How Can She Be A Teabagger???

[ComtesseDeSpair]

So, have you guys ever found out that a friend that you thought was like you is actually one of THEM? It just happened to me recently and I am having a terrible time coping with the realization. Actually, it started on Election Night last year. I wrote an e-mail to my friends telling them about my experience in Grant Park and how exciting it was and all of my friends wrote back congratulations... except Ginny. She wrote back a note saying that she "Could not be more depressed about the outcome of the election but she was happy for me anyway" and saying that she really "feared for the future of this country". I felt numb inside reading it because for all the years I knew her, I never had the slightest inkling that she was conservative. I thought she thought like me! She was a Wiccan, bisexual, seemingly open-minded person. How could this be?

I put that behind me though and went on my way, avoiding political discourse with her entirely. We have to work together, so it was for the best not to rock the boat. Then I made the mistake of accepting her Facebook friend request, and her husband's as well. Her husband has always been a jerk, but we could get along at a very basic computer geek level. Soon after I friended them, though, he posted some anti-Obama comment and I put him on ignore. Virginia never posted anything so I kinda forgot they were even out there and went about my normal existence...

Then a couple of weeks ago she got a new puppy and told me that she named him Reagan. REAGAN!!! She named her cute little dog after the man I hold primarily responsible for the destruction of this country. I wanted to say how disgusting I thought that was, but instead I just told her how adorable the puppy was and joked that I would have named him "Roosevelt" or "Kennedy" instead. We laughed it off and went on our way.

Back to Facebook: Being the progressive that I am, I started posting some funny Huffington Post stuff about Teabaggers, like the "Columbus Go Home!" punking, never thinking that she was so extreme as to be a teabagger herself. I mean, I knew she was conservative, but I never dreamed she was INSANE conservative. Then I realized her husband had unfriended me and saw that his profile picture said, "Don't Tread On Me" (the cry of the idiot) on it. Uh-oh. Sure enough, she responded to my post about "Columbus Go Home!" with a, "You DO realize that I am one of the 'teabaggers' that you are referring to, right?" Ah, that familiar numb feeling of disbelief. How on earth could she be that hateful and irrational?

I asked her to explain why she supports the tea party stuff and she went off on me in this angry, incoherent rant where she said she was completely against "redistribution of wealth" and "Universal Health Care" and thought that Obama was a socialist and how she hated socialism, etc. She said that Obama was going to raise taxes sky high to pay for all the "free stuff" he was giving out and then she actually said that she didn't like Bush because, wait for it, he was "too progressive" for her. Then she said some apocalyptic stuff about how she hopes that I'm ready for the end of this country because it's coming soon and I'd better be prepared for it, etc.

I probably should have dropped it, but I could resist pointing out a few things:

1) Obama isn't for "Universal Health Care". He's for keeping things as they are, with a few regulations and changes. I *wish* he was for Single Payer Healthcare but he's not. So, you don't have anything to worry about with your health care.

2) She has spent over 20 years working for Medicare. MEDICARE!!!!! I said that I found it really odd that she feels that way considering that her job is to support socialized health care. (I wanted to say, "Perhaps you should give up your job for someone who actually believes in it?" but I refrained.)

3) I asked her what "free stuff" she was talking about and pointed out that her taxes have actually gone DOWN under Obama so why is she hating him for things she thinks MIGHT happen in the future, instead of appreciating him for what he has already done for her?

And of course, I couldn't resist a few other digs here and there - especially that ridiculous "Bush is progressive" comment. And I pointed out that it was the Republican deregulation and trickle-down policies that have brought this nation to ruin.

She came back and told me I was "hateful" and that I needed to read up on history (me, the girl who only reads non-fiction history books) and told off my gf who had made a couple funny comments about "socialism" too. And then she said that she was turning off my newsfeed so that she didn't see anything else I posted, blah blah blah.

So, basically, that friendship is over... I'll unfriend her after she sees my final reply... and I'm alternating between feelings of disbelief (how can she be so stupid/angry/hateful/misguided???), guilt (why did I have to bring up politics in the first place? I should keep my mouth shut then this wouldn't have happened), anxiety (how are we gonna work together now?), sadness (I really liked her and was planning on visiting her next year or the year after and now all those plans are over), betrayal (How can she hate things I love, and love things I hate?) and relief (good - now I can post that Mark Fiore "How To Speak Tea Bag" animation without worrying about offending her). But mainly I am just confused. How did I misjudge her so badly? When she lived in Texas for a couple years, we used to talk about how conservative Texas was and laugh about the ridiculousness of it. We mocked religious conventions together and embraced paganism. We talked about sexuality and the awfulness of homophobia. How could that be the same person who despises "socialism" and attends rallies where Obama is portrayed as Hitler? I am so confused. It's like the world turned upside down.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I just had to share with some people who might understand what I'm going through...

[spiritual_gunfighter]

1. Two of my ex girlfriends from high school

friended me on Facebook recently and I have learned that 1. they are both doctors now and 2. they are teabaggers. One of them was posting a bunch of anti health care reform stuff on her page recently. A doctor??? I really dont understand it at all.

[HughBeaumont]

2. Ah.... The "Suddenly Wingnut Friend".

Always awesome when that happens, isn't it?

Luckily, I was able to work out some differences with a few. There are 1 or 2 "Point of No Returners", however.

[EFerrari]

9. It's like finding yourself in a horror movie. n/t

[iceman66]

3. Probably the husband's influence.

Some people are just impressionable like that.

[HughBeaumont]

4. OH yeah.

Me and my cousin see a lot of that happening too among our Facebook friends.

[livetohike]

5. Some people are like chameleons, they change to adapt to

their surroundings and they try to be "all things to all people". Sounds like your friend is one of them.

[hileeopnyn8d]

6. You've just described

reason #2 from my list of - "Why I haven't joined Facebook."

[Ikonoklast]

7. Two words that are used to scare the really stupid people silly...

Black Man.

[graywarrior]

8. There's a teabagger who lives down the street from me...big sign in her yard announcing that fact.

[notesdev]

10. My view is a minority here but perhaps it will help

My view of modern politics is that the distinction between Democrat and Republican is mostly academic, and not an accurate description of the actual political context we find ourselves in today. I see the context as being a class war, specifically the well-off/rich/elites waging war on the middle class and the poor, pitting us against each other with a Fear Uncertainty Doubt strategy.

I came to this conclusion after seeing Democrats support Wall Street as strongly as the Republicans, when anyone with two brain cells to rub together can see that Wall Street is at war with Main Street. And it extends further than that; note the diversion of support for health care reform into a bill that forces us to do business with private insurers whether we like it or not. On issue after issue, solutions this country needs, that should not even be controversial, become distorted and perverted during the legislative process, losing their original intent but being magnificent for well-placed corporate campaign donors.

In this context, I think the teabaggers are our allies, intentional or not. They are revolting against their corporate masters, breaking the control grip of the dying establishment. We too are on that path; although not as far along, the evidence is incontrovertible - witness the open revolt against Geithner and Summers, and the long-simmering one against Rahm Emmanuel.

These are truly interesting and exciting times we find ourselves in, and we would do well to break from the traditional thinking that serves to keep the old establishment elites in power.

[AllentownJake]

12. I agree and disagree

The Teabaggers are in the same boat as we are but they are certainly not allies. They are the useful idiots of the right just as the people who post "Thank GAWD it Passed" and believe it when talking about TARP are the useful idiots of the modern day democratic party. All evidence indicates TARP was a failure, yet this group of people are convinced that without it's passing we'd all be starving living in some sort of Mad Max beyond Thunder Dome world.

The Teabaggers might win an election, but I guarantee you this, the reps they elect will be just as bad as far as the whoring for corporate dollars as the reps they replaced whether moderate republican or moderate democrat. The only difference will be on wedge issues like abortion, gay rights, civil rights etc.

The same thing goes with their opposition of Health Care reform. They don't even know what they are opposing, they are blindly following their leaders as much as the people on the left are without asking question. Impeachment is off the table, Democratic Reps voting for the IWR, etc. All things that happened on the left side of the aisle with minimum protestation from their members.

Sarah says that there will be death panels, just as those on the left supporting the party line actually believe that if TARP wouldn't have passed, Mad Max would have happened or that there cost will go down under the current Health Care proposals, despite all evidence suggesting they won't.

[madmom]

11. I've lost family members over this shit, BUT on the upside....

While I was working in the local Obama office during the campaign I met two very nice ladies and we have become pretty much best friends. We have lots in common and we get together at least once a week just for coffee, sometimes more. So there are also good things that come out of this!:pals:

[lies and propaganda]

13. Wiccan, Bi and a Teabagger?!

Jesus.. methinks you should go on a unicorn and yeti search today too.. you are on a roll!

[mitchum]

14. She sounds like an insecure trendslave who has latched onto another trend...

in order to give herself a readymade identiry.
She had previously been a walking cliche (I'm assuming this was during college, right?) and now she has just become another cliche. There will be another readymade identity for her down the line.

[Sinti]

15. I'm afraid there are too many of those everywhere n/t