My son's encounter with a wingnut today...

[Joe Fields]

My 21 year old son, A. J., and his girlfriend came over to the house tonight. He had a story that he KNEW I would just love, the type that drips with irony.

It happened in the perfect setting: In the PARKING LOT OF A WALMART....

To set the scene, my son and his girlfriend had just come from a wedding, and had stopped at the local Walmart to get her some allergy relief medicine. They were still dressed up, my son, a suit and tie, Kelsey a nice dress.

As they stepped out of my son's car and walked through the parking lot, a man comes up to them and addresses my son.

"You look all dressed up nice," the man told my son. "What do you think about o-BAM-a? (hard emphasis on the middle syllable)

Okay, so my son has his hair cut short and wears nice clothing. That automatically makes him a young republican? Anyway, back to the story. Naturally, my son is taken slightly aback. It's not like this is an every day occurrence. The strange thing was that my son said this man looked like a derelict, with three or four days worth of beard growth, and acted somewhat intoxicated. He appeared to be, by my son's calculations, in his late 50's or early 60's.

"What about him?" A.J. asked. He had a good idea where this was going.

"Well, how do you feel about the way he's turning the country socialist?"

My son was starting to enjoy this, now. "Well, he's just trying to help the people," he said, smiling.

"By taking away our freedoms?" the man fumed.

My son told me that the man looked at him suspiciously and then asked, "Who'd you vote for?"

A.J. smiled and said, "President Obama."

At that, the man huffed and walked away, toward the entrance to Walmart.


Not much of a story, granted. Just a brief encounter in a parking lot. But it says a lot to me as to how the warped minds of the wingnuts work.

My son is a pacifist, eschews confrontation at all cost, but he admitted extreme delight in being able to blow that walking contradiction's mind.

This story struck me, because I just don't ever recall this kind of fervor against a president. Not against Clinton, not against George W. Bush. It's quite ugly out here, people.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

1. You've got a nice kid -

that's obvious.

I agree with you about the hatred and passion out there. I remember back to Eisenhower, very clearly. I remember people bashing Adlai Stevenson (I was a political junkie VERY early, but that was my family's doing). I remember the anti-Catholic rants against JFK, and I remember being one of the people who chanted "Hey, hey, LBJ' - you know the rest.

Granted, with the advent of the Internet, there's a whole lot more of this stuff being made public, and I think it also emboldens those who might otherwise be silent - they see the others who think as they do, they feel like they're part of a greater group (they are, actually), and that, in their minds, gives them great freedom and credibility.

So, they're vocal and they're obsessed.

Obama's blackness just makes it all so much worse for them. The notion that his election was some kind of watershed moment in our racial history has turned out to be true - but not as we had hoped or envisioned. It just gives the bigots a focus, and now that it's permissible to hate out loud in public, they're set free in a way that's not been seen since the days - and I remember them - of Emmett Till.

Ugly out there, indeed, my friend. Ugly and getting uglier..................................

[RKP5637]

5. So sad, I seriously wonder where America is headed...

With the bashing by haters on the Internet, AM radio, Fox News and the like, fundamentalist religions, ignorance, being proud of being ignorant and much more, it makes one sadly wonder just where is America headed.

With the power of the media reach today and the Internet, the crazies have a platform like never before... and sadly not a small number of Americans are so gullible. I often think we had best be looking at saving our own country than others.

And the political operatives are making the most of this hatred, fueling it, to lash out at Obama and anything to promote their evil agendas. So many Americans of today are so disappointing... hatred seems to thrive while working solutions for many is out the window...

[Joe Fields]

6. You hit that one out of the park.

I'm old enough to remember JFK, but not old enough to have remembered, at the time, the hate focused against him. But I do remember what the other presidents and presidential candidates went through, since Kennedy, and you are exactly right in your assessment. Certain code words have been created, and certain issues have been framed in such a way as to make it open season for the hatemongers. They seem to be coming out of the woodwork.

On edit. Thank you. I do have a great kid. I'm very blessed in that regard.

[bertman]

2. That's a good story, Joe. Sounds like AJ was pretty cool, calm, and collected.

I'm one of those folks who always thinks of twenty great things to say to a tea bagger AFTER they've walked away. I guess I'm so dumbstruck by their ignorance that my brain just goes into "sleep" mode.

Maybe the next time one asks me something like the man asked your son, I'll have the presence of mind to ask him to tell me WHICH FREEDOMS Obama is taking away. Odds are that anything he mentions will be a freedom that Bush was much more instrumental in damaging, and I'll be lucid enough to point that out to him.

Thanks for posting this. A good story is always welcome.

Recommend.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. That's a great story!

Good for your son...

K&R

:hi:

[Odin2005]

4. I loved your your son stayed cool and calm throught the incident...

...while the wing-nut got into a huff.

[obliviously]

7. Unusual!

This type of incident never happens to me or anyone I know for that matter. Normally if a drunk walks up they want money or a ride or something. I've never had one just out of the blue offer me their political assessment in a parking lot!

[Liberal_in_LA]

8. weird encounter

[OffWithTheirHeads]

9. I think Mark Morford was correct. The first question you have

to ask before you converse with these people is how old do you think the Earth is. If the answer does not contain the word billions, your time will be better spent talking to a rock.

[zinnisking]

11. That's great!

Great advice. Thanks for sharing!

hehe

[zinnisking]

10. Funny

I almost had a similar experience yesterday at K-Mart. I pulled in behind an SUV with a "One Big Ass Mistake America" sticker.

Since the front end of the truck was facing the entrance to the store, I pulled out of the spot and attempted to pull in the spot beside him in a "69" position so that when he came out of the store and passed the front end of his truck he would see my "BUCK FUSH" window sticker. Just as I pulled out from behind the truck, the owner came out of the store, entered his truck, and left. So he didn't see my sticker.

I have to disagree that this degree of hatred as something new. I still have half a roll of "Wipe Your Tush With Bush" toilet paper from that I bought from www.wipeyourtushwithbush.com. I'm sure I was not their only customer.

CHENEY/bush EARNED the hatred though . Why the outrage against Obama? Because he's a Socialist? What was Bush then? He spent more non-discretionary money than any admin. since LBJ. And that was BEFORE the Dem congress took control. Teabaggers (repubs) are phony, the lot of 'em.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Good for your son

give him a thumbs up for me

[demosincebirth]

13. He should have asked him, what freedoms ?