Please help me see what I am missing.....

[Flashmann]

My next door neighbor is a teabagger..We have brief little chats across the fence at times,while out doing yard work....When his conversation turns toward teabaggery,I find a way to escape....Gotta get a drink,I need to finish mowing...Something..Anything...

So this morning,our wives get to chatting over the fence..His tells mine how her hubby,as a teen,climbed a power pole,got severly shocked,fell and hit his head..As it goes,he was hospitalized,in a coma for a few weeks,and has never been "normal",since..As a result,he now in his mid 40s,is unable to function at a level allowing him to hold a job,and still needs ongoing medical care...He suffers acute headaches and has some sort of tunnel vision that blures out after short distanaces...

So this guy.....This genious of a teabagger,according to what his wife told mine,draws gov.disability and gov.healthcare.They have 2 highschool age kids at home,and receive food stamps and gov healthcare for the kids.Good chance they avail themselves of other social programs that weren't mentioned.....

Now to the genious aspect....This guy..This ASSHAT,adamantly insists that Obama is ruining the country,and that the only reasonable choice is to vote repub,top to bottom.....So he will vote for the folks who VOW to cut the very progrqms he and his family rely on....

Now,on my part,this all seems sheer lunacy and idiocy....So..What am I missing??...Anyone?

I'm really struggling to wrap my mind around his reasoning.....I know full well many people vote against their own interests,but this is cutting your own throat and maiming your family,in the bargain.....I don't get it.....

[Moonwalk]

1. He got severely shocked and hit his head...doesn't that say it all?

[Drale]

2. What makes us different than them

is our willingness to help to least of us even if they hold different views than us or even if they are actively trying to bring down the government. We have compassion they do not.

[sinkingfeeling]

3. You're missing his head injury. Now what's wrong with his wife.....

[ThePeoplesRepublicUS]

4. You just can't fix stupid

At least he can blame is lunacy on the head injury. You are trying to rationally connect the dots on his train of thought, but his train isn't even on the tracks, so a logical sane thinking person can't wrap their head around that level of stupidity.

[Proud Public Servant]

5. I'd ask him point-blank:

"So if Mitt gets in, and the GOP takes away your healthcare, your disability pay, and your food stamps, what are you guys going to do?"

[Flashmann]

10. In the past

Before I knew of his history,a few times I tried to counter his teabaggery with fact and sense...He immediately begins spouting and shouting,what I imagine rushbo shit over the airwaves earlier....Once the dialogue turns to politics,there is no talking to him....

[tularetom]

6. Seriously dude you need to read this post and show it to his wife

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10021431371

When I read your story about your neighbor I thought immediately of the guy in this post. Your neighbor needs serious help and quick.

[Flashmann]

13. I saw that earlier

However...Crazy as he is,he just doesn't come off as being that type of threat...If I get the chance I'll mention it....We've lived here for 2 years and I've never really talked with her other than a quick hello and a wave a few times....Today was the first time my wife talked with her too,beyaond a brief greeting....

[Fresh_Start]

7. its simple, he deserves the help

and all those other people don't deserve the help

[Brickbat]

8. Did you ask him about his reasoning?

[Flashmann]

11. There really is no talking to this guy

on a level deeper than inane chit chat....Any topic more involved always escalates into him shreiking batshit rhetoric.....

[TheCowsCameHome]

9. Ask him what size refrigerator carton he'd like to live in next January.

People like that really puzzle me.

[HopeHoops]

12. I'm dealing with that with my mother. All she watches is FOX and all she listens to in the car- Rush

Logic just isn't a component here.

[Xyzse]

20. I feel your pain

I deal with the same thing.

My mother as mentioned before has a hard time distinguishing shades of gray.
So either something is bad or good.

Problem is, as soon as she got in to the abortion thing, she just got stuck in one party hook line and sinker.

[HopeHoops]

24. My mom's all about the money, Welfare cheats, Obama's a Muslim, and other such shit.

I've pointed out to her that the majority of Welfare recipients are rural whites, but it just doesn't click. As long as FOX says otherwise, I'm simply wrong and don't have any sources.

[RoccoR5955]

14. What I do

Is to change the subject quickly, adding that I already know that we have differing views, and perhaps we can talk about something else.
I know that there are many people on the right, not even on the far right that I disagree with, and I will never, ever get them to come around, no matter what I try. There are some people who are just hopeless. Let them believe what they believe, and what happens to them happens to them. You may care about them, they may be members of your family, but you have to cut that line of discussion at some point, or the both of you will get angry to no avail.

[Flashmann]

16. Yeah

I've figured out early on how to,as gracefully as I can,extricate myself from futile dialogue....What I am struggling with,is how a guy who enjoys the benefits of a social safety net,virtually on a minute by minute basis,can support those who would rip it from beneath him..

I hear and read sad tales like this all the time.I know these people are out there,but this is the closest I've even been confronted by this level of stupid.....It is astonishing,to me,that a person in enough possession of his faculties to KNOW he needs these programs for his family to survive,and who,at some point,was obviously sound enough to jump through whatever hoops required to get this assistance,would insist on voting for fucksticks who PROMISE to take it all away.....

[RoccoR5955]

31. It's called brainwashing

They get brainwashed by the propaganda, and refuse to believe anything but the propaganda after a while. We need more of our own propaganda out there, but the truth doesn't get much play on the mainstream media.

[socialindependocrat]

15. Brain injuries and holding on to conservative values...

I have a friend who was in a car accident and was in a coma for 6 weeks. During his rehab he started reading the bible and he ended up going to the hospital every day to tell people about Jeasus Christ and the value of religion and this guy was from a Jewish family. I would listen to his comments and I thought he sounded like a priest.

I don't know if anyone else makes this connection but I see
people who are mentally challenged or suffering some head
injury as wanting to grab onto something that makes them feel secure when they are in an insecure position because of their
disability. The church and conservative ideas seem to give
them some security.

Go ahead and blast me for this but I am just putting out an idea
and I would welcome other's perceptions of the situation.

[Flashmann]

17. Might be something to that

While he has never brought up religion,I often see him wearing t-shirts from a church that I know to be of the batshit crazy genre.....So....Maybe.....I'll hang onto that for the moment.....It's just driving me nuts trying to find a shred of reason and logic in this.....I can't quit thinking about it.....

[socialindependocrat]

19. You know that you can't talk to him.

You know that whatever logic you use is going to make him
dig in and hold on tighter.

Be glad his wife has shed some light on the situation.
She sounds kind of nice.
I wondered why she married him? It seemed that his accident happened when he was a kid. Was it actually after they were married?

Poor woman. Think what her life must be like...

[jwirr]

21. And there you have your most logical answer to your question.

[lunatica]

18. You're only going to give yourself a headache

[ahg]

22. Right wing scream radio and fox news do a really good job of lying to the great unwashed.

[Javaman]

23. never underestimate the power of stupid people do vote against their best interests. nt

[WinkyDink]

25. Did you inform him of Mitt's intentions? He might be shocked!

[Flashmann]

29. No..I can't

Every time I tried to counter he goes off into the deep end,and I go away.......

[upaloopa]

26. I have friends like that. He is on disability

and so is his daughter. They constantly post anti-government rants on Facebook.

[louis-t]

27. He thinks Mitt will only take away welfare and food stamps

from 'blah' people.

[RKP5637]

28. Conservatives and Liberals Have Different Brains, Studies Show

Conservatives and Liberals brains function differently!

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2012/09/03/conservatives-and-liberals-have-different-brains-studies-show/

Conservatives and liberals may have one less thing in common: neurology.

ProCon.org has gathered 13 peer-reviewed studies of behavioral and neurological studies and come to the conclusion that differences between Republicans and Democrats are more than skin-deep.

“Basically, the different sides have been yelling at each other for millennia, and we’re trying to figure out what could be the root cause of this,” said Steven Markoff, ProCon.org’s founder.

The studies looked at things like differences between groups’ perception of eye movement, and aversion to threatening noises. Researchers also noted that Democrats had larger anterior cingulate cortexes, which are associated with tolerance to uncertainty, while Republicans had larger right amygdalas, which are associated with sensitivity to fear.

“Everybody seems to basically agree, and these are people that have scientific backgrounds,” Markoff said of the repetition in the studies. “That to me is probably the biggest eye-opener.”

Although Markoff concluded the studies combine to mean that the different groups communicate in different ways, psychiatrist Greg Appelbaum said the studies point toward conservatives’ tendency to avoid something called self-harm, while liberals avoid collective group harm.

[LeftinOH]

30. Brain damage explains lots of RWers; so does mental illness.

Not across the board, of course.

[Flashmann]

32. Brain damage explains lots

It so simple to say that...I say it myself,lots,one way or another....Stupid,crazy,idiots,lunatics,etc.....Much of the time,even as I speak the words,they sound kinda hollow...Shallow....Then I think there just HAS to be more to it...Shadings..Nuances....Degrees and levels....And I drive myself nuts trying to analyze,from every angle I can fathom,and.........Nothing........I think it is just that simple....People like this are exactly how shallow and stupid I sometimes so casually say they are....Yeah there are those,like my neighbor who actually have brain damage,but look how many million dumbasses there are....They didn't all get shocked off a power poll and suffer a coma....Yet that level,or depth of sheer stupidity is present......

Thanks everyone for all the replies...Some of the comments gave me,at least momentarily,something of a different angle from which to view this.....