I broke one of my family's cardinal rules tonight. I dared to venture into political territory with a certain conservative relative. Although I think I was dragged into it because of a message on my machine. The caller ID and timestamp clearly stated who the person leaving the message was...no doubt in my mind. It was a few seconds of Rush Limbaugh blaring through my phone. WTF? So I called said relative and asked, let's just call him "Joe", Joe - why did you leave Rush Limbaugh on my voicemail? Joe claimed he had no idea what I was talking about and that I must have gotten on some "right wing bloggers phone list". Um, what? So, after going back and forth about this for a while and hearing "right wing blogger" once more, I thought, OK...he acts surprised that I would think he's listening to Limbaugh, he's used the term "right wing" a few times...maybe he's softening and changing his outlook on some things, politically speaking. So, stupid me, I say (yeah, I should have chosen my words better)..."Soooo, you voting for Obama?". To which he laughed heartily. I said I-I-I, jjjust thought...you know, the right wing comment and-and... Well, clearly I just opened up the biggest can-o-worms I could never imagine. It got ugly. Really ugly, really fast. He made a horrible comment about wishing bodily harm upon one of the people on the ticket (now I wonder if he didn't wish it on both, but only said it about one), just horrible, hateful, vile stuff. I was so upset and shocked. At first I couldn't even breathe, much less form words. When I finally did it turned into a shouting match, culminating in my throwing the phone across the house. I was so absolutely gutted; I was in tears. My voice was shaking. I just can't believe that this person, whom I've always looked up to and used to be someone who studied Eastern Religions and transcendental meditation...this person was using the words "bullet" and "head" in the same sentence when speaking about another human being that he just happens to not agree with politically. Is this one conservative's answer to everything? Use of violence to keep the peace. Use of violence when you don't feel inclined to listen. Use of violence because you'd rather protect the rights of citizens to carry automatic weapons, than to protect a person's right to do what they feel they need to with their own body. You want the government to stay out of our privacy when it involves a women dancing for you or selling her body, but when it comes to a woman having a say over whether or not she can terminate a pregnancy that was caused by rape or incest - oh, then the government is allowed to make that call!?
When I told him that I'm scared to death that, if McCain was elected, it would be just like the last 8 years. He lost it again. Telling me that McCain is nothing like Bush. At this point, it's not even about the people on the ticket - it's about policy. Policy and the denial, by what appears to be most of the Republicans, that we have lost our standing in the world; that our economy is in major trouble; that our kids are screwed if we don't fix things now...there are just too many things to list.
Aside from the fact that my personal "economy" hasn't been good enough to purchase a house - now I find out that my landlord has defaulted on their mortgage. Retired people that depend on pensions invested in stocks have lost so much money they will probably never be able to live without worrying about bills, food and gas.
I'm sure once the shock of this particular conversation subsides I will be able to share even more, but for now, thanks for allowing me to vent.
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