Lassoing viewpoints from folks at the Austin rodeo
Story Transcript
MATTHEW PALEVSKY, JOURNALIST: This is Matt Palevsky, and I’m deep in the heart of Texas at the Austin City Rodeo. We’re talking to the cowboys and the cowgirls here about how they feel about this upcoming primary and the general election.
~~~
RON BOWLING, JOHN MCCAIN SUPPORTER: Who am I going to vote for and why? In the primary, if I was going to vote, I would vote for McCain, the reason being the other two options, which are Hillary, which I don’t trust her, and Obama would be a good option, but I don’t think he has enough experience. Also, I think he’s kind of got his head in the sand, because he wants to go make nice with the man from Korea and the other dictators that are out there, and they’re just going to chew him up. Give him ten more years, a possibility. Hillary, I just don’t trust her. Guilt by association, and I’m conservative, and I guess that’s why I’m going to vote for McCain.
PALEVSKY: And when you talk about Obama, you’re referring to his willingness to go talk to them and the leaders of—.
BOWLING: Exactly. Let’s go, you know, hold hands and sing “Kumbaya.” I really don’t think that’s going to [inaudible] Those guys have been around for decades. They’ve been around as a dictator since before he was born. And I do believe they are set in their ways. Him, going to say, well, we’re going to give you this,” it’s not going to change the way they do things.
PALEVSKY: McCain would make you feel safer if you were in the White House?
BOWLING: Yes, but that wouldn’t be the only thing. People have forgotten about 9/11. They forgot about the people that jumped out of those buildings and hit the concrete. The Americans have a short memory, especially the young people. They don’t remember a lot of things that went on. So it’s going to be a watershed event here about who gets elected. And that’s not the only reason I’m for McCain. McCain has some better ideas, i.e., he is not going to start a new retirement program, because they want universal health care, and they feel like everybody should have it, it’s a right, well, I’m sorry, everybody doesn’t have the same rights—I mean, everybody has the same rights, but everybody doesn’t have the right to everything they want.
PALEVSKY: It’s a particularly strong issue here in Texas, though, ’cause it’s the highest rate of uninsured people are in Texas. About one in four people don’t have health insurance.
BOWLING: That is correct. But I believe part of that problem is is with the ethnicity of the people we have here, i.e. the high Mexican population. And historically they have not—immigration population, they have not bought into the fact that (A) you need insurance. I know this ’cause a lot of the guys work for me.
PALEVSKY: Where do you work?
BOWLING: We work at [inaudible] for a construction company.
PALEVSKY: It doesn’t seem like a good idea that you wouldn’t have to provide health care as an employer, but that the government would?
BOWLING: I wouldn’t mind having to provide health care as an employer. That wouldn’t be a bad idea. But mandating it, and then having them mandate what the limits are, how much we have to pay out, what you have to cover, if we have to cover the whole family. No. If you give them an option and they buy in for part of it, yes, the same. You have to do it, bad idea.
PALEVSKY: And with the recession coming on the way, a lot of people say this is going to be the worst housing rout in the United States since the 1930s, which is—.
BOWLING: It’s not my problem. You know why? People have no accountability anymore. People said, well, “Oh, help me. Bail me out. I signed this because, oh, well, I have to have a house because everybody else has a nice house. Well, they said they’d give me the money.” Well, you know what? You made a bad decision. People need to start being accountable for themselves.
PALEVSKY: But it’s going to hurt your industry, right?
BOWLING: People need to be accountable for themselves. If it hurts me, then I’ll just have to figure out a way to get around it. I’m not worried about work. I mean, I’ve always worked, I’ve always found a way to make it work. The problem I’ve got is everybody feels as if they have something coming to them. If they don’t have whatever the guy next door has, they feel like the government or somebody should give it to them. We bought our first house. We put our life’s savings down on it. We put 20 percent. What’s wrong with that?
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
Story Transcript
MATTHEW PALEVSKY, JOURNALIST: This is Matt Palevsky, and I’m deep in the heart of Texas at the Austin City Rodeo. We’re talking to the cowboys and the cowgirls here about how they feel about this upcoming primary and the general election.
~~~
RON BOWLING, JOHN MCCAIN SUPPORTER: Who am I going to vote for and why? In the primary, if I was going to vote, I would vote for McCain, the reason being the other two options, which are Hillary, which I don’t trust her, and Obama would be a good option, but I don’t think he has enough experience. Also, I think he’s kind of got his head in the sand, because he wants to go make nice with the man from Korea and the other dictators that are out there, and they’re just going to chew him up. Give him ten more years, a possibility. Hillary, I just don’t trust her. Guilt by association, and I’m conservative, and I guess that’s why I’m going to vote for McCain.
PALEVSKY: And when you talk about Obama, you’re referring to his willingness to go talk to them and the leaders of—.
BOWLING: Exactly. Let’s go, you know, hold hands and sing “Kumbaya.” I really don’t think that’s going to [inaudible] Those guys have been around for decades. They’ve been around as a dictator since before he was born. And I do believe they are set in their ways. Him, going to say, well, we’re going to give you this,” it’s not going to change the way they do things.
PALEVSKY: McCain would make you feel safer if you were in the White House?
BOWLING: Yes, but that wouldn’t be the only thing. People have forgotten about 9/11. They forgot about the people that jumped out of those buildings and hit the concrete. The Americans have a short memory, especially the young people. They don’t remember a lot of things that went on. So it’s going to be a watershed event here about who gets elected. And that’s not the only reason I’m for McCain. McCain has some better ideas, i.e., he is not going to start a new retirement program, because they want universal health care, and they feel like everybody should have it, it’s a right, well, I’m sorry, everybody doesn’t have the same rights—I mean, everybody has the same rights, but everybody doesn’t have the right to everything they want.
PALEVSKY: It’s a particularly strong issue here in Texas, though, ’cause it’s the highest rate of uninsured people are in Texas. About one in four people don’t have health insurance.
BOWLING: That is correct. But I believe part of that problem is is with the ethnicity of the people we have here, i.e. the high Mexican population. And historically they have not—immigration population, they have not bought into the fact that (A) you need insurance. I know this ’cause a lot of the guys work for me.
PALEVSKY: Where do you work?
BOWLING: We work at [inaudible] for a construction company.
PALEVSKY: It doesn’t seem like a good idea that you wouldn’t have to provide health care as an employer, but that the government would?
BOWLING: I wouldn’t mind having to provide health care as an employer. That wouldn’t be a bad idea. But mandating it, and then having them mandate what the limits are, how much we have to pay out, what you have to cover, if we have to cover the whole family. No. If you give them an option and they buy in for part of it, yes, the same. You have to do it, bad idea.
PALEVSKY: And with the recession coming on the way, a lot of people say this is going to be the worst housing rout in the United States since the 1930s, which is—.
BOWLING: It’s not my problem. You know why? People have no accountability anymore. People said, well, “Oh, help me. Bail me out. I signed this because, oh, well, I have to have a house because everybody else has a nice house. Well, they said they’d give me the money.” Well, you know what? You made a bad decision. People need to start being accountable for themselves.
PALEVSKY: But it’s going to hurt your industry, right?
BOWLING: People need to be accountable for themselves. If it hurts me, then I’ll just have to figure out a way to get around it. I’m not worried about work. I mean, I’ve always worked, I’ve always found a way to make it work. The problem I’ve got is everybody feels as if they have something coming to them. If they don’t have whatever the guy next door has, they feel like the government or somebody should give it to them. We bought our first house. We put our life’s savings down on it. We put 20 percent. What’s wrong with that?
DISCLAIMER:
Please note that TRNN transcripts are typed from a recording of the program; The Real News Network cannot guarantee their complete accuracy.
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