I work with a guy who is not exceptionally smart, but who is usually a very friendly and nice person. This guy is always laughing and making jokes with everyone and is generally pleasant to be around.
That is, until you talk with him about politics...
Bob (not his real name) is your typical tea bagger. A sixty-something undereducated white guy who has been totally brain washed into believing that Obama is the 2nd coming of Stalin. There is no fact that can be presented to him that can penetrate the teabag bubble. Nothing.
For example, if I talk about how the unemployment numbers have steadily improved, he brings up Solyndra out of nowhere. Then he whines about how Obama won't let us drill for oil and when I point out that we are drilling more than we did under Bush, he exclaims, "but not on federal land!" He is a veritable hooplehead echo chamber for the GOP memes.
I usually don't engage him on politics much, but I asked him today about how he liked his nominee. He SAID that he liked Romney because he could win and that we really needed him to win before the country goes off the cliff. Then he leapt into how Obama was spending us into the poor house.
I was obligated to point out that it was Bush's wars, tax cuts, and recession that led to the high deficits. Then, as he continued to cry about Obama's spending, he said that he would support tax increases if only there would be spending cuts to go along with them. I reminded him that spending cuts were already scheduled to be triggered that would cut both entitlements and defense spending, but that the Republicans were trying to back out of the defense cuts. He said at that point that he agreed that we shouldn't cut defense spending. Of course.
When I brought this utter hypocrisy to his attention, he started muttering about how we needed a strong defense because we may need to go to war with Syria and North Korea. I then reminded him that bombing the shit out of other countries had never really endeared us to them and usually they end up hating us for it. Undeterred, he continued the argument.
In an effort to suggest that because we have an abundance of wealth in our country we are obligated to police the world, he asked me, "Would you agree that God has blessed our country?"
I was stunned for a moment.
He then repeated the question, "Would you agree that God has blessed our country?" and this is where things got really interesting. I replied, "I don't believe in God."
Holy Shit! That about made his head explode! He jumped up and pronounced that he could not even talk to me because he had no respect for anyone who didn't believe in God and he left the room.
Weird.As.Hell.
I guess that Bob is totally eaten up with his rampant conservatism and religiosity. It's a shame too, because outside of politics, he is a pretty nice guy.
As for me... it's kind of lonely being a progressive in the South. I have to defend liberals almost every day here. At least I am getting pretty good at it.