Lost an Old Friend Today. Politics and the Personal

11.24.04 | mlmr

[mlmr]

I lost an old friend today. No, she didn't die. She screamed at me for my many-year metmorphisis from rad-liberal to conservative. She doesn't understand why I have changed, and is unable to listen because she is filled with bile, anger and hate. She wishes Bush evil and hates US policy. She has turned into a Michal Moore robot.

We have not been close friends for many years but I did enjoy keeping in touch. Because of our thirty year history I have treated the friendship gingerly but with great fondness.

Politics is hell.

[an amused spectator]

Excellent post.

Welcome to Free Republic. Love your tagline!

[Redcloak]

One day she'll get mugged by reality and come back around.

[Xenalyte]

A riding instructor. Thinks the economy is bad. A riding instructor who teaches something that is ENTIRELY discretionary. If she has students, the economy ain't bad.

[an amused spectator]

It was Old Sarge.

Whoa! Good on ya, Old Sarge!

[mlmr]

He was my buddy.


I am sorry.

[mlmr]

It was Old Sarge

Send him my love and prayers. I remember Old Sarge fondly.

[Paradox]

I was shockingly, unthinkingly, academically liberal.

In my college years, I heckled Jeb Bush once when he came down to campaign for his Dad. A smug liberal, ick! Life, and a few debates with some conservative/libertarians set me straight..

Unfortunately, though my Father has always been a Democrat, he is a koolaid drinker now. It started when he retired, then stayed at home and started watching too much CNN. He HONESTLY believes that Micheal Moore is telling the 100% truth in F911. I dont discuss it at all with him, it is emotionally painful to see this brilliant and loving man become a cynical old fart as he gets old. I do my best to talk about "other stuff" when we are together, but for me, there is a constant tension..

[ThanhPhero]

My best friend of 40 years standing id a biologist at a state U and has metamorphosed slowly from a thoughtful liberal who could understand economics into a dogmatic and haughty denizen of the truly far out left. We carry on some pretty strident correspondence but when we visit for for a weekend or a wedding or funeral a couple of times a year nothing political is mentioned at all. We get on quite well that way.

This year he even got into the retarded evil genius and/or vrwc stuff.

[Tess1]

Sounds like a plan...except..

If their team loses...it will be Bush's fault

And of course, the gas prices (Bush's fault) and and your gas hog safe truck will sent them off too.. oh, btw, the hurricanes are his fault too... :)

Good luck...

You sound like such a jolly dude too :)

Happy Thanksgiving..

Tess

[Uncledave]

Great advice - thanks for sharing.

[mlmr]

This year he even got into the retarded evil genius and/or vrwc stuff.


We are SOOOOOOOOOOOO evil!

[Libertina]

Been there, done that... Sigh, but I made the correct choices.

"If ye love wealth greater than liberty, the tranquility of servitude greater than the animating contest for freedom, go home from us in peace. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you, and may posterity forget that ye were once our countrymen." Samuel Adams.

[Tribune7]

I keep friends and family by asking pointed questions instead of coming out and saying what I believe.

I do the same. It works.

[bd476]

MLMR, I am sorry for the loss of your friend. Losing a friend whether it is through discord or death is still a loss. Because of that I hope you will allow yourself to grieve a bit.

After awhile, perhaps you will come to the conclusion that it's a blessing that your friend is out of your life. It doesn't sound like there was much depth in the friendship.

Anyone who would suddenly turn their back on a friend or rage at a friend because of differences in political beliefs has some deep seated control issues going on.

[oldbrowser]

She screamed at me for my many-year metmorphisis

To Paraphrase Churchill:
If you are not a liberal at twenty, you don't have a heart.
If you are not a conservative at forty, you don't have a brain

[tahoeblue]

It sounds like my dear dear friend in DC. She worked in the Clinton Whitehouse and every time I have seen her over the past half dozen years or so, she is filled with more vile and hatred that then last time. She seems to truly believe all of the crap that the far left spouts.

As it sounds is like the case with your friend, she has decided that her political beliefs are more important then her life long friendships. It's too bad. A shared bottle of wine has advanced civilization far more often then a political shouting match. Besides - I can't effect geopolitical concerns, but I can enjoy a few moments with a friend.

I'm sorry to hear your friend has decided that rhetoric is more important then friendship.

-tb

[Tribune7]

I think one difference is that conservatives look at liberals as merely dumb, and that makes it easy to cut them slack. Liberals look at us as evil.

[Hot Tabasco]

I play racquetball with 2 guys, one an engineer and the other a millwright for Fords.

Sunday we played for the first time in over a month and I chided Joe, the Millwright, who he voted for and he said KERRY

Joe is a hardcore hunter who has bagged 3 deer so far this year but is absolutely clueless about politics. His only knowledge of what goes on is what he hears from his fellow union thugs. Sad really considering that I have tried to get him to join the NRA but for some reason he never has......

It seems that ignorance and unions go hand in hand........

[AnAmericanMother]

Precisely my point. She's in a "luxury" trade. If folks are taking riding lessons (and the place is crawling with kids whose mamas bring them out twice a week), the economy is not "bad".

[Museum Twenty]

You said: The left is wounded and, like any self-respecting game animal, dangerous.

I think that is exactly right! The Liberals can no longer win a fair fight (so long as we make our best effort), and it is starting to sink in for them. The evidence is found throughout this thread.

Think about it. Since Johnson's big win in 1964, what Democrat was really "won" an election on his own?

Carter, in 1976, won after what was played by the MSM as the greatest scandal in American History (Nixon/Watergate), and even then won by just an eyelash.

Remember, back in those olden days, the MSM, from a practical standpoint, was about all the media there was! Carter also tried to portray himself as a moderate southerner, not as a liberal at all.

Clinton twice needed to split the opposition vote between a Republican and Perot to win, and even then needed to be as smooth-talking a con artist as he could be, in order to win. Clinton also needed to portray himself as a moderate southerner, not as a liberal at all.

Those candidates who portrayed themselves as liberals, or were unsuccessful at hiding it, all lost, some badly: McGovern, Mondale, Dukakis, Gore, Kerry.

I thought, and still think, the 2004 election was of utmost importance to win.

But, having won, 2008 will be even more important, and even more divisive: The enemy wears a pantsuit! (Hillary will dominate any Dems who oppose her -- if any dare!!)

So winning 2008 is crucial: it could, realistically, be: "2008: The Liberals' Last Stand."

As you said earlier, "The left is wounded and, like any self-respecting game animal, dangerous."

Personally, I want the 2008 choice to be as clear as we had in 2004.

I'm backing Rumsfeld against Hillary -- the most Real American against the most Phony!! May the better man win!