It's hard missing all my Republican Friends for years this year...

[KoKo]

And, it seems that every year since "Selection 2000" I've lost one or two more a year. But, I have to hope that in the coming years they will be back when they understand what's been going on since the "Little Emperor" usurped the Voting System and was the "Anointed One" of the Bush Dynasty to fulfill a "legacy."

My own folks have been here since the Revolutionary War where two of my ancestors fought and one died. The Civil War caught my family too young because of "Yellow Fever" outbreak in the South and so no one was really old enough to fight since their Dad's had died...but they would have fought on the side of the South...(from what I know of it). That said the kids grew up in the Poverty of the South through reconstruction and I'm a product of much bitterness against the US Government and Regulations passed on from that time..because of Old South Bitterness and that no one could claim to have fought but their kids were left to deal with the aftermath.

My Northern Friends are all Repugs...and my Southern Friends are too. And so it's been sort of watching friends from both places go as I became more "Radical Democrat" to the point where "Politics" just got too much in the way of our normal "chit chat" in the way folks try to deal to keep friendships going when one has to relocate because of job downsizings in the last 15 years from one region of America to another.

I hope that this will be the last Christmas I have to feel so sad thinking about the good times we all had with each other before the Repug HATE MACHINE took over our Country and our lives. Where I won't have to get E-Mails or phone calls from folks talking about what O'Reilly or Limbaugh said...or the latest E-Mail Spam from the Christian Right telling me what I'm supposed to be either enraged or nostalgic about.

I hope this is the last year that I will have to feel that those folks I used to know and love and share good times with aren't looking at me like an "enemy."

I think the tide is turning...:shrug:

[GrumpyGreg]

1. Who changed,you or them?

[KoKo]

4. I was always a staunch Populist Dem and they were always Big Capitalist

Repugs (Northern Friends) and my Southern friends that I grew up with were very religious like me...but mainstream protestant...and those who stayed in the South became Bush Repugs.

We didn't used to discuss politics. My "FRIENDS" were on the same page as me with some differences but we had enough in common we didn't find things to go at each other about.

It all changed with the rise of Rush Limbaugh Hate Talk Radio and when Faux News came on the scene and the "Hunting of Clinton" by Mellon-Scaife began...it was when we started to drift apart.

It seems I was always the Same...but I didn't see what THEY were about. When they were "taught to hate" by the Right Wing Media was when I saw the change.

[NanceGreggs]

2. "Divide and Conquer"

Of all of the sins of this president and this Administration (which are MANY), this is the gravest sin of all. This Putz-in-Charge swore to lead a UNITED country, and has done everything in his power to pit us one against the other.

This, above all else, will be the Bush Legacy that the history books talk about for generations to come ...

[Beelzebud]

3. I've lost one close friend since the invasion of Iraq.

The last time we talked, it was a heated discussion that ended with me saying this to him:

"If you think that Iraq war is so justified why aren't you enlisting to fight in it?"

After that, he stopped calling me, and I stopped calling him.

I missed him a lot at first, but I really don't even care now. 9/11 + Bush = Brainwashed

[acmejack]

5. There has been a huge schism in my group

Right down party lines. I don't think this rift will ever be healed, they have staked out their positions on issues which are incompatible with my own beliefs and indeed, at odds with who I thought those people were. Amazing that 40 year friendships can be so easily erased.

[babylonsister]

6. I feel for you. That's happened to me with 2 friends

and 2 brothers. It hurts. :(

[peacebird]

7. i sent my closest girlfriend (for 25 years) a holiday card this year

she cut off communication on election day - when she had registered to vote for the first time ever (at 39) and when I called to ask how it went at the polls she said "Don't you start - "

apparently her kids (19 yr old son and 20 yr old daughter) learned she had not bothered to vote because the lines were long and had read her the riot act already.

we have not spoken since - i tried a couple times but she never would speak to me. the card was sent december 1 and i still have not heard back....

my other friend - the man who told me i would like bush if i gave him a chance after the first stolen election - the man who tried to tell me we were doing good by taking Saddam out of power... we ate lunch together every work day for almost 20 years. we were best buds. we hung out for happy hour. i photographed his wedding and had a bridal shower for his wife to be. he no longer even returns email. i think he is ashamed to have been SO wrong, and even more so to have ME (a woman) to have been RIGHT.

i sent the card to them as well, and have heard not a word back.


i would like to hear how the repukes at my old office relate now to the spying and ever growing list of pukes with legal probs and their "culture of corruption"... wonder what they cling to now? have they awakened yet?

[wtmusic]

9. the line I get is that "all politicians make me sick"

"I've had it with the political process", etc. They can't bring themselves to admit they were just plain wrong.

[wtmusic]

8. Best friend of forty years

I'm not going to look him up when I'm in town for Christmas. I can't bring myself to do it. He wants to talk politics and it makes me want to scream.

Sad, really.

[GatoLover]

10. I find this thread heartbreaking

I love to argue politics, I don't take it personally, I try to be civil. I have fun with it.

[MissWaverly]

11. What I could not take was the gloating

I am not as friendly with my republican friends; the gloating after the 2004 election was just too much. I have nver acted that way. I don't think of politics as a game or an opportunity to throw your opponent into the muck.

[shenmue]

12. Good that you still miss your friends

I mean in the sense that you still look back with happiness on the friendship. I've had some real barnburner arguments and not been able to go back. I don't like it, but sometimes I just can't find a way to get along with someone who just flat-out sees things completely different from the way I do.

I was always told not to discuss politics or religion. ;)

Good luck to you. :)

[anitar1]

13. I do not miss the repugs I knew. Looking back I can see

that they were always on the wrong page. We just did not talk about it much. Many of the repugs I knew seemed to think that they were a cut above us dumbos. I would not give house room to any of them and never will again. Although I do realize that many repugs are a bit more intelligent than the people I knew. At this late stage of my life, I have to admit that my father was right. He was an activist in his day and totally understood the right wing, although it was not called that in his day. Thanks Dad, for your wisdom.