A weekend brush with ignorant, hateful and loud Obama bashers left me fearful for the future of America. Instead of saying our blacks are better than your blacks like Ann Coulter did recently, Republicans might as well adopt "Our Stupid is Better Than Your Smart" as their 2012 campaign slogan.
My wife, son and I came face-to-face with a couple of idiots who personified that attitude Saturday, November 5 while standing in line at Port Canaveral Florida waiting to board the USS Ponce, which was docked there and open for public viewing.
The line was long and the wait seemed longer. We were in front of those loud mouths and their families in the line for about 30 uneventful minutes. At first I scarcely noticed them or what they were talking about, but at some point I noticed them turn up the volume as they berated President Obama. We're black, they were white, so I guess they assumed we were supporters of the President and couldn't resist saying disparaging things about him for us to hear. They were literally projecting their verbal jabs against the President at us.
"Right after that Muslim clown won the election the line at the Melbourne Gun Show stretched around the block," one of them said. "There was this fellow who walked by wearing an Obama t-shirt. You should've heard how many people in that line heckled and threatened that guy. He got out of there real fast. A lot of guns were sold that day. I guess he didn't want to get shot."
Then the other dude, who was wearing a cap with "Retired U.S. Navy" stitched into it, chimed in, "My dad voted for that socialist. I can't understand how anyone could vote for someone who wasn't born in this country. I haven't spoken to my dad since."
"I don't blame you, but that Herman Cain is great," his friend said. "Just the other day he said he's a Koch brother from another mother. Gotta love that guy. I'd vote for him any day."
Yeah right. He's as likely to vote for Cain as I am to vote for Newt Gingrich. The only reason he even brought Cain up was to make it look like he's not a racist. But isn't that the Republican's national strategy as directed by King Rush and his court at FOX News?
I was so ticked off. I know stupid people like them exist, but I rarely encounter them. It was all I could do to act like I didn't hear them. I wanted to turn around and engage them, but my wife kept shooting me looks and shaking her head. And she was right. What was the point? What good would it have done? Afterall, one of these guys had cut off ties with his own dad because of political differences. There was no point in trying to talk with them. It simply would have been an emotional, possibly racially tinged public exhange with no winners. As someone once said, "If you mud wrestle with a pig you both get filthy, but the pig enjoys it."
I understand why some don't like the President's politics or think he's not doing a good job, but that Muslim, birther, socialist crap!? Pure stupidity. And then to throw in that nonsense about Cain. The clueless Cain didn't even know China has nukes. His solution to our immigration problem is a big wall along the Texas border surrounded by a moat filled with alligators. I guess it's OK to act like you support a black man, as long as he's a stupid one who bows to the thrones of Limbaugh and the Kochs.
The uninformed Cain is stockpiling lots of support and impressing similarly ignorant people with haughty displays of his own lack of knowledge. And based on what the polls are saying about his popularity, even in the wake of the sexual harassment scandal, there are a lot of dumb people out there drinking the Cain Kool-Aid. "Stupid and proud of it" should be his and their motto.
Ignorance, hate and fear are in vogue in America during this political season more than ever. That doesn't bode well for our country or President Obama's re-election chances. Somehow, those of us who consider ourselves progressives/liberals have got to find a way to turn the tide.