Posted on 11/24/2004 2:42:43 PM PST by mlmr
Good one.
:^>
In my personal experience, it truly matters how far off the deep end any of my Democrat friends have gone. There are four of us that have been friends for over 25 years. Two of us are Republicans, one is a staunch Democrat and one is ALWAYS "undecided." She just never knows what to do or think. And no, we aren't able to persuade her one way or the other, either. She's a great Texas Hold "em player, LOL!
When we talk politics, we always agree to disagree and all of us can hold our own in an argument with lots of facts and figures...but we never, ever get to the point where any of us personally slanders the others for their opinion. We just stop the discussion before it turns ugly and turn the conversation to cute shoes or chocolate. ;)
Friendship is a lot like marriage in that way (and vice versa.) I mean, my husband has done and said some really boneheaded things over the years, but it would never occur to me to slander him to others. And he, too, leans to the left...but he listens at least, and lets me do my thing...have political planning meetings at the house, fill the yard and my car with campaign signs, etc. I guess it never occurs to him to "slander" me for my views, either, so it works for us.
I have a couple of leftist fishing buddies, one even thinks of himself as a socialist. But neither is bitter about the election, although beforehand they mentioned how strongly they felt about it. We all went fishing together out on the reef the other day, even talked politics a little. We generally recognize the strong feelings of each other, but we still enjoy the banter.
These guys are an anomoly, though, lefties honest enough to concede a point when you make one. 'Course that's not something I have to do very often in those discussions ;-)
We grew apart during that time as she became an anti-war activist and I became more and more conservative. I supported the troops, our government and our religion. All of these things were an anathema to her. As the years passed we still kept in touch with an occasional phone call and always a birthday card. I had stopped sending her Christmas cards as she told me they were not appreciated she had become an atheist.
After the 2000 election she called me to tell that she could no longer be a friend of a person who she knew supported Bush. She could not be a friend to a person who had no morals and would support a man who had stolen the election. There is much I could have said to her at this point, but I didn't. I just said, "I am sorry that you feel that way and I am sorry that for all these years I really didn't know you." I gently laid the reciever down. I have never heard from her again.
This is essentially the story.
If you both value each others friendship make visits with each other non political events. As the old adage goes, agree to disagree (I have taken this approach with several old friends).
Second, reevaluate your priorities and decide if hers no longer match with yours. If that is the case, cherish the fond memories.
I think it will be the second. Cant agree to disagree with someone who wont play.
Anyway, my empathy is sent!
DOE
Yes, I am married to a Liberal.
She makes John Kerry look like Herbert Hoover.
What do you do? Stick an apple in her mouth?
I've definitely drifted further apart from old friends who are liberal. Quite sad, their hostility. I made my mind up several years ago to stop dating liberals. My boyfriend is very republican, but I don't know if he's quite the extremist I am :)
It's sad that some people are so ignorant and narrow minded that they will let their militancy come between themselves and their family or friends.
Tolerance is not a virture of the Left.
Kerry could have won.
You have a point.
DOE
before they cut off my head.
Remeber the old days when it was just bitten off?
Thanks. I taught them early to learn to live with others.
Then there's my uncle who lives way out of town. Visited him the day after the election. He was depressed, but more subdued than he had been in the lead-up to the election. He made a comment about finally understanding "how the German people could have voted for Hitler", but then, at least, had the good grace to let the subject drop.
Then there's my Wednesday night group. One of the old crew no longer shows up because he can't stand to associate with Republicans. A second, a rabid Bush-hater, shows up only rarely these days, and only then if he feels up to not talking politics (something he has a hard time doing). Strangely, those that remain are a mixed group in which political discussions are rare.
The one thing all of the above have in common: An obsessive hatred of Bush (and Republicans) that overwhelms everything else in their life. Very sad, but there is nothing that can be done about it.
Give them this. What the hey..it's worth a try.
Love Letter to a Liberal
As a new member of the “hard right” I feel compelled to convey to you, my dear liberal, the journey that has brought me to this place. There is a bitter animosity among many liberals today toward those that would believe as I do. As many conservatives will tell you, there is no point in hating liberals. They are as much a part of us as they are a part of the American fabric. It was once said that most conservatives start out as liberals in their youth. So how do we get to the other side of such opposing views?
For this writer, it took many years of seeing the world outside my parent’s protection to arrive at my current beliefs. In my younger years as a lower middle class American, I believed in the total goodness of mankind. I knew nothing of hate, racism, wars or politics. I was taught at home and in my schools to love everyone regardless of nationality, gender or religion. Those days where full of hope and possibility. I was once certain in my heart that the world we live in is full of people that only want to live and let live. My thoughts were that those who did not take my views need only to be given a touch of that all-powerful love and they would see how things could really be. It was devastating to find out that there where those that truly hated beyond any reasoning and that no amount of kindness or love would dilute their way of thinking.
As if it wasn’t enough to learn of real hate and wars, I learned that there are political leaders that use those wars to bring themselves to power. I became keen to maneuver through this political trickery. I learned that the worst politicians where those that preyed on the innocents. They tell opponents of hate what they want to hear, that war is very seldom necessary and blame it on the greed of their political opponent. They defy the facts of struggle after struggle, war after war throughout our human history in order to find favor in the American heart. I learned about those amoral, power hungry brokers that seek to widen the divisions in our country, using well chosen words that “sound” eloquent and intelligent to pit race against race, gender against gender, rich against poor to increase their own support in their quest for power. My eyes where opened and I knew there must be others that thought as I did. So I sought them out and found that they were called Republicans. I joined the just cause to bring back those things that I valued most, the ideas of my youth, that where taken from me by the real nature of this world. There was still hope.
Then, on September 11th, just when I thought I had seen every species of hate that the world had to offer; I learned of the islamic extremists. Without any room for doubt, they made their goals be known. Their calling in life was to promote their higher power by erasing us from the face of the earth because we are what they call the “infidels”, the ones that dare to tell them that we do not agree with their spiritual beliefs. They teach their children in their so-called schools that we are less than dogs, sub human. Without remorse, they attack the innocents. They applaud the effort to deliberately murder women and children in the most gruesome way possible to further their cause of fear and intolerance.
There is only one party that can help us to survive in this newest world of hate and insanity. It should not be surprising that the US has taken a “hard right” Republican shift and I suspect that the rest of the free world will follow in the next few years as the newest threats gather.
I long for the liberal days of my youth when everything was brightness and light, before I learned about the hate, before that one bright morning when the reality of the madness of the world came crashing in.
Liberal, I support you in your journey to find the sad truth. The reality is that the world is not what any of us want it to be. Unless those that would kill the liberal-at-heart are removed from power, the world will not ever be what we all want it to be. I am one of those people who will forever dream of peace on earth, but dare to see things for what they are today For you that have not found it acceptable to face these unbearable truths, there will always be those of us on the right who are willing to protect you from the hate and madness of these killers, even if you despise us for doing so. For those who can see that the dreams of our youth are still so very far away and that more work needs to be done to bring back the hope, won’t you please join us in this fight for our freedom?
Sincerely, One Conservative
Ah, but the trick is to remain in some way or other part of the ties that bind: our humanness.
I can but she no longer thinks that I am human.
That's because they can both agree on screwing the taxpayer. They just disagree on how much.
Off to their place tomorrow! :-)
'christmas card' friends
I thought I was the only person who used that term.
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