I’ve always been a political junkie...honestly, I missed my calling. I coulda been a commentator! But until recently, it’s been a lonely, frustrating hobby and the only person I could talk politics with was my husband.
Most people are loath to talk politics. Their minds are already made up. There’s been a long-standing rule; no money, religion or politics. So whenever I would try I would get blank looks, shrugs or nervous laughter. Occasionally I could bait a man into talking politics but women? Never!
After 9/11, things changed. People were still hesitant but shaken up. But still, it seemed that anyone I met who was political, was a Rush Limbaugh clone and any discussion wound up with people having to tear us apart! Then the war...I was outraged...watch out world!
For awhile, when discussing Bush/Iraq with anyone, I found myself seething, screaming to myself "MURDERER!" Thus the name Fury. I was a whirling dervish of outrage and contempt for anyone who was OK with it all. By nature I’m a peaceful, non-confrontational person but somewhere I read this quote "if you lose the ability to get angry, you’ve lost your soul." And although we would agree beforehand not to discuss politics, my husband and I left many a neighborhood party or business meeting on the tail of a political argument.
Throughout this transition, my husband, a fun-loving democrat, became concerned...maybe you have an addiction? I hate to see you so upset! Yet he himself began to see that we are indeed in extraordinary times. He began reporting his political conflicts to me. And finally one day, I’m not sure why, we came to the agreement that we "had each other’s back" and that things were so extreme we had to do something/anything to fight it.
I have a few dozen stories of "incidents". We have agreed that we will only enter into a discussion if another party brings it up first. But at that point we will proudly declare ourselves democrats and express our viewpoint. Both my neighborhood and our business are very conservative, so this has thrown more than a few people off guard. We comment on stranger’s t-shirts (an elephant pissing on a donkey), argue with the CEO of our company (he might vote Obama), send e-mails, and never let a comment about latte-sippers go unanswered.
On a recent drizzly afternoon at the local coffee shop two men were discussing Iraq. The mood was quiet...rainy days in SoCal are rare. These men, one in particular, sounded like Michael Savage. "You know what we should do? We should just send our warships around the world and take what we want and declare, "you are now part of the United States of America! That’ll solve all our problems!" It was so ludicrous and my anger rushed so quickly I turned around from the counter and asked, "Are you kidding? No wonder the rest of the world hates us!" Stone cold silence from the rest of the latte-sippers as our discussion ran its course. I left and got in my car and I was shaking with indignation.
And one day, my hubby finds himself sitting at a table at a business luncheon with the man in charge of the republican party of Orange County. People were amazed when after the conversation waded into politics, he handed this man his head on a platter!
But you know what? Rather than alienate and piss people off, most people seem to grudgingly respect us in the end. My husband’s business associates ask after me and remind him to send me their regards with comments like "tell your wife I said hello, ha-ha!" We haven’t lost friends, but in fact they seem to enjoy the repartee, as we always try to shake hands at the end. And on the one occasion I did totally offend my right-wing-born-again Christian neighbor by calling him an outright hypocrite for supporting Guiliani, I had to apologize and all was well. Of course, when I heard a few months later that he was leaving his wife...for another man...we were howling with laughter!
But the tide is turning. On the Saturday morning after Biden was named VP, our staunchly republican business partner from the east coast called us at 7 am pacific time. "Don’t tell anyone...I’m voting Obama!" Don’t tell anyone? Well OK (coward!). Another neighbor makes a donation to the DNC in my name. I finally convince my Dad to vote Obama. Everyone’s talking politics!
And so, as I shopped for shoes in Nordstrom’s yesterday, I couldn’t help but overhear a conversation between two women and a man. I glanced at my husband, sitting at the opposite end of women’s shoes, checking the news on his Blackberry. OK, it was safe to engage. I heard "Obama, Obama, Obama" still not sure which direction they were going, I circled the Donald Pliner table, getting closer, closer, closer. Then "can you believe she said that?" OK, I’m convinced we’re talking Palin now. Then, "I’m sick of seeing my country go down and down and down". Now I’m sure we’re on the same page. "I’m sorry for interrupting, I couldn’t help overhearing....". These people, two of whom, thanks to Sarah, are now ex-republicans, outraged at the fact that "they’ve taken over my party!", "the nerve!" and "the hypocrisy of having a pregnant teenage daughter and being opposed to birth control education and cutting funding for teen pregnancy programs!" . They all laughed when I said "she’s Rush Limbaugh in a dress, isn’t she?" and we discussed the collapse of the republican party and the sad state of affairs for five minutes. When I mentioned I was making phone calls for Obama grassroots, the man asked where he could get a bumper sticker. I told them how proud I was of them, for truly putting "Country First!".
My faith in mankind restored, it was on to Bloomie's, where the clerk asked me, "is the mall busy?, it’s been dead in here all day". I segui into "well the unemployment rate’s up, blah, blah, blah, VOTE! He proceeds to tell me "I’m amazed at how many people who work here aren’t even registered, so I’m getting a stack of registration forms and handing them out and I’m coming back to pick them up after they’re filled out". I give a thumbs up without asking him who he’s supporting, because I already know, and it ain’t McCain!
I’ve never seen people so engaged, democrats so enthusiastic (and now-thank you Sarah!- pissed!). So get out there and talk. People are angry and frustrated, and dying to get involved. Even if you can’t call or canvas or register voters, if you can convince one person to get involved and get registered and get to the polls, you will have done mankind a huge favor.
The power of many. Thanks, Sarah, can you spell B-A-C-K-L-A-S-H?