Talking America

Free thought

• Jon Kelly
• 10 Sep 08, 02:35 AM GMT

Michael David Cobb Bowen started out as a radical black student leader, steeped in theories of Afrocentrism and the fight against racism. His induction into politics came from his father, a left-wing civil rights activist.

A natural Barack Obama voter? Wrong. Michael is a committed John McCain supporter and a prolific conservative blogger.

But then this is a country where being a maverick, an independent thinker, is a badge of honour - as McCain has found to his advantage.

I met 47-year-old Michael, a senior manager at an IT firm, over coffee near his home in the Los Angeles suburb of Redondo Beach. Well-dressed, measured and urbane, he smiled as he acknowledged that he defied the Republican stereotype.

"It annoys me when Democrats take the black vote for granted," he told me. "But I think it's inevitable that more and more black folks will start thinking the same way I do.

"How many do you think would vote for Colin Powell if he were the candidate?"

At a time when Obama is hailed as a trailblazer for the African-American community and just 10% of black voters say they will back McCain, Michael admitted that his views set him apart from family and friends.

The Obama thing, as he called it, has driven a wedge between him and his father, and his wife remains a committed Democrat.

But he always knew that black politics were far from homogenous. He remembered the internecine battles from his activist days between those, like him, who wanted to help the community's best and brightest, and others who wanted to focus on getting the poorest kids out of the ghetto.

After the Los Angeles riots of 1992, he would follow police officers around with a video camera hoping to find evidence of brutality. "Instead, I found most were decent people trying to help others," he recalled.

His faith in the certainties of black politics fractured, he began to conclude that - as a middle-class businessman with a family to provide for - he had more in common with suburban conservatives than radicals in his own community. The "socialism of black radical politics," he decided, was keeping black leaders out of the mainstream.

Eventually, he turned to the Republicans after growing exasperated with what he saw as elitist, utopian liberals who were impatient with ordinary Americans.

"Ultimately, I'm a patriot," he said.

"When I see a Nascar sticker or a Ford truck commercial, I think, 'That's a conservative.'"

Time to play devil's advocate, I thought. If the route to progress for African Americans is promoting the best and brightest, I asked him, why not back the bright young black man running for president?

He pauses. "If Obama loses, then that's the end of Jesse Jackson. And I reckon that would be a good thing."

What interested me about Michael wasn't the content of his politics. It was that he saw it as his duty as an American to think freely.

And in a nation where race and racism have caused so much tragedy and bitterness, I realised that the resilience of an American's identity is something I shouldn't underestimate on my journey.

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Going to the chapel?

• Jon Kelly
• 10 Sep 08, 02:05 AM GMT

They say family values are a big deal over here, don't they?

So I thought I'd kick off my journey across the US by chatting to a pair of all-American newlyweds. And sure enough, it didn't take me long to find a couple who proudly showed me their wedding photos, talking earnestly about the virtues of commitment and the sanctity of marriage.

So far, so homespun. Except that both were women.

On 17 June, California conducted its first same-sex weddings following a ruling by the state's Supreme Court. My hosts Helena Ruffin, 51, and Rose Greene, 61, were among the first same-sex partners in Los Angeles to be joined in matrimony.

Unions like theirs, we are told, divide red and blue America more than virtually any other issue.

Opponents have collected enough signatures to stage a statewide referendum, proposition 8, which, if passed, would introduce a constitutional ban on gay marriage in California.

Such ballots are usually introduced to boost turnout among particular groups of voters. So far, the polls suggest a "No" vote is likely in this traditionally socially liberal state - the only one apart from Massachusetts to allow such unions.

And California has led the way via such polls in the past. In 1978, proposition 13 on property tax was credited with ushering in Ronald Reagan's Republican revolution.

Rose and Helena might, superficially, tick every box of left-liberal America - a same-sex couple from southern California with a huge Obama placard on their front lawn.

But as they poured me ice tea and told me why they wanted to tie the knot, their reasoning struck me as firmly traditionalist - conservative, even.

"Our wedding day was the happiest day of my life," said Helena. "I believe very strongly in the sanctity of marriage. I feel so much more at peace now that I've done it."

Rose - who had been in the middle of a gruelling course of therapy for ovarian cancer on their big day - leaned across her new wife. "Marriage is unambiguous. Everyone knows what it means. It's about making the ultimate commitment."

It was better for the children of gay couples, she added, to grow up in a stable family environment that was recognised by everyone

Of course, they spoke of their desire for equality. But that and the matter of their gender aside, their arguments could just as easily have been articulated by any clean-cut Young Republican couple in the heartland.

The proposition 8 Yes campaign say they have no objection to how others live their lives, nor to domestic partnerships which protect the rights of same-sex couples. But they argue that the Supreme Court's ruling "redefined marriage for the rest of society" - thus undermining this fundamental institution.

Leave aside your views on the rights and wrongs of the issue.

What's more interesting to me is the common ground both apparently antagonistic sides share - belief in the central role of marriage in American life, and the family as the fundamental building block of society.

Many of the posters who commentated on my first blog post warned me not to generalise about Americans or fall back on stereotypes. You know, I think they might be on to something.

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