When I sat down with my accountant to go over the damage for this year's tax liability, I knew politics might come up. Over the years we had talked briefly on various issues and I knew enough of his perspective to know we were philosophical opponents. During the Bush administration he made passing remarks about his support of the war in Iraq. As racist white men often do when alone with other white men, he had tested the waters with me with anti-Hispanic, anti-immigrant references. I was well aware of his shirt-on-sleeve conservative "Christianity" which clearly had nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus. Each time these topics would come up, I would tactfully disagree and shift the conversation away. To my mind he was of the confused and ignorant faction of the right (vs. the willfully evil crowd). I'd come home and discuss it with my wife, who each year would insist I fire him and find another CPA. And each year I'd think about it but procrastinate and decide it was not worth the hassle to start all over with a new accountant: I see him once a year and even if he was a political idiot, I was hiring him to do taxes, not represent my personal values. But this year's meeting changed all that.
It actually started with a conversation about HCR, during our first meeting to go over all of my documentation. I don't remember how it came up but he proffered that it would bankrupt the country. I countered that the CBO said the bill would actually reduce the deficit. He said that the CBO numbers on the bill were hogwash. I relayed that I was unhappy with the bill as well, as were many on the left. Unhappy because it had not gone far enough, no public option, with obvious sell-outs to the for-profit insurance industry. He, of course, said next that tort reform was the only way to solve the problem and that it was going to bankrupt the country. I said I too was very concerned about the national debt but that health care was part of the problem, that tort reform alone would solve it and that something had to change because the current system was irreparably broken and doing nothing was not an option.
The CBO estimate was his segue for reopening the conversation after we reviewed my tax bill for the year, at our next meeting a couple of weeks later. He said a week after the bill passed the CBO had issued a correction to their estimate increasing their cost estimate by a trillion dollars. Or a billion, he said, he couldn't remember which. I found it odd that I hadn't seen anything on that, and that an accountant couldn't recall the difference between a trillion and a billion, but took him at his word. (I still haven't been able to find verification online).
We talked about the constitutionality of forcing the public to buy private health insurance, with me agreeing it was questionable. We then talked a bit about the lack of significant difference between the Democrats and the GOP, how both parties were in the pockets of the corporations, how big money has permanently tainted the political process. We agreed a viable third party was needed. Then he said "I think the Tea Party has it right, they are more along the lines of my thinking". I didn't visibly react to that but knew the conversation was going to head in a direction where I was less likely to hold my tongue. And then he shifted to the anti-government, anti-tax rant.
The healthcare bill was hiring a phalanx of IRS agents to monitor people and intrude into their lives, forcing them to buy health insurance. It was going to raise taxes on an already overtaxed rich. The rich were going to pull up and leave the country and then we'd have no revenue. Why do the non-rich think they can get a free ride off the backs of the wealthy?
If some of them leave, good riddance I said, getting fired up. They already hide their money overseas anyway. Why do the rich think they have no interest in supporting an equitable society where others can get basic services?. Why do they think they don't have to pay their share in a country that has given them so much wealth? Trickle down is dead, it didn't work, I said. The tax rates on the rich have gone down ever since Reagan, the rich have gotten richer and middle and working class wages have stayed stagnant. (The irony that he made his living because of the IRS occurred to me but I left that unsaid). His face was flush red and my voice has risen involuntarily. There was a pause as we both collected ourselves, eyeing each other warily. And then he continued and it got much, much worse.
How did Obama get so rich so fast, he asked. He has a million dollar home. I said I didn't know how he made his money but I knew he worked his way up from humble roots and you'd probably be hard-pressed to find a US Senator that didn't own a million dollar home. How did he become so successful so fast, he asked. He then inferred that Obama's education and his political career had been supported by mysterious, sinister backers. Millions of small donations from overseas supported his political campaign and no one can account for them, he said. His birth certificate cannot be verified.
"You think he is backed by foreign agents?", I asked, incredulously. "I do", he said. "I think it is far worse than anyone knows and by the time we find out, it will be too late." "Have you seen Manchurian candidate?", he asked. "That is who he is".
"I don't believe that", I said softly. "If anyone was close to a Manchurian candidate it was George W Bush." He shook his head no and it was time for me to leave. I stood and walked out, deciding to never give him a dime of my money again.
We made awkward small talk as he walked me to the door. He hadn't said it explicitly but it was clear in his body language, his eyes and his tone: Obama needed to be taken down. As I got into my car, adrenaline pumping, I thought to myself, this man is ugly. He is full of irrational hatred and prejudice. He represents the same extremist point of view that is justifying and pushing the country towards violence. He stands for an Amerikka I will fight to prevent. Sadly but without a doubt, my enemy.