Token Liberal
I work with Republicans. Usually, I stay far away from politics because discussing their views alongside mine is simply maddening to me. I’m sure they think I’m just as crazy as I think they are. But only one of us is right.
Just yesterday we were discussing the plight of our constituents. They are struggling to offer medical benefits to their staff because the insurance premiums are so high. It’s especially hard in this down market. These people depend on a robust housing market and building. Contractors are their customers and if the contractors aren’t building, these guys are suffering.
Even so, it doesn’t occur to my Republican cohorts that a single-payer health care system would alleviate the problem for these small business owners because they wouldn’t be solely responsible for financing the health system for their employees. Nope. Doesn’t even occur to them. And I’ve learned over the years of being the outnumbered liberal in any group, it’s just not worth opening my mouth about solutions. Logic is lost on people who mainline Rush like crushed oxycontin.
That is one of the reasons why I blog. Sometimes I need to share these thoughts or else I will explode.
Yesterday did present me with one opportunity to voice my opinion. Mind you, as we discussed elsewhere, I am never the instigator of these conversations. I only respond when someone pushes me to respond. Sometimes the shock on their face is worth the moment of personal discomfort I feel when being honest and potentially confrontational. Most people say the things they say because they assume you agree with them, not because they want debate.
As we were getting into our cars, one of my coworkers proudly pointed out his brand, spanking-new McCain sticker.
“Are you going to get a sticker?” He asked me.
"Um, no.” I was going to leave it at that.
He was incredulous.“Really?!?!” Then the possibility that I might not be voting for McCain hit him.
“Are you voting for Barr?” Bob Barr is pretty popular with in Georgia.
“Um, no.” I still did not plan to elaborate.
Then the overt bigot in the crowd piped up. “Lisa is going to vote for Obama, I bet.”
Mr. McCain Sticker was shocked. I walked to my car.
“Really?!?” he hollered at me. I nodded and waved.
As I as getting into my car, he pulled up and rolled down his passenger side window. “You know if you’re voting for Obama, you’re voting for gays and abortion,” came the ominous warning.
The horror.
“Well, that’s okay since I’m pro-choice and don’t have an issue with homosexuals,” I smiled.
He nodded his head and smiled. And then I followed him all the way up I85 and emailed him this morning to let him know that his passenger side brake light was out. He emailed me back and told me that he hoped I wasn’t offended and thanks for letting me know about his lights.
And he learned a little lesson… Liberals ain’t all bad.
38 Erect Nipples:
So smart of you to be polite and keep your cool. I only work with a couple Republicans, and so I do the reverse, because I always forget they're not on the same side of the issues as the rest of us.
Gays and abortion, the two things Republicans fear most. Well, that and actually having to share part of their wealth with the less fortunate.
I live in Atlanta too, but downtown where people are mostly rational. You don't find much of the rampaging lunacy that dominates the suburbs.
I also never initiate the political conversations at work, but I'll let people know what I think if the subject comes up. Nice that people in your office can still be civil despite your differences, that's not the case everywhere!
I work for an all-Obama office. It's unusual.
Nope, they ain't.
glad to get back home and get caught up on all your post.
1) "it’s just not worth opening my mouth about solutions."
2) "need to share these thoughts or else I will explode."
3) "because they assume you agree with them, not because they want debate"
4) "I’m pro-choice and don’t have an issue with homosexuals,”
Yuppers.... I love agreeing with your posts.... and, yessirree Bob.... I'm voting for gays and abortion, too! I just need a little more clarification about whether the pro-choice/gay agenda agrees with affordable quality beer.
...and you will tell me if my tail light is out?
Went to school in Georgia many moons ago. Now I understand why I felt like I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. That was back when a certain gov was handing out ax handles to use on blacks. Sure hope things are changing there for your sake.
Unreal. With the economy in the shitter, two wars, an energy crisis, a housing crisis, and a health care crisis, their big issues are gays and abortion?
You handled that really well. They handled it kind of ok too.
Great post dcup, being a progressive liberal is almost like being a functioning alcoholic. As long as you maintain a sraight shooting public persona, "they'll" never know!
I don't work, but I'm stuck in a house with an Obama supporter--my husband. ;-)
I'm trying to get him to vote for Diva, but he said he doesn't like her choice for VP. Go figure. :-)
I actually feel sorry for Republicans in California - they are an endangered species especially here in the Bay Area. This is ground zero of liberal politics.
Regards,
Tengrain
Off topic, Love the photo of Sophie with Pyewacket 2 from the randon photos at the top of the page. My daughter grew up with a siamese and the shot cracked me up from memories. Doesn't look like Pyewacket shares Sophie's amusement.
Thanks! willis
And you know -- those gay abortionists, they're the worst!
well this is certainly news to me i may have to rethink voting for Barry X
I mean I was fine with Sharia Law or just gays or just abortion but the trifecta?
:)
You are one classy dame. The fact that you e-stalked him to tell him about his brake light was very cool and you're right, he learned a lesson about liberals.
Me, I would've been a snatch on wheels. hence, you, my dear are a CLASSY DAME.
Yes, there is no doubt you are a classy dame. Me, I would be a fired dame with a restraining order for my trouble.
Oh man - this is rich. You are one of a kind, one of a very good kind sister!
Kudos to you for holding your own and keeping your cool, as tempting as biting heads off might be.
“You know if you’re voting for Obama, you’re voting for gays and abortion,”
The moronic simplicity. So glad I don't live there anymore.
I work in a local city government and most of the people I work for are mostly for McCain (or should I say mostly anit-Obama.) I usually just keep my mouth shut and smile. There are a few narcotics agents that kid me. when one of them said "You're a liberal?" I responded, "No, I'm an American." He didn't know what to say.
Sigh. Gays and abortion. Where to even start. I've actually got a painting to mat so I can bring it to work and live with it awhile (the stupid sheep have had their turn - they go in the portfolio) - and it's tempting to not even think about bigotry and just go slice heavy cardboard with very very sharp blades...
My brother is gay, and came out back in 1978, when this was definitely not a cool thing to do. He has had mostly good experiences, living mostly in San Francisco (we missed him all the way over there) and Carrboro/Chapel Hill (which is possibly the most liberal few square miles in NC). But he's also been randomly beaten by a gang of high school football players for being seen holding a guy's hand, and been discriminated against a little here and there, and he lives with the continuous drag on his consciousness that people see him as "different." It's hard to be different when so many humans are so afraid of that - afraid enough to attack. We're not so different from the other great apes in that regard. Not so far from those trees we climbed down from.
But we're getting somewhere. This is definitely not 1978. There's encouragement in that.
And I agree with everyone else on here - I think you handled it beautifully. What the Bible calls "heaping coals on their heads." Kill 'em with kindness. Confuses people in a good way.
Gays and abortion oh no! I have to move to Canada--NOT
I work in an office with only one certified (in every sense of the world) republican. She's nice enough but not very bright. Apparently she once mentioned (loudly) that she was going to some republican function and she was surprised when others were stunned that she would brag about her evening activities. Did I mention that she's loud and not too bright? There may be a few others, but they keep it quiet. Oh, except for the neocon co-worker who took, and failed, the bar at least twice. But he may be voting for Bob Barr.
Oh sweetie, I don't know if I could do it.
Congratulations on being an example. Maybe one that will jump to the consciousness next time they're in a liberal bashing conversation.
If we could all just do that same thing a couple of times a week....
I'm so glad I live in a place where people are rational. NO-BODY is that stupid about stuff here. Even the ockers from bush towns we get as patients are not that prejudiced (except against Aborigines) and they at least have the sense to know that they're standing against the tide of the modern world, so they keep quiet about it. Kinda like you have to do about being leftist in the South.
America's a fucked-up country, D-Cup. I hope we both live long enough to see the "United" States break up into different nations. Let's hope it goes like Czechoslovakia, not Yugoslavia.
I don't know, bukko: what about Pauline Hanson and the fact that Howard's dog whistle worked like a dream for ten years? Still it's a mystery why a proper health care system is so hard to come at over there.......
Funny that he didn't try to point out the reasons you should vote for McCain but instead told you the negatives (at least to his way of thinking) about Obama.
Just like McCain's campaign, they have nothing to offer so they proffer the negatives they believe that Obama represents.
Don't worry ME, my spouse probably wouldn't vote for me, either.
Dammit, sue j said what I was going to. Okay, what about aborted gays! Wait, that's okay!
Watch yer back, D. Wingers are delusional and unregenerate, thus essentially ineducable. Their idea of gratitude is not fucking you more than forty or fifty times after you're dead. For them, your back is just another convenient storage board for knives, blades pointy end in. Don't believe me? Hell, they do it to each other and then have sex, like Bush and McCain in the 2000 primary. Next time, smash his other blinker, key up his ride, put a big "WHITE POWER" bumper sticker over the driver's side windshield and make sure you're the one who reports it to him and suggest that he call the police. Be tearful/fearful, too. That's what they'd do. Fuck the friendly e-majl - that's DNC bullshit.
You could sport a McCain't bumper sticker.
Wow, I didn't know Obama was gay and had undergone an abortion.
You know, I hear stories from time to time about how "south" the south really is. And I never believe them. No grouping, or even one person, could be so blinded by conservative media hysteria. We're Americans, for the most part proud intellectuals.
Then I remember that we're Americans, and... proud intellectuals went out with petty coats and wooden teeth.
Its so damn hard to be civil to THOSE FUCKTARDS!!!
I am floored that he could so cavalierly say...a vote for the Big O is a vote for gays an abortion..
God Girl...I really admire you..I would of been blunt and a tad bitchy. ;p
Fucking blogger...fucking blogger!!!
It ate my comment. I hope the bastard gets the runs.
"You voting for McCain?"
"Yep."
"You know, if you're voting for McCain you're voting for $10 a gallon gas and a guy who calls his wife a cunt."
The anti-choice (that's anti-sexual-preference-choice AND anti-abortion choice) zealots aren't thinking logically. Allowing freedom of choice would help their cause in two ways:
1. More homosexuals = fewer pregnancies = fewer abortions.
2. More abortions = fewer babies, of whom 10% would grow up to be homosexuals.
If they could just get that through their heads, maybe they could get excited about more important things, burning books and censoring movies.
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