"My neighbor is a Tea Partier...?!"

I can't believe it's October already.

Anyway, I spend all morning upset about... my previous post, so I'm trying to take my mind off of it for a few hours. I've been reading around the WaPost forums (lol taking a break from HuffPost!) and there's this one thread about "how would you react if you found out a close friend/neighbor was a Tea Party member?" Ohhh, this is fun. Apparently TPers are upset that they're being shunned by their friends and unfriended on Facebook. (I kid you not.) I have a hard time feeling sympathy for them, to be perfectly honest, especially after all that's happened in my own life with Tea Party "friends" and neighbors. Ever since I saw that damn Gadsen flag on my street, I've had daydreams about stealing it or setting it on fire... Things I would never do, because I believe them to be wrong and unethical, but I find the use of that flag to be so offensive... Everything it's being used to represent...

I was driving down our lovely new roads, with the brand new "Putting America Back to Work" signs that look like this:

Yes, that one. The potholes! They're finally being fixed! We have new, perfectly smooth roads for the first time in years! And jobs! It's amazing! Exclamation point! But anyway, so I was leaving the library and heading down Cottrell towards 34, while thinking about these Tea Party folks and their nonsense... They don't want to pay for the roads, but they want to use them and they want them to be nice. They don't want the government to spend money on things, but they want things from the government. "Keep your government hands off my Medicare and my Social Security! Despite the fact that Medicare is a government health insurance program & Social Security is evil & needs to get cut because no one should get a handout! Come near me and I'll call the cops, whose funding I plan to cut because I don't believe in chipping in for socialist programs that help the entire community!" I mean really, cognitive dissonance anyone? Please? I know that requires actually thinking about what you're saying, and understanding it, but seriously, I'm getting tired of this selfish "stupidity" act. (I know, I'm being mean today. I can't be nice all of the time, can I? I certainly try, but customer service does that to you...)

But back to the forum. Really, it's one thing when people can respectfully disagree with one another without getting nasty all of the time, but every time I've ever tried to discuss something with a TPer, or tried to just end the conversation peacefully and suggest we stop talking about politics, all I ever got in return was nasty, rude, ignorant & racist bullshit and people trying to continue to force their views on me. So yes, if I see something like that on Facebook, or if someone tries to start a political conversation and can't disagree without being a total psychotic bitch/bastard, fuck it, they're getting ignored. Just putting a big Fuck Off button on it and moving on.

(Ooo, just learned a new word - Eristic: Adj; disputatious, marked by specious reasoning. "FNC watchers and "teabaggers" who follow jerks like Glenn Beck, tend to be an eristic and irrational lot who like to argue, but clearly don't have the proper logic and facts to back it up." Eristic. :-P)

So let me just say again, it's not the party itself that annoys me, it's the hatred and ignorance it promotes. It's one thing to promote "small government," and lower taxes; It's understandable that they should be concerned or upset. But it's completely another to deny civil rights, say that anyone who doesn't think like you is "un-American," force your religion on the rest of the country -- & when I was growing up I was always told that even when you disagree with the President, you're supposed to be respectful because he's the elected leader of your country. It's un-patriotic to be disrespectful and unsupportive, and it sends a negative message to other countries. And this was coming from the "conservatives." The worst I've ever called any president is "idiot," and that was after he was out of office. He's admitted it himself too. I can't even repeat all of the horrific things I've heard about Obama. He's received 400% more death threats per year than President Bush. That's 400% of 3,000 = 12,000 death threats per year, over 30 per day. Disgusting... So tell me again why I shouldn't avoid people like this? I have no problem whatsoever with people who can politely disagree, represent a coherent, logical argument with facts to back it up, or people with moderate, non-partisan views. But this vile rhetoric, I don't have to put up with that.

So, all things considered... Yea, you have my answer.


(Fun Fact: Obama's Secret Service codename is "Renegade." ^^" Leave it to this guy to get such a sekushi name :P His wife has a very appropriate, classy codename as well - Renaissance.)

-