I had a dear friend who was a colleague in the school we both taught in. We used to have lunch together every day for a decade, an island of peace and camaraderie during the day. Sometimes we'd even meet for dinner if his wife had an evening professional meeting. Then, the 2008 elections came around, with a very low quality candidate named Barack Obama on the ballot. My friend, a knee jerk liberal, was ecstatic over the fact that this was the first black presidential candidate ever. Of course he voted for him. I saw this fake for what he was immediately. That fact that the Democratic Party had chosen such a piece of garbage as their candidate was the final straw, and I left the party of my father. I, and a number of other conservative friends were subsequently bombarded with pro-Obama emails from my friend. I refuted every single one of his sales points. Finally, tired of having to waste my time stating the obvious, I asked my friend to please stop sending me those emails. He was deeply insulted. This brought the end to a beautiful over-10-year friendship. Chalk it up to yet another Obama casualty, may he drop dead at the earliest convenience.
When my friend died suddenly a few years later (had a major heart attack in his cardiologist's office and dropped dead to the floor), a mutual friend from school notified me so that I could attend the funeral. I cried at his grave not only for his death, but for the years of friendship we missed out on, thanks to the lies of B.O.
Wow. Like you I was once a Democrat. Is the Republican party much better? I wonder sometimes. But, a free thinking conversation is necessary.
BTW, it only got worse after Obama... the Democrat party nominated Hillary. Hillary is and was the worst candidate ever and for so many very logical reasons. Yet, the Democrat party chose her because “she was owed the nomination.” My friend was completely blind to her shortcomings, too. You might say that he was blinded.