VISITING D.C.: WHY DO REPUBLICANS HATE AMERICA?

I had several weird moments while filming in the Washington, D.C. area his past week. I was on the roof of a building in Bethesda, Maryland, where I got a terrific shot of a huge to-be-unnamed-governmental-complex that my company built, when I realized that we also had a great vista of the Bethesda Medical Center. I flashed upon how many of our wounded fighting men and women have been processed through it. My assistant, a Republican, asked, "Is that where the presidents go for their physicals?"

We were filming another of our company's building projects, this one in downtown D.C., when I realized that directly across the street was the Homeland Security building. It was virtually empty at 4:00 p.m. That made a huge statement to me, confirming recent media exposure about the department's practices.

As the film crew and I headed back to Dulles for the return home to Dallas, my Director of Photography (a Republican who was driving the SUV I was in) invited my assistant's thanks for his sacrificially and deliberately routing us past all the major downtown D.C. sights (she'd never been to the District before). She responded by saying that she wasn't that thrilled, indicating that our group's political discussion two days before had fallen on deaf ears since she figured all politicians are crooks and therefore she wasn't interested in our nation's capitol. "I never got past the U.S. history class required in my senior year in high school," she said. "When you talk about a 'sense of history,' I just don't have it. I don't see the point."

I thought about that for a minute, and then contributed, "For me, it's never been about the 'politicians.' It's been more like an advanced civics class. It's about me, and people like me. It's advanced citizenship. I hear all the time about the patriotism of Republicans and how we liberals hate America. But here I am, visiting D.C. for about the twentieth time, and I still get a thrill out of seeing the center of our nation's governmental activity. You Republicans are blase. I still have pride and faith in our institutions. You guys are cynical. I find that interesting."

And those, I think, are not uncommon attitudes among U.S. voters.