.

Afraid to have the message to my doctor go mysteriously missing--I'd waited ten minutes on-hold already just to get a person on the line--I let her prattle on. But I was annoyed.

Among other things, I wanted to ask, "Does what you're doing here constitute witnessing for Jesus? Are you earning brownie points in heaven for making me, a captive audience, uncomfortable and irritated? And getting paid for it?"

In the end, my self-interest, namely, wanting to get my message through intact, won out. I didn't confront her.

Which brings me back to my original point. How does the Right win over so many working-class voters when they consistently, systematically and unceasingly work against workers' interests?

Conservative leaders have done everything in their power these past 20+ years to sink every social program that has ever benefited working people, while at the same time shipping almost every living-wage, blue-collar job overseas and making a fortune in the bargain. Never mind! They still own the devoted loyalty of those selfsame workers.

At the rate we're going, not my brother, the phone operator, nor the woman I work with--who is vehemently against the clerical union that represents our interests in negotiations with the Goliathan University of California system--will ever achieve the vaunted American Dream. Republicans--and, to a lesser degree, Democrats--have made sure of that.

Instead, they will labor harder and harder, chipmunks on a treadmill, probably through their dying days without pensions and social security, to hold onto whatever financial high ground they've managed to sandbag. Meanwhile, the rich will sip Martinis and look on from the safety of their gated communities as the rising waters of the Global Economy engulf and drown us all.

But, hey, you gotta admit: the Right knows how to draw a crowd.