Neighbours Clash On Election Race
Updated: 6:01am UK, Wednesday 31 October 2012
By Gary Mitchell, in Ohio
They live on the same sleepy street in a small American town, but the Daegers and the Bates are a million miles apart when it comes to who should be leading their country.
Kenny and Amy Daeger, from the appropriately named Defiance, Ohio, describe themselves as committed conservatives.
They want to vote for Mitt Romney because they are opposed to abortion and gay marriage, fearful for the spread of what they call "European socialism" to America and hate the idea of their taxes being used to help "people who refuse to help themselves".
The couple along with Kameron, 13, and 11-year-old Courtney - the youngest of their four children - were among 12,000 people who cheered for Mr Romney when the White House hopeful turned up last week in the town, which is surrounded by a large expanse of farmland and small townships in the northeast of the state.
Mr Daeger, who works on the production line at GM's Defiance plant, said he wants to be able to drive his large 4x4, a GMC Acadia, without getting grief from environmental campaigners or regulators.
"I'm not anti-gay," he insists. "But do I think it's normal? No, I can't say it's normal. Marriage is for Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve.
"We're being taken down the path of your European socialism.
"Our freedoms are being taken away by the government. Our moral fibre is being torn apart."
While the Daegers were waving and cheering in Defiance's high school football arena at the man they hope will be the next US commander-in-chief, and savouring his promises of "big change", Charles Bates was watching baseball on TV.
The 51-year-old lawyer is in a barbershop chorus that had been asked to sing the American national anthem at the rally. He said he turned down the offer "for obvious reasons".
He has always voted Democrat when it comes to presidential elections. And he fears Mr Romney will oversee a return to a "Bush-style" heavy-handed foreign policy if he wins power.
The Daegers - who have lived in Defiance all their lives - are mostly concerned about issues closer to home. They spoke to Sky News around the kitchen table in their attractive, modest home in a leafy estate called Sherwood Forest.
Mr Daeger, who insisted the two families get along apart from their political differences, said: "This election is about choosing democracy by choosing Romney. Otherwise we get bigger taxes, higher gas prices.
"What we want is limits on government's control over us nationally and locally. Obama doesn't believe in that. He's got it all wrong."
Mrs Daeger, 37, a banker, said she feels strongly about abortion and the protection of her religious beliefs.
"We're Catholic, and I don't believe the government should have any say in who lives and who dies," she said.
"People talk about Romney and say he doesn't help women, that he's not the choice for women. I like Romney because he's not giving me the choice to kill my baby. And that's important to me.
"I feel an obligation to help people, but I don't want my sacrifices to be for people who refuse to help themselves."
Mr Bates, whose wife Jennifer, 37, also votes Democrat but prefers to let her husband be interviewed, has a big problem with conservative views on abortion.
He is baffled by Republicans who claim they are "pro-life" but in the same breath pledge their support for the military.
"Pro-lifers will fight to protect an unborn foetus, but they'll have no problem bombing a town in which many children are killed.
"All I'm asking for some is consistency."
He says he sympathises with the Daegers' beliefs that Mr Obama has mismanaged the economy to the point where the country is now $16trn in debt.
"When the economy is sour, it's always the incumbent President who gets the blame," said Mr Bates.
"But anyone with a rational mind can see that he inherited an economy that was already in a tailspin under George W Bush.
"The guy had no business being in the White House."
Mr Bates believes there could be "some validity" to Mr Daeger's claim that America is becoming a "handout society", but doubts whether Mr Romney could manage welfare any better.
Mr Daeger said: "I understand that taxes are necessary. We need a safety net. When I go to pick up my kids, and I see a kid who gets free lunches at school because of their parents' low income, I want to feed that child.
"But when I see their mom's got all the tattoos and $80 piercings and she's talking on her cellphone ... they have the money for all that, but none to feed their kids?"
While Mr Daeger wants more funding for the military and sees the US as a "liberator", America's presence in Afghanistan and its invasion of Iraq are bugbears for Mr Bates.
"There are despots all over the world," said Mr Bates. "But you don't see America going to places like Sudan to remove despots.
"There's no oil there, that's why. There's no oil in Afghanistan either. I don't even know what they do have, so why are we there?"
Mr Bates and his wife, who have three children between them, would appear to be outnumbered by Republican supporters in Defiance, where religion plays a major part in politics and where some will vote against Mr Obama purely because they disagree with his stance on abortion.
In the last election, John McCain won Defiance County by 54.2% to 43.8% - breaking the county's strong history of swinging in the direction of the eventual winner.
But in Mr Obama's increasingly frequent recent rallies in Ohio, a key swing state that both candidates are pushing hard to win, he has been reminding voters about the multi-billion-dollar car industry bailout he supported in 2009, which was designed to prevent the collapse of GM and Chrysler.
His campaign team is hoping that will help him win some new voters in Defiance, where GM's iron foundry makes engine blocks and is one of the town's main employers, with 1,200 staff and hiring.
Mr Daeger, who has worked at GM for 16 years, believes the rescue has done Mr Obama a favour by maintaining loyalty among his Democrat-voting colleagues. But he resents the fact that it was bailed out with taxpayer money, rather than being allowed to go through its own structured bankruptcy.
"I don't think I owe Obama a vote," he said. "For me, social issues in this country are bigger than me or my job. I could always get another job if I lost my job. The other stuff is too important to me."
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