Have you done any Bush-based "I-told-ya-so's" to friends or family?

[Bucky]

I know it's tacky, but it's so hard to resist. In the year leading up to the 2000 election, I ended up warning several people what would happen if my governor became my president. I called him a mere spokesmodel, a grossly unqualified poser, a false-front business man who failed in most of his management positions, a two-faced ideologue. No one listened to me, what with me living in Texas and all--no one ever listens to me. Perhaps I should speak up more and rely less on conveying complex political arguments through monosyllabic grunts and subtle body language. But dammit I was right--if anything, I vastly underestimated Bush's capacity to fuck up the country.

Now over the past few years, I've felt the urge to do an "I toldja so" or two to the remaining few people to whom I actually told "This dude is bad news in a Stetson." But until the last 12 months, Bush still retained his following among the hard 40% partisans. Everyone who knew he was a disaster had been with me in 2000. It's only in the past year that people of a conservative stripe are de-scaling their eyeballs. Playing "I toldja so" now will feel good for a moment. Until I remind myself what it has cost this country and this world to get me into a position to say it. I mean, all those dead people kinda takes the fun out of my "smug little liberal" routine.

Will reminders now help them see that McCain is more of the same? Or will it seem merely tacky and turn people off to the common sense of putting the Democrats back in charge of stuff for a while?

[Forkboy]

1. Honestly, the only Repub I know is my BIL and we never really have to talk.

And on the rare occasions we have spoken he laughs at my Repub jokes. But I haven't done an "I told you so" to him yet. It's too easy. :)

[anonymous171]

2. I point and laugh at people driving Hummers.

[kimmylavin]

5. Los Angeles area, here.

I always think about a license plate I saw in Los Angeles about five years ago.
Giant car, rumbling away at an intersection.
And the license plate - the plate, not a bumper sticker - was "I<heart>8MPG".

I think about that person a lot these days.
I wonder if they still feel the same, or if they've had the sense to be embarrassed that was once (god, hopefully ONCE) their plate...

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

11. LOL

I saw one in LA with the plate SUPRTNK

[kimmylavin]

3. No, but...

I have done quite a few "Well, YOU voted for the guy" whenever my Repub friends and family complain about gas prices, food prices, home values, etc.

[Born_A_Truman]

4. No, but I have a good friend who told me he was sorry he voted for GWB n/t

[Mz Pip]

6. Interesting comment

from my life long Republican cousin. He said that he has absolutely no sympathy for this administration and the mess they've gotten us in. If they had worked in the private sector they would have been fired. I know he doesn't like McCain much but he is worried about his taxes. I sent him an independent analysis of the two candidates tax plans and I think he's less concerned now.

We email back and forth a lot and have managed to maintain reasonable discussions. He's more of an old school small government Republican with a streak of libertarian in him. I don't send him liberal arguments; I send him conservative arguments. There are plenty of conservatives who hate BushCo.

I think there are a lot of people out there who just want good, effective government. We haven't had that in nearly 8 years so I think the disaffected Republicans are ripe for the picking this time around.

[SPURGEMAN23]

7. The Family switch

I, too, told my family the same thing about Bush. Being from Southwest MO, no one would listen. Now, all the family members who voted for bush will not vote for McCain and will go for Obama. They have said those words to me. The amazing thing is they act like they don't remember that they voted for Bush when they are complaining about him now. It is very sureal. That is why it is fun to remind them who they voted for; they do not like it when I do that. So, I do it often.

[NatBurner]

8. my cousin voted for him in 2004

her issue? stem cell research :/

she's for obama this year tho

and i was in texas for the bush governorship-

all he did was screw up the school system, and set a record for killing inmates

i tried to tell them too... whaddaya gonna do?

[RT Atlanta]

9. Not yet...

but all those mofo's who told me to "get over it" following the S. Ct.'s handing the presidency to *, when I had strenously voiced my objections, are going to get an ear full of it when the election comes around (and normally, I am not prone to this tit-for-tat behavior (though the republics really seem fond of it)).

As a sidebar, what I have not done (out of restraint), but which I really want to do, is to write out "don't blame me, I voted for Gore and Kerry" on a sign/sticker and put it on my car. The idea for that sign came to me from the republics who, when I lived in Alerbammer in '92, had "don't blame me, I voted for Bush" stickers plastered all over their cars & trucks (before SUVs had really come in to vogue).

[Bucky]

12. There's about 4000+ troops & God knows how many Iraqis who can't "get over it"

Playground banter occasionally fits in with politics, but it rarely improves the quality of it.

[Zenmaster]

10. My Father in law was a DIE-HARD Republican

But, even he voted against Bush twice.

I haven't had much use for "told-you-so"'s

Us West Coasters just weren't duped by Bush in the first place ;)

[mtf80123]

13. I have

I sent off one of Nance Greggs' rants to my right winger brother in SC.

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/NanceGreggs/378

Poor baby... all he could come back with was something about welfare queens.

[raventattoo]

14. Didn't vote for him for governor!

Back in 2000 a few months before the election, I can remember having dinner out in Houston with a group of about 10 people, some friends and some new acquaintances. I'm gay and so were most of the people at the table, so I just assumed that everyone were Gore supporters. (Although older and wiser, still to this day I do not understand the concept of a gay republican) So I began to trash Bush as the idiot and moron he is, as well to mock and make fun of all that "compassionate conservative" crap. I was like, "Anyone with half a brain can see right through that." When 2 of the guys at the table became heated and flustered, defending him and what a great man he was. I was just in shock and got into a rather heated argument with them.
What I remember best is when one of these queens said, "How could you not vote for him? He is the governor of our State!" To which I very promptly replied. "Are you for real? I didn't vote for him for governor!"

In 2004, I had lunch with a friend and one of his coworkers about 2 months prior to the election. I only found out then that my friend had turned republican and so was his friend. After the preceding 4 years, I simply could not get it. During our heated debate, among other things I blasted dubya about his weak, frightened, (and very UN-"Commander in Chief") reaction to 9/11, reading to the school children with that "deer-in-the-headlights" vacuous stare. How laughable if it were not so fucking scary! And the coworker actually defended him and those few minutes he sat there. How that showed what a strong leader he was and that it was the most appropriate thing he could have done. I mean, one must have a lot of stress trying to defend him. Can you imagine laying in bed at night concocting a defense of Bush's behavior up in you head? These people must live under soooo much stress!

These are the 2 people I most wish I could smirk at and say "I-told-ya so" to. Of course, they have probably just spent the last few years since I last saw them laying awake at night figuring out how the cost of the Iraq War is all Carter's fault!!

[Bucky]

17. Stunning

I'm pretty tolerant of most Republicans. On principle alone I try to be inclusive and accept the differing views of conservatives. I think a good citizen ought to respect the opposing parties in his country (even if the Republicans tend not to and cultivate their culture of arrogance, a la Mr. Limbaugh)

I can see someone voting for a Bob Dole or a George H W Bush. They weren't without their virtues (particularly Dole). The Republicans have a number of leaders who I could respectfully dissent from if they got into office--I used to feel that way about McCain before he started embracing that neocon insanity. If they'd nominated Dick Lugar or Lamar Alexander or Tom Ridge or even Elizabeth Dole--who's got this whole Oprah for Republicans vibe--I could swallow them doing their tax cut for jillionaires because I know they'd at least act like grown ups where the environment or starting wars or torturing prisoners of war are concerned.

But Dubya is just so flagrantly a crooked, lying, two faced weaselly little bully-boy. I can't see how anyone could be fooled by his centimeter thick facade of morality and his open incompetence and his disdain for hard work and his utter hypocrisy. Good God, what a useless man. We'll spend the rest of the 21st Century cleaning up the mess he's made of the world.

[tekisui]

15. I have reminded my family that I told them all in November of 2000

that is chimpy was installed as president, that we would be at war in the Middle East before his first term was out.

[DevonRex]

16. No. I don't want to be like them. And if they can't see for themselves

what a rotten president he is, nothing I can say will change their minds.

They used to all hate McCain, but now they're okay with him for some reason. And it's not because he's just like Bush. It's that he's a republican, plain and simple. And they hate Obama because he's a democrat, plain and simple. Wouldn't matter if he were a white evangelical. He's a dem and they hate dems. Of course, they get a lot of glee in spreading various memes about him just like they did about Hillary and Bill.