At the doctor's office: watching Fox News with a right-winger
Reposted here with permission of my fellow blogger itaest at Immizen.com
At the doctor's office: watching Fox News with a right-winger
By Ita Est
I seem to encounter Republicans a bit more often than I would like to and that although 90% of my friends are Democrats and my salary is nowhere near that of a 1%er.
Today I was at the doctor’s office where they had a TV with the Fox News channel on. I was thinking about asking the receptionist to change the channel, but before I could say anything, this guy (white guy in his forties) blurted out something in reference to the (of course, biased) coverage of Romney’s campaign with images of a bunch of women hugging and giving handshakes to Romney:
“And they say he has no support among women!”
He glanced at me when he said that so I replied: “They had to pay these women to show up”
He let out a sarcastic laugh and replied: “I’m sure they also pay the women to appear at Obama’s rallies”
“No,” I said, “They don’t need to. We love Obama!”
He was dumbstruck for a moment.
He: “Oh, you are one of those…”
I did not say anything. But I was thinking. Little wheels turning in my head… I thought this was an opportunity to engage the other side in a discussion in which he would hear things he would never hear on Fox News.
Me: “We like Obama because for a politician he is quite honest. At the national convention he…”
He interrupted me with an angry laugh: “Honest? Haha! He is the most dishonest..”
I also interrupted him: “At the convention he admitted he made mistakes and that he’ll work hard to get the economy in better shape but that it takes time… “
He tried to interrupt me again but I went all Bill O’Reilly on him and just elevated my voice and kept talking.
Me: “Politicians usually don’t admit to mistakes. Romney will just say whatever someone wants to hear…”
He: “Oh really, if Obama is honest, then why won’t he release his college records, his transcripts?”
That surprised me. I had not heard of that conspiracy theory. But I knew who invented it. It sounded awfully familiar to another one.
Me: “Because nobody cares about it, only the Tea Party cares about that stuff.”
He seemed taken aback for a moment, then laughed with a sarcastic laugh: “I don’t like Romney but he is much better than Obama, Obama sucks, look at where we are now…”
Me: “Obama saved us from the recession that Bush caused. We are much better off than in 2008 when millions of people were losing or about to lose their jobs”
He: “Yeah, always blame it on Bush. Obama has been in office for almost 4 years, what has he done?”
Me: “As I said, he saved us from the Bush recession. He implemented the health care reform act. The US is creating jobs again and the stock market is at its highest level in nearly 5 years. We are moving in the right direction”
The guy did not look happy. He seemed ready to explode and having a hard time controlling himself.
He finally blurted out: “Well just wait, if he gets reelected you are in for a big surprise! It’s all downhill after that. You will regret it.”
Since I figured his Fox News trained brain can only process so much information, I remained silent and let him have the last word.
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