Inky Horizons

I had the opportunity to meet a couple of old friends at Starbucks today, Shawn and Robert.  I hadn't seen them in more than ten years.  Shawn is getting married next weekend and as we are both left-wing lunatics, we spoke about writing and, inevitably, politics. 

We were sitting outside talking about the upcoming election.  As we were discussing the upcoming election an elderly woman came to our table. "Do you mind if I interject myself into your conversation?"

"Not at all."

So she goes off on Obama, how he's a Muslim and this and that and why am I supporting him, and she ends with, "I just don't understand why those people on the Left support him."

I counted to five. (And, no, it's not something I normally do, as my writing buddy will attest.)  "First of all, I'm not 'those people'.  I'm an American like yourself.  And I'm not going to let you or anyone else on the right say otherwise or ever question my patriotism.   I won't put up with it. Understand that, first."

She blinked.  "Oh, sure, Democrats are Americans, too."

Now by this time I had decided I  would leave her eviscerated body to cool slowly under the umbrellas.  With cold ice emanating from my eyes and voice, I replied:  "Oh, how nice of you to finally admit Democrats are also Americans.  I suppose now you expect me to be grateful for recognizing the fact I'm also an American."

She knew she had stepped blindly into a bear trap and tried to change the discussion.  "Why do you support Obama?"

I explained to her politics was all about perception and I thought Obama would be able to provide the positivity and optimism the country needed.  Much more than McCain.  Then I starting to really cut into her:

"It's not my job to educate you as to why Obama is a Christian and not a Muslim. You're going to believe what you want to believe, for your own reasons.  Nothing I say, no reality, no factual evidence, is ever going to change your worldview because you have a vested interest in believing what you want to believe, for your own personal reasons.  But the fact remains Obama is a Christian, and nothing you say, and nothing you do, and nothing you believe will ever change that reality."

"Well, I don't like McCain, either," she said.  " I think he's a dangerous left-winger who will raise our taxes."

Now I was certain I was in the presence of a raving lunatic.  McCain a left-winger.  Right.  Robert starting going after her, too, questioning her talking point that McCain was a left-winger of all things.

"I agree this country is in poor shape," she went on, " and I think the Democrats will win because Americans want to strike back at something.  But they don't understand is Bush is the only president ever to be president during such hard times of war and trouble."

She was serious.  She was serious.

Okay.  This made me lose it.  Both Robert and Shawn were stunned to be in the presence of such raw, stupefyingly professed ignorance.

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?  This is why conservatives can't be trusted with anything remotely approaching reality.  Are you saying FDR wasn't president during a time of strife?  He helped win WWII and get us out of the Great Depression.  And Lincoln, a Republican, held this nation together during a Civil War and you're standing there trying to tell me Bush is the only president in history to run this country during a time of trouble?  Your argument fails in the face of  hard, historical fact.  That's not me talking, it's the history of your own country. "

But she knew she had lost and was already walking away.  "You're right, you're right, there have been other presidents who were president during war."

"I'm certain FDR and Lincoln would be grateful for you to acknowledge that."  

As I was driving home I thought about what just happened.

Here's the foundational problem with Republicans, in my mind.  To be someone who professes how much they love and revere and respect this country -- in fact, no one loves and reveres and respects America as much as they do, to hear them tell it, they don't know a damn thing about its history.  When historical fact gets in the way of their talking points, they simply ignore them.  She was serious.  She wasn't acting.  She honestly believed Bush was the only president to be in the White House during a time of trouble.  She believed it.  She wasn't pretending. She was a hard right-wing Republican, by her own admission, and she was completely ignorant of her own nation's history. 

WWII?  The goddamn Civil War?  It wasn't on her radar.   It wasn't important to her.  My God.  My God.

You are never going to convince me otherwise that these people are dangerous.  They must be defeated on November 4 and their party must be destroyed and the political earth salted so we never see its like again. That's what is at stake.  Nothing less than the life or death of this country.

Yeah. It's that simple.  And that vital.