In November 2005 I visited Blue State America. In particular, SE Pennsylvania. I detailed my experiences with X in this post, "I Support the Troops, but..." Deep in the Heart of Darkness; Dispatches From Behind the Lines in Blue State America, Part I". This year for Thanksgiving we are back at Mrs Opinionator's ancestral home and tonight, X was a dinner guest. As you can imagine, a fine time was had by all.
X was a pleasant guest at first. However it was not long before she started railing about the "mess in Iraq" and how we should leave immediately. What about the disaster we might leave behind I asked? She did not care about it she said, it was none of our business. I them mentioned that we could see a Killing Field that would make Cambodia look tame. Once again, she said she did not care. Tactfully as possible, I mentioned that I would remember that when she wanted us to go into Darfur.
Then Charlie Rangel's proposal to reinstate the draft came up. This led to X mentioning that it was a good idea as it would ensure not just minorities and those without any other options were in the military. I called her on the canard about minorities serving and dying in numbers out of proportion in society and mentioned she could research the Census Data herself. Her response, she did not need to check the data, she knew what the facts were. She also said Republicans were off base in attacking Kerry over his "botched joke" as everyone knew he was joking and that he would never attack those serving as he served himself. I responded by mentioning that she had just said essentially the same thing. No reply. Remember now, last time she told me that, "we all know that the people that join the military are the type that want to kill people. It is not as if there are artists, writers or thinkers in the military." Then I detailed the times Kerry had defamed our troops in 2005 and 1971. I can forgive him a :botched joke" except that he has a history of this type of thing.
From here, the Bush Derangement Syndrome kicked in. Well at least Kerry is not an idiot like Bush. Reminding her that GWB had a higher GPA in college did no good. In her mind, President Bush will go down in history as the worst President ever. He joined the Guard to get out of going to Vietnam, and on and on. I mentioned that Lt. Bush had volunteered to go to Vietnam. She said I was wrong. I told her she needed to get away from DailyKos and Huffington Post and that I would send her the links to my proof. Again, she did not want to be bothered with facts. Did I mention that X is a retired teacher? I wonder if facts were important in the classroom?
What was bothersome about this whole affair was the lack of consideration shown by X. What ever happened to not discussion religion and politics? She later told my Mother in Law that she did not remember we were Republicans (she got very condescending when she asked my wife whether "she was a Republican too"). She kept saying that she could not believe I supported Bush, that she had never met anyone who supported him. Like many liberals, she lives in an echo chamber.But the worst part of all this is that X used to be an interesting person. Now she is bitter and angry all the time. She defines herself by her hatred of George W. Bush. Unfortunately, that makes her very poor company. BDS has claimed another victim.
Cross-posted at Redstate.com
Makes you wonder what people like that will do come January 2009?
Posted by: Major John | November 26, 2006 at 02:46 PM