US voters and the adversity effect

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With less than a month to go until the US election, the BBC's North America editor, Justin Webb, explores why a certain streak of pro-Republican individualism in Middle America may be left unscathed by the economic collapse.

Many Americans vote against their economic interests"Sir, may I join my wife and family - they're up at the top of the line?"

"Sir, is it all right to take water through security?"

Oh, the wonders of being the only man in a suit at a gathering of socially conservative Ohioans.

I stand there, waiting for a lost cameraman to turn up, and the world comes to my door-step, respectfully, almost obsequiously, to gain my permission to do its business.

When I tell them I am from the BBC and have no jurisdiction here - or anywhere else for that matter - they are delighted to have made my acquaintance and they move on in an orderly fashion, seeking genuine figures of authority with authentic local accents.

Only one man raised an eyebrow when I told him what my real job was. "BBC?" he asked. "Aren't you funded by the taxpayers?"

Families are getting by, but not with much to spare There was no time for the niceties of the licence fee to be explained, but when I looked duly ashamed even he was perfectly civil.

These are respectful people, waiting in British-style grey weather, for a chance to attend a rally addressed by Sarah Palin and John McCain.

They are dressed neatly, mainly in shades of beige but with splashes of colour in zany T-shirts and lots of cheap pink for the daughters.

Common ground

Nobody here is on the bread-line. But when you spend time in small-town America these days you come face-to-face with a fact of American life - times are tough. Families are getting by, but not with much to spare.

The adversity Mrs Palin and Mr McCain have faced is attractive to many votersBut there is a second fact as well, which the economic emergency tends to mask - times were already tough for most Americans, and on one level, they kind of like it that way.

One of the attractions of Sarah Palin - which does not really translate to Europe in a readily explicable way - is that she lived the ordinary life in an ordinary town, and still does to a large extent.

This is seen by many Americans as admirable in and of itself: she coped.

The challenges of her family life accentuate that appeal: she coped, but things did not always work out.

Hard times

In this queue in Strongsville, Ohio - Strongsville, the very name stiffens the spine - things have not always worked out.

I see a young couple. The man has a tie on, the woman wears what looks like her church dress, and they have a pushchair with them. It isn't one of those metropolitan jogging models with big wheels and cup-holders, but a steel-framed affair.

It is a double buggy and sitting in it - dressed identically - are twins, perhaps a year old. Both of them are Down's syndrome babies.

Millions of Americans do not see Washington as the solution to their problems, nor do they see it as the creator of their problems

The parents look proud and the children look lovely, but as a father of twins myself, I know twins are tough. In their case, it must be particularly tough.

But here in the heartland, they take life as it comes: they have their children, they deal with the challenges and that is enough.

A hard life is a good life in Strongsville, Ohio, or Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, or in hundreds of thousands of other towns dotted around the nation.

Far from Washington

It is true that the economy is now the number one election issue, and it is true that it benefits Barack Obama and could win the presidency for him.

Joe Biden (l) became a senator in 1972, at the age of 29But the idea that average American will rise up as one and join a revolution - a demand aimed at Washington - for better healthcare or better jobs or better lives is misplaced, I think.

Millions of Americans do not see Washington as the solution to their problems. Nor do they see it as the creator of their problems.

They may well be wrong - and it has frustrated Democrats and academic economists down the ages, as they survey and analyse the kind of people making up this McCain-Palin queue in Strongsville - but large numbers of Americans simply will not vote on economic grounds. In fact, they tend to vote against their economic interests.

This is part of the culture that gives Mr McCain and Mrs Palin their slim chance of victory on 4 November.

This team is the "pain team". The leader John McCain was actually tortured, and the number two has seen her share of adversity, both economically and with her sometimes troubled family life.

Both of the Democrats - Barack Obama and Joe Biden - have also coped with huge adversity in their lives.

Joe Biden lost his wife and one child in a car crash when he was young, which I think probably trumps any physical torture, but they do not play it up.

With their gleaming educations and their sense of worldly-wise sophistication they can seem gilded even if they are not.

At the presidential candidates' debate the other day, there was a moment when the moderator, Tom Brokaw, claimed he was losing control.

"You're doing fine, Tom," was Barack Obama's soothing response.

I winced. Condescension can lose elections. Yes, even when the economy has gone to hell.

From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday, 11 October, 2008 at 1130 BST on BBC Radio 4. Please check the <a class="inlineText" href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/from_our_own_correspondent/3187926.stm">programme schedules </a>for World Service transmission times.