The other day on a Southwest Airlines flight back to Houston, I saw him, Cooter. He was one big dude, and he was making his way down the aisle of the plane carrying his duffel bag and his hardhat. As usual, his hardhat was decorated with stickers from most of the plants where he had worked. Since Cooter does contract work, he had a lot of stickers! The row I was in was full. It just so happened that Cooter’s traveling companion, Bubba, was seated in the window seat of my row. So Cooter put his carry-on in the overhead and sat in the row behind me.

Ok, I didn’t really know if his name was actually Cooter, but I know a lot of Cooters. Cooter is a slang name for a group of working people across the United States. Cooter builds cars in Tennessee, raises cattle in Kansas and installs cat crackers in refineries in Texas. Cooter is good at what he does. He takes pride in his work, his family and his yard. You wouldn’t want to make Cooter mad if you were another man. However, he loves babies and little kids.

Cooter voted for Carter, Reagan, Clinton and George W Bush (the first time). He didn’t vote at all in the 2008 election because he was disgusted with the candidates. Cooter often chooses not to vote unless something has him fired up. He can get fired up about anything that he thinks impacts his family. On any given day, he can also get fired up about baseball. He was a pretty good baseball player in high school. Cooter coaches your kid’s baseball team, and you’re glad he does. And since you’ve already begun wondering, I’ll end the suspense. Yes, Cooter is Bubba’s cousin.

Cooter often has a signature phrase that he uses a lot. In this case his was: “Ya know what I’m sayin”. I had my eyes closed trying to catch a power nap as the plane lifted off. In trying my best to relax, I wasn’t paying that much attention to the noise around me. But the third time Cooter stated “Ya know what I’m sayin”, I decided I needed to try to figure out what he was talking about. Keep in mind, there were about four rows of people listening and Cooter was doing the talking. Cooter was holding court because he knew he had a captive audience, at least for an hour and a half. Here’s where the conversation picked up when I started paying attention.

“…We work in refineries and power plants and travel all over the United States. I can hardly keep track of where I’m coming from or going to. Sometimes I have to look at my itinerary to remind me where I am.

We work hard and get filthy dirty but it’s a good living. If you are skilled labor and you can’t get a job, you’re not trying very hard. But then again, why should you try very hard when you can sit on your butt and get a check. And that’s the main problem. People in the government want folks just sitting at home collecting a check. Ya know what I’m sayin.

That’s part of what’s destroyed American manufacturing. The government has destroyed the will to work. I heard the other day that the United States is still the number one manufacturer in the world. I don’t believe it. Once you give away all the heavy manufacturing to China, it’s all over. And we ARE giving it all away!

Everywhere I go, they’ve established sanctuary cities. Look at Houston and Nashville. It’s ridiculous. The cops can’t even find out if someone is illegally in the country after they have committed a crime. Not only that, but the government keeps giving more and more to the illegal aliens. You see them standing in a crowd on a corner waiting to be picked up. They are all clicking away on their PDA’s text messaging. And we’re the ones paying for the PDA and the phone service. We’re even paying for their food and housing. Ya know what I’m sayin.

It’s pitiful. The Government is even making the illegal aliens lazy. No wonder more of them are committing crimes. We’re making it attractive to come to the U.S. so they don’t have to work. They used to come here for a job. Now they are coming for the giveaways.

Not that it pays like it should to work. Every time I watch TV I hear another moron talking about how they need to spend my money on yet another government program. Of course, they never say that they are spending your money. But every time I get my check, I can tell they are. Ya know what I’m sayin.

Wow! He hit that one hard (referring to the pilot as the plane somewhat abruptly smacks the runway). Well it looks like Texas outside. Is that rain? Naw that ain’t rain. Houston’s so hot it’s just sweatin.”

I have to admit that Cooter kept my attention for the better part of an hour and a half because he was so animated. The man clearly had some things on his mind. In fact, Cooter was so fired up during our conversation that he worked up a sweat on that flight. From the size of his sweat stain, things don’t bode well for the Democrats in 2012.