This weekend, I had two separate conversations with two different republicans about Barack Obama's victory in the election. They both had different reactions, both of which I found my self shaking my head.
Republican #1
I coach youth hockey and was not at the previous 2 practices on November 1st and 3rd due to my involvemen in the campaign here on the southside of Indianapolis. Well, this past Saturday, I came back to practice and many of the parents were asking me questions about the campaign and election day. Whether they were democrat or republican, they all appeared very genuine in their interest in my involvement. As the kids go on the ice, one of the parents who I don't know well made a comment which I found to be very humorous. He said, "the electoral votes made it seem more of a blowout than it really was." I wanted to say, "are you for fuckin real?" Instead, I asked him to clarify. He said again, "it wasn't that much of a difference between them and the electoral votes made it seem like Obama won by a alot." I repsonded, "He did win by a lot. He won by about 8 million votes, by 7% of the vote, and took the majority of the states, red states included." He went on to say, "It wasn't by that much."
I really feel sorry for the guy and actually had sympathy towards him. He is in such a state of denial and can't come to grips that Obama whooped McCain. He is willing to go against the basic facts on the election. You cant make up statistics when it comes to the number of votes that both Senators got. I was amazed.
Republican #2
Now, I am a very passive guy and don't get angry when I talk politics. I have republican friends and even though we may talk politics, we all agree that we cannot change each others point of views. It's actually great that we can discuss politics and not get upset at one another.
Anyways, this weekend, I went to Chicago to the Bears/Titans game. We woke up at 5am to start tailgating at 6am. After hours of drinking, I have to drain my main vein. The line for the bathroom was about a 20 minute wait. While standing in line, two guys behind me were talking politics and they were obviously Republican with the things they were saying. After a few minutes, they started using the n wordd, which made me chuckle in disbelief. They took this as me agreeing and one of them told me a sick joke. "How are Lincoln, JFK, and Obama the same?" I aked, "how?" He responded, "They're not, yet." I just stared at him and decided I couldn't just stand there and not say anything. So, I said, "and you wonder why your guy got his ass kicked. It was like assholes like yourself why he couldn't appeal to the middle." He went on to make fun of Obama saying that he had heard he was reading Lincoln's writings. I asked what was wrong with that, as Lincoln was facing a nation divided. The man said that it wasn't true. Then I told him that his word usage and joke made him no different than those in the South during the 1860's and that maybe Obama needed to read up on how Lincoln was trying to deal with ignorant individuals just as Obama needs to found out how to do it.
At that point, the guy he was orignally talking to said that he was a coordinator in Central Illinois for the McCain campaign. I said that was a good thing for Obama because then this man made it impossible for McCain to win the independent voters. When I said this it was my turn to use the bathroom. I ended the conversation with this statement:
"Thank you for being ignorant and being a outspoken McCain supporter. You helped us win the election. Now, if you would excuse me, I need to piss on John.....I mean in the John. You really can't tell the difference."