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Ladies and gentlemen, it's true. I have met the only African-American man who claims to not have voted for Obama. He doesn't trust Democrats. They are "liars" and "unqualified". Yup. Let me tell you about the half hour from Hell this afternoon.
Our young friend (let's call her Alexis; it's not her real name, but her real name's distinctive enough to be noticeable,) is off to college. A far-right-wing college. I'm not naming that, either, but I will give a little backstory. I realize we're biased because we love her, but this young woman is exceptional. Besides maintaining an A average through school and Running Start (she actually started community college two years ago and finished in June,) she's done extensive international volunteer work, among other things. She is outstanding -- articulate, funny, intelligent, beautiful, everything you'd want your daughter to be. Oh, yeah -- she's spent the past ten years being brainwashed by her RW stepfather and his family. Yay. We knew our little sweetie and her mom before Dad came along. Our young friend was accepted by some significant universities; she's going to a school that doesn't accept federal funding because they can then discriminate re: awarding scholarships and "student aid".
Today was her going-away party. We went for her. It's increasingly difficult; every time we're in this family's home, we're either excluded or outright confronted via one of their other guests about our political beliefs. After all, we are the token Democrats. We walked into the backyard where most of the guests were. It wasn't even five minutes until we heard our young friend's mother and some of the other guests having a loud discussion with a guy who couldn't wait to tell the party at large that he doesn't vote for Democrats, he won't ever vote for one, he does not have any Democratic friends, etcetera. Obviously, when one is a guest in someone else's home, it's rude to start World War III, but here's the thing.
This family has been to our house before for a social gathering. We do not talk about politics at any social gathering in our home unless we KNOW that everyone there is of a fairly similar opinion. It's rude. It is astonishing to me that anyone would think it appropriate to act like this, even more so when you don't know everyone attending. I resisted the impulse to walk over to the guy who'd just told the entire party he didn't vote for Barack Obama, stick out my hand, and say, "I don't believe I introduced myself. My name is ______________, and I voted for Barack Obama."
Again: We see this stuff here daily, but I have to agree with the person that posted last week about his belief that there will be violence before this is over. This goes beyond simple good manners or any kind of tact. The country is split. They haven't figured out yet that our numbers are exponentially larger than theirs, but when they do, all bets are off.
In the meantime, we've attended our last social gathering at that household.
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