Posted on 11/24/2004 2:42:43 PM PST by 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.
I think we tend to believe that if Liberals are otherwise decent human beings, we assume there is hope they will become Conservatives if only they are exposed to the truth. William Buckley used to say that for every Communist he saw, he could envision an ex-Communist. Probably over-optimistic, but the hopefullness is infectious.
Maybe we are long lost brothers, because you described my dad to a "T". Union man retired for 10 years now, 75 years old and good human being. Watches CNN all day and listens to NPR. I sent him the story about Garrison Keilor's comments after the election regarding Christians shouldn't be allowed to vote, and he replied that he could not swallow the Republican propaganda! He said it was worse than Hitler!
I know he bought the whole Michael Moore/Bill Moyers DemocRAT/Union line of lies. He is old and lives 13 hours away, so I don't wanna get into the election because it will really screw up his health.
I did make sure he knew that me, my wife and our 2 sons had worked for and voted for George W. Bush!
Yes, the good old days when they just talked about the "Zionist enemy." Thank G-d there is a new sheriff in town.
Things change, stuff happens!
I had a friend recently spout off for 45 minutes to me the day after the election because he knew I voted for Bush. After he finished venting I said, "I don't talk about politics at work because I value our friendship. I know you aren't going to change my mind and I'm not going to change yours, so it's best we keep our friendship by not discussing these things."
The next morning he apologized to me.
Good job, nice new house, fit, 51, date frequently,
but...still single....
because???
Catholic, Pro-life, conservative, drug free, non-smoker...
My husband's sister and husband are raging libs. Politics will not be discussed tomorrow.
that's good.
That's a good way of looking at it.
You know it used to be I cared what some people thought. Now I don't. They funny thing is I think they care what I think.
Let me apologize in advance for this long response, but your post struck a chord in me, and I just wanted you to know you're not alone.
I too have lost a dear friend, someone I've been writing to for around 25 years. He lives in the Seattle area now. Before the election, he sent me a couple of terribly tasteless political jokes (Bush-is-dumb-but-Republicans-are-dumber-and-meaner type things). At first, I shrugged it off, ignoring it, not wanting to jeopardize such a long friendship. Then he sent me the one about things you have to believe to vote Republican. Still trying to keep it lighthearted, I sent him the parallel one about the things you have to believe to vote Democrat. The response I got was stunning: angry, despairing, and wholly without the humor I'd come to expect from my friend.
I was uneasy, but let it pass. After all, this would go away once the election was over, right? We could each gloss over the other's choices and resume our "talks", right? Wrong. After the election he sent me that skanky map Carol Simpson was holding up on TV and saying that the red states that voted for President Bush were the same ones that condoned slavery, and the clear implication was that ignorant and racist Bush voters were dragging us back to a horrible time in our history. I was stunned. This is a man who's known me most of my life, knows my accomplishments, knows my degrees and graduate degree, knows MY HEART, and he's calling me a *#^&! bigoted racist? I was quite simply devastated. Then I got angry.
My husband had surgery a few days later, and while we were waiting for him to be prepped for the procedure, and after he'd been administered the drug to make him drowsy, I sat with a legal pad and wrote pages and pages in response, in longhand, like my friend and I used to do when we first wrote each other. I didn't edit my thoughts, my sarcasm, or my anger, but just let it drain out of me onto the pages. I set the letter (aka diatribe) aside, intending to edit it and make it sort of a farewell opus to a long, but apparently unilateral friendship. It sits still at the left corner of my desk, the pages almost crackling with pain and anger. I can't give a cogent answer for why I haven't sent it, or what I'm waiting for before I do. As it is, I simmer in silence.
My "friend" who is no longer my friend sent me a few "neutral", non-political jokes since, maybe testing the water, because it is unusual for him to not have heard from me in so long. I don't respond; I can't. The hurt right now is too deep for me to be able to communicate with him in a non-poisonous way. I am digging deep to try to find forgiveness for someone who is so lost that he doesn't care who he hurts with his casual name-calling, his smug assertion that people like me who voted for President Bush are stupid, bigoted, and racist.
After I calmed down, I realized that I was the one who changed, who grew, learned, cared enough about the nation to inform myself about the issues and the candidates. He is the one stuck in a reactionary mode, confident in his own little echo chamber that he holds the patent on knowledge and understanding. I used to respect him; I no longer do.
Thanks for letting me have my say.
Well, me and all my "right-wing-nut-job-buddies". You would NOT believe what I have heard coming from this person. It's almost unreal...no wait, it is unreal, I just can't think of the psychological terminology right now.
Don't waste another ounce of energy on the idiot. There are many good people deserving of your attention!
Yes, and if you happen to be the only person near them that is Pro-Bush-Republican: DUCK--it's headed right in you face--full fury.
My trainer and my farrier are both rabid libs. One day this summer they were both ranting to me about Iraq, Bush, ect. Trying to reason with them was hopeless, especially as they are besotted with Michael Moore. So I just smiled at them and told them that they'd better get used Dubya because he would be around for another four years, which turned out to be a great way to shut them up without losing my temper. Afterwards my farrier bet me $100 that Bush would lose. I haven't seen him since the election but I'm sure he will be gracious about it, and I probably won't hold him to honouring it. I haven't discussed politics with either of them since that day, except to point out to my farrier that Moore's film was a pack of lies, which (amazingly) he didn't dispute, and to point out that if you have to lie to get your point across, you don't have much of a point. He had no reply to this. I think that he likes what Moore is saying so much that he doesn't care that its a load of crap. However, both these libs seem a lot saner than the people in the stories on this thread!
Oh, I understand fully why he did. But it is never fun to learn that your (supposed) friend is THAT much of a leftist... and it doesn't make less hurtful.
But, somehow I'm quite certain I'll manage to survive.
Thanks for sharing your Grandmother's story!! Sounds like a special lady! I think the FDR Democrat fit my Dad too. I think he would be of the same opinion as Zell Miller that it is a National Party No More! Think it's safe to say the Clinton, Gore & Kerry's party isn't my Dad's Democrat Party anymore. Probably good he didn't live to see what happened to his Party.....would have broken his heart!
Standing up for what's right is not always easy or fun. You are to be commended for standing up for your beliefs. You were willing to continue the friendship, she was not. It is not intolerance on your part which caused the rift.
In addition to Sis, my circle of friends and family includes two best-selling business authors, both of whom graduated Phi Beta Kappa from top universities and are dyed-in-the-wool liberals. Makes for lively debates when we get together.
If you think liberals per se can't be quite intelligent (e.g., Daniel Patrick Moynihan), it may be you who needs to get out more.
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