Holidays around the Hering/Morgan table always ended in a heated political debate and my mom and I leaving the table in a screaming fit or crying, whichever came first. Since the pandemic began, my family and I have not been able to gather around that table and pick teams to side on when discussing who was more qualified to be president. During that same time, my family has lost many of the Republican players at the table, some to death, others to divorce and separation.
Through all that, it left one man standing — my Uncle Spud. A quiet and reserved guy, Uncle Spud usually kept to himself during the heated discussions, making his opinions and views only known to those in intimate conversations away from the table. When trying to pick who to interview for this assignment, he was one of the first people that came to mind as I never really got to know him throughout my childhood, but always heard muttering from my grandmother about how he voted for Donald Trump, both in 2016 and 2020.
He was always there, but I did not know much other than his involvement in the military and being my grandmother’s brother. I sat down with Uncle Spud at my grandmother’s house, where he lives with her after the death of his wife and daughter to cancer. I learned more than I ever could listening to him in his chair after dinner or hearing stories about him from other people.
After signing the informed consent form, I began the interview with some rudimentary questions about where he is from, but he went straight into a general overview of his life and some highlighted experiences like growing up in the Bay Area orchards of the 50s and 60s, being drafted, and his national and international travels while in the military.
Spud spent most of his childhood and teen years 250 miles south of San Jose in Bakersfield, California. Despite its more liberal and Democratic neighbors, Bakersfield leans more conservative with the city voting Republican every election within the past 20 years (Bakersfield California Politics and Voting). Bakersfield holds a strong “old rural” identity with the city’s main industry being agriculture and energy production, setting the stage for Republican candidates to perform better (Scala et al., 2015).
Coming of age in a place where Republican candidates thrived fostered Uncle Bud’s socialization towards identifying with Republican politics and identity, particularly during his high school years, “once you got to high school, you took on different meanings and things in life.” After being drafted in the 1960s, his adolescent and young adult years were absorbed in various military operations just before and during the Vietnam War taking him everywhere from Georgia, New York, and Germany where he trained in special ops, particularly weapons testing and parachute assault, eventually being promoted to the United States Army Special Forces, or Green Berets. “I was an expert in shooting. Matter of fact, there was a sniper’s course that they sent me through. That was kind of interesting.” His demeanor when discussing his time in the military was more subdued and nonchalant than I was expecting, speaking about his experiences and the people he met while serving with fondness and respect, but also with a level of secrecy, which makes sense given his experience in the military.
When I asked about how the Vietnam War affected his opinion of the United States’ response to international conflict, the conversation took an indifferent turn. Being as he was drafted, he attributed his lack of choice to his opinions on the war and its effects, “I don’t think they liked it back then, I don’t believe they did. I didn’t think much about it really.” What stood out to me from this quote was the lack of self and vague gesturing to larger groups like the military as a whole when referring to opinions of war and its repercussions. Instead of saying “I don’t think I liked it back then,” he refers to himself as a larger “they,” assimilating himself with the wider military identity versus a smaller individuality. The homogenization of self with the military through the use of “they” persisted throughout our conversation, but he also diverted from the groupthink mentality, especially when asked whether he believed the Army’s position on the Vietnam War was reflective of the country’s opinion. He paused for a moment and went on to say, “It was weird, the way they thought back then. It was completely different than what most GIs felt…there is no “I don’t want to do this,” you just do it…so they went along with it.” Not enlisting by choice, Uncle Spud might have developed a mentality around obeying orders and doing what you are told as he was never given a choice not to. During such a high-stakes time as the Vietnam War and within his positioning in the military, any objections would not be tolerated or welcomed, taking somewhat of an authoritarian stance. Those who were selected by the draft lottery, like Uncle Spud, had to face the unavoidable realities of war, despite personal protestations. The inconsistency of what the military believed to be right and true did not always align with those who were involved, as Uncle Spud explained above.
The inconsistency shown throughout his military experience between doing what you are told versus refusing seems confined to that time in his life as other aspects of his life, like his political opinions and views, have remained solid from the first time he voted into today. A staunch Republican, Spud hailed Reagan as a relatable president with good politics, “Ronald Reagan was the first president I ever voted for…just because they thought the same way I thought.” Regarded as the first “true conservative” president in over 50 years, Reagan ushered in an era of strong military, anti-communism, and tax cuts and policies aptly named “Reaganonomics” (The Reagan Presidency). After Richard Nixon’s Watergate scandal, Reagan was a breath of fresh air for Americans by providing a refreshed Republican platform that served as an optimistic look to the future, encapsulated in the campaign motto, “Make America Great Again.”
Echos of Reagan’s rise to American political fame and adoration from the Republican party echoed in 2015 when Donald Trump announced his run for presidency under the same campaign slogan but vastly different political pretenses. The authoritarian take on American politics Trump enacted may have appealed to veterans like Uncle Spud who might have experienced authoritarian leadership styles in their military pasts. Trump, who approached politics with authority and alarmist fervor with a goal to “protect from the enemy,” appealed to disillusioned post-Obama voters in the same way Reagan appealed to post-Nixon voters, thus the slogan (Taub, 2016).
I asked Uncle Spud if he believed there was any kind of shift in the Republican party between the Reagan and Trump eras, to which he responded, “They probably have changed some, but their ideas are still the same,” which explains his dedication to the party and its candidates. To Uncle Spud, there has not been a dramatic shift of policy or ideology from one candidate to another. The people may change, but the ideological base has not. He went on to say that he voted for Donald Trump in both the 2016 and 2020 elections, not unlike many of his fellow veterans. In a study conducted by Pew Research, 29% of veterans self-identified as Republican versus 25% of the general population (Maniam, 2020). Within that 29%, 57% of Republican veterans, including Uncle Spud, approved Trump’s handling of the military and his job as commander-in-chief (Igielnik et al., 2020). While relations between Trump and various branches of the military and its leaders were shaky throughout his term, support for the president wagered on with 54% who voted for Trump versus 44% for Biden, according to an exit poll conducted by The New York Times in 2020 (National exit polls: How different groups voted 2020).
Getting to interview Uncle Spud, a man I otherwise rarely interacted with outside of family gatherings, was a meaningful experience. Coming from a family in which Republican politics and viewpoints are explosive and dividing, hearing Spud’s takeaways from his experiences was a refreshing and reassuring experience in which politics does not always have to divisive and inflammatory. Instead of zoning out and disassociating from whatever argument was being had at the table, I really got to lean in and listen to what Spud had to say and where he got to where he is today. My family is generally very quiet when it comes to more intimate and vulnerable conversations, particularly around someone’s past and especially their political leanings as that is something that is still a bit taboo in my family. Getting to hear Spud out gave me an opportunity to understand where he came from and why he thinks and votes the way he does, but with compassion and understanding rather than judgment.
Coming out of the wild ride that was Trump’s presidency, sitting down and really trying to understand where people are coming from rather than shutting down or selectively listening is more important than ever.
Through Uncle Spud’s oral history, I was able to learn more about not only him and his background but also about the Republican party and what it is like to identify with that side of politics. His time in the military left a lasting impression on him not only in how he carries and conducts himself but also in his opinions on things like international affairs and what qualities he finds attractive in political candidates. While not all who think differently than us can communicate as calmly or vulnerably as Uncle Spud did, listening to and learning more about those who are diametrically opposite from us can be beneficial to all parties involved.
Sources:
Anon. 2020. “National Exit Polls: How Different Groups Voted.” The New York Times. Retrieved October 20, 2021 (https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/11/03/us/elections/exit-polls-president.html).
Anon. n.d. “Bakersfield California Politics and Voting.” Bakersfield, California Politics & Voting. Retrieved October 19, 2021 (https://www.bestplaces.net/voting/city/california/bakersfield).
Anon. n.d. “Military Service of Ronald Reagan.” Ronald Reagan. Retrieved October 20, 2021 (https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/ronald-reagan/military-service-ronald-reagan).
Anon. n.d. “The Reagan Presidency.” Ronald Reagan Presidential Library and Museum. Retrieved October 19, 2021 (https://www.reaganlibrary.gov/reagans/reagan-administration/reagan-presidency).
Igielnik, Ruth, Kim Parker, and Anthony Cilluffo. 2020. “Trump Draws Stronger Support from Veterans than from the Public.” Pew Research Center’s Social & Demographic Trends Project. Retrieved October 19, 2021 (https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2019/07/10/trump-draws-stronger-support-from-veterans-than-from-the-public-on-leadership-of-u-s-military/).
Maniam, Shiva. 2020. “U.S. Veterans Are Generally Supportive of Trump.” Pew Research Center. Retrieved October 19, 2021 (https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/05/26/u-s-veterans-are-generally-supportive-of-trump/).
Reagan, Ronald. n.d. “The American Experience | Reagan | Primary Source Documents: Republican Nomination.” PBS. Retrieved October 20, 2021 (http://www.shoppbs.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reagan/filmmore/reference/primary/acceptance.html).
Scala, Dante J., Kenneth M. Johnson, and Luke T. Rogers. 2015. “Red Rural, Blue Rural? Presidential Voting Patterns in a Changing Rural America.” Political Geography. Retrieved October 19, 2021 (https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0962629815000207).
Taub, Amanda. 2016. “The Rise of American Authoritarianism.” Vox. Retrieved October 20, 2021 (https://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism).
