Just when I thought I'd heard it all...

[Joe Fields]

This little story I'm about to tell illustrates just how polarized we've become as Americans. And trust me, this isn't the only story I could tell, to back up my theory.

Roughly three times a week, my wife and I eat breakfast at a little mom and pop restaurant, some ten miles from where we live. It's a nice little restaurant, but it is filled with republicans, and not just republicans, but retired judges, a top area real estate developer, other former area politicians and the like.

The 'republican elite,' as my wife and I call them sit at a long table in the back of the restaurant. My wife and I love to sit in a booth next to them, so that we can get our morning amusement. Boy, did we get our amusement this morning. But it wasn't just amusement. It became more of a revelation, and I took it as a warning that one hell of a war is brewing. These people don't die. They don't give up. They don't let reason stand in their way. Their disgust that they couldn't steal another election is palpable, and their hatred is growing. I know. I've been monitoring rw talk radio since the election, to get a sense of their mood.

How delusional have these people, these "so-called" patriots become? Well, a retired circuit court judge, who is a regular at this restaurant walked in this morning, sat down and began telling everyone else about a book he had just finished last night. The name of the book? TED, WHITE & Blue...(Ted Nugent's autobiography)

My wife and I could barely contain ourselves from bursting out in laughter, as the judge began singing the praises of Ted, how he is a super patriot, how moral the man is, how he is a survivalist, and how he preaches all of the values that decent, god fearing Americans believe in... "You wouldn't think a rock star would be that decent of a human being," was one particular guffaw that I remembered the old coot spouting. I just didn't have the heart to spoil his delusion and tell them that, for one thing, I know for a fact that Nugent did drugs, and a lot of them. Secondly, there was that little diaper incident at the draft board...Why blind these people with facts?

About five minutes of that, followed by another few minutes of how good Sarah Palin looked at that "presser" yesterday...My wife and I could take no more. It is truly pathetic just how far the republican party has fallen, when it's rank and file members have no better examples of "leadership" to follow than Ted Nugent and Sarah Palin. And right now, these people aren't just following them, but they are clinging to them, like a life raft.

[Bozita]

1. Looming extinction creates some mighty strange bedfellows.

Good post!

[Suich]

2. I love hearing stories like this!

Thanks!

:crazy:

[SeattleGirl]

3. Every day, I am more and more convinced that people like

that are of a different species than we are.

The way their brains work is even more foreign to me than the way my dog's brain works. At least I'm able to communicate with my dog.

People like those you describe in your post? I can't communicate with them at all. They live in a completely different world.

[louis-t]

4. They are in a different world, it is useless to try to

explain anything to them. Their minds are made up, they are angry and getting angrier, and they are dangerous.

[Joe Fields]

6. It's getting scary out there. To say the mood is dangerous is not a reach.

[SeattleGirl]

8. That's very true. I've been listening to Randi Rhodes, and

she's been reading a long list of headlines from local papers around the country, about the hateful, ugly, racist things that are going on all over the place.

They scare the crap out of me.

[Joe Fields]

5. You said it. As I said, I have a lot more stories like that one.

Even within my own family, the hatred has bubbled up to the surface. My oldest brother (he's 62) and my sister-in-law are devout kool-aid drinkers, and have become openly antagonistic toward the rest of the family (who are all democrats). We are no longer on speaking terms, since the election, and it's just as well.

[SeattleGirl]

9. So far, I haven't encountered anything that bad in my family.

I know that most of my immediate family voted for Obama. The only one I don't know about is my semi-Bush-bot brother. Hopefully, he doesn't drink as much kool-aid as he used to.

[EOTE]

7. You forgot fucking children.

That's another of Ted's god fearing values.

[zbdent]

10. and they justify him getting a BJ from a 15-year old

[Joe Fields]

11. they have an amazing ability to overlook such things...

[The Doctor.]

12. "Amazing" is the right word... but still understated.

They have no ability to reason, or make proper use of facts... and my own mother is one of them.

My 14 year-old stayed with my parents at the Cape this past summer so he could go to boating school at their yacht club (yep, Yacht club). They buy the whole RW line - "There's no Global Warming and the current Global Warming isn't our fault", "Obama's a Muslim", "Republicans are for smaller, less intrusive government"... you name it.

So, armed with many hours of conversation with his dad (and a little DU browsing), Kiddo went off to stay with them for the summer. It wasn't three days before they started in on him! (Oh... I think he may have 'gently' instigated something :evilgrin: But I know he didn't go on offense.) Of course they never bring anything up when I'm there because I seem to 'have all the answers'. (Well, Duh!)

At one point, even Ma Eldritch said he was 'indoctrinated'.

But boy, did the kid get 'em a few times.

Once, as they were eating dinner, they turned on Faux News. Innocently, kiddo asked them; "Why do you guys watch Fox News". As though to a child, Ma Eldritch said; "Well, it's because Fox news presents a fair and balanced (yes, she said that) look at the news. They always have both sides of an issue represented by a liberal and a conservative."

The show came on, Brit Hume was discussing an issue with the Mayor of Detroit. They had two 'conservatives' and one 'liberal' on to comment. (paraphrasing from his account);
The first conservative said that this was a sign of much deeper corruption in the Democratic party.
The Second conservative said that this was just the way Democrats behaved, and it was inexcusable.
The "liberal" said that 'Democrats have to stop behaving this way and it was shameful.'

Kiddo says; "Ok... so which one is the liberal?"

In another incident, he asked just how he was 'indoctrinated'. They said that he believed things like how 'Valerie Plame was a covert operative."

"She wasn't?", he asked.

"No, she was just a secretary."

He and I exchanged emails wherein I sent him the documentation proving she was a covert operative. He printed it out and said, "Well, according to sworn testimony signed off on by the Bush-appointed head of the CIA, she actually was covert when she was outed by Novak."

Pa Eldritch said; "We'll discuss this on the cruise... with no new information." (30' Pearson, no internet access)


Nonetheless, it really is as though nothing gets through to these people... even when they are otherwise bright. It's REALLY creepy to anyone, let alone anyone who's studied cognition.

[Fumesucker]

15. It seems to me that someone who has studied cognition should be the most aware

Of just how bad a lot of people are at it.

Dr Bob Altemeyer's "The Authoritarians" opened my eyes quite a bit, I was already pretty cynical regarding my neighbors (I live in the deep South) but got a good bit more so after reading that book.

http://home.cc.umanitoba.ca/~altemey/

[codjh9]

13. The sad fact is that we could ALL write stories like that, that are happening all over the US. n/t

[mnhtnbb]

14. People who fear knowledge will do anything to remain ignorant.

[Joe Fields]

16. What gets me is the huge disconnect they have. They are so

willing to overlook or ignore or even make up their own facts, and often just repeat the right wing mantra, no matter what, because their party means more to them than the country, yet they are the ones who proudly thump their chests and call themselves the real patriots.

[pleah]

17. They are like those weird cults. I am just waiting for the

news report of a mass suicide. And, I won't even care.

[A HERETIC I AM]

18. Ya know that sound a balloon makes when you hold the neck just right and let the air out?

That's the sound that life raft they're clinging to is making.

[live love laugh]

19. "These people don't die. They don't give up..." They are like cockroaches.

The sooner we recognize that they are always lurking and plotting to get back into power, the better prepared and the better off we will all be.