I Want to Be Friends With Republicans

The New York Times ^ | November 2, 2013 | David James Poissant

[2ndDivisionVet]

The trouble started the night Jeff, one of the guys I drink and talk about God with, announced that he’d been summoned to court for the Zimmerman trial jury pool. We’d kept politics out of our Wednesday night meetings, which are held on my back porch, the six of us seated at an old dining room table propped next to my broken hot tub (Florida short-sale homes come standard with broken hot tubs). Instead of Bible Study, we call it our Tavern Ministry, and while we were often drunk halfway through, a churchlike decorum had always held sway. Once the case came up, though, decorum collapsed.

I wanted George Zimmerman behind bars. With Sanford, the town where he killed Trayvon Martin, just a short drive from my home, I wanted to know that I’d never run into him with my daughters at the grocery store or on a late-night walk around my neighborhood.

But Jeff wasn’t so sure that Zimmerman was guilty. Another friend agreed. It was complicated, he said. He didn’t get why so many lefties thought the shooting had something to do with race.

“Let’s not go there,” I said. My wife, Marla, had warned me that some of the guys were conservative. But I liked who they were on Wednesdays, and I didn’t want politics to change that. Still, Jeff kept on, others chimed in and finally I said, “O.K., let’s go there.”

We’d been meeting for a few weeks. We’d come together the way men in suburbia often come together, which is to say that our wives are friends....

[seeker41]

I have no liberals, democrats or other disturbed individuals as friends. I like it like that...

[Secret Agent Man]

libs always mean the opposite.

his version of ‘friends’ is holding the pistol to the back of a conservative over the trench of dead conservatives.

[The Working Man]

Ok, I read the guy’s blog posting. Frankly, I believe that he’s one of the people who would fall into the ‘casual acquaintance’ role. Certainly not as a friend or someone that I could rely on to watch my back in a SHTF situation.

But if I wanted to be charitable I could just say “He’s a bit confused”, and leave it at that.

[FlingWingFlyer]

That makes two of us. I don’t want any commie ‘RAT friends who advocate the destruction of America. Besides, liberals lie too much. You can’t believe anything they say. I do not like dishonest people.

[Mamzelle]

I don't attempt to make friends with liberals. I do not think they are capable of friendship. They'll stab you in the back, because they buy into the culture's notions of "ends justifying the means." Broken eggs=omelets, etc. They'll pretend to "tolerate" you as long as you understand that they're just waiting for you to stop being so stupid and start buying into the World According to Jon Stewart.

Be polite, avoid the subject of politics---but avoid THEM. It'll be hard to avoid laughing contemptuously, anyway, when they start whining about losing their health insurance. A good Christian shouldn't laugh at the misery of others, but I wouldn't be able to help myself.

[piytar]

Ditto.

[golux]

The New York Times will publish anything these days... Except Thomas Sowell, Daniel Greenfield...

Pieces like this are just silly, self-serving, and poorly written to boot.

[sten]

if I identify a liberal amongst any I associate with... I stop associating with them. period.

I don’t need brain damaged drama queens anywhere near my life

[headstamp 2]

Liberals just don’t get it and more importantly, don’t WANT to get it.

[trisham]

Instead of Bible Study, we call it our Tavern Ministry, and while we were often drunk halfway through, a churchlike decorum had always held sway. Once the case came up, though, decorum collapsed.

*****************************

If I were Jeff, I don't think I'd consider this man my friend.

[Cicero]

I have some liberal friends and inlaws. Usually we don’t talk about politics, but occasionally it comes up, and I cope with it as best I may.

That is ENTIRELY DIFFERENT from writing a snarky column for the NY Slimes complaining how dumb my friends are. I may not mention them by name, but it will get out, and all our friends will hear about it.

No, Mr. David James Poissant, you are a snark.

[Nifster]

bleeech...this guy wants the ‘right’ to be heard while not extending that ‘right’ to anyone else.

The reason I often avoid political discussions with liberals is precisely because as soon as they find out that I am a conservative they go into the most unbeilable rants about what a louse I am for thinking that way

[Mamzelle]

Yeah, and he's an English teacher at a university. Pitiful, isn't it? He thinks he wants to be friends with a Republican, when a Republican wouldn't be allowed to teach, or ever be given a chance at tenure, because of liberal bigots like himself?

Don't make me laugh.

[real saxophonist]

On the day after the 2012 election, I changed my affiliation from Republican to Unaffiliated.

So I guess I can't be friends with him.

[Migraine]

I wanted to know that I’d never run into him with my daughters at the grocery store or on a late-night walk around my neighborhood.

Liar! No one who can write is that stupid.
This whole premise reminds me of the time a liberal said to me, "I was FOR the war on terror, Iraqi Freedom, etc -- until Abu Graib." I knew he was lying; and the copy of Howard Zinn's People's History of the United States cradled in his arms erased all doubt.

[jmacusa]

I have a sister and two younger brothers who are Libs. I'm a ‘’recovering Liberal’’, that is I was once ‘’on the dark side’’ but have seen the light of conservatism. My father is a fascist and proud of it. General Francisco Franco is his greatest political hero of all time followed by the current occupant of The White House. ( I can't even say his name I hate him so much.)

[rockrr]

I Want to Be Friends With Republicans

I doubt it. You want to be "friends" with some moderate squish like john mccain where you get get mewling assent to your foolish notions without having to concede anything in return.

FU

[max americana]

I hate liberals with every fiber of my being. F them and their race.

Never forgive, never forget what they did to my country. All you Freepers who keep praying for them...stop wasting your breath. I pray a ‘different’ prayer for these bastards.

[Old North State]

I wanted to know that I’d never run into him with my daughters..
Well suppose some thug was holding one of your daughters down, smashing in her head after he broke her nose while you stood there petrified and G. Zimmerman came running up. Think you would be sorry to see him then?