I love these people; I would do anything for them, and they would do anything for me. They are a very diverse and interesting group, including one gay male couple, a woman who works for the federal government, and several single woman who have their sh!t together in taking care of themselves.
This is what happened last night.
I knew some of them were supporting Senator Kerry. That didn't matter to me. When I arrived, after a few joking comments, we agreed we were not going to discuss politics.
There were six Kerry supporters, and just me and another woman who are Republicans.
Unfortunately the conversation kept returning to politics. Here is what I found interesting....at least from my perspective. The other Republican and I were able to give the reasons we support President Bush, and why we are voting for him and other local GOP candidates. The Democrats (one of whom even said he would vote 3rd party if there was a good candidate) do not really like Kerry, in fact their conversation was not about Kerry/Edwards at all. Their focus is Bush ~ they are consumed with hatred for him. They despise him and will do anything to see that he is not re-elected. These are normally nice people ...my dear friends ... and their level of hate was amazing to me.
As the evening went on, they seemed to enjoy making anti-Bush, anti-war, anti-conservative comments and jokes and laughing at me and making fun of me and telling me they will feel sorry for me on Wednesday morning. I was stunned by this, and I tried to joke my way through it, but it was not a fun evening.
I am glad Mr. Tow did not go with me last night; he would have walked out in the first hour.
Several observations:
~~The gay couple claim they received a piece of campaign literature in the mail from a GOP state Senator who is running for re-election. I know the woman, I have known and supported her and admired her for years. She is very conservative and I am not surprised that she is in favor of a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between a man and a woman. However....the gay couple said this mailing they received from her said her belief was that all homosexuals would burn in hell. One of them called her at her home in the middle of the night and screamed at her and hung up on her. I do not know what they read, but NO candidate for office is going to send out literature saying homosexuals will burn in hell.
~~One girl at the party, who I don't much like anyway, literally screamed when I mentioned the hope that Bush could be reelected. She screamed "I CANNOT STAND ANOTHER FOUR YEARS OF THIS." I stared at her until I had some pretty strong eye contact from her, and I said in a very quiet calm voice: "Now you listen to me. I lived through eight years of a terrible administration in the 1990's, and I made it. Now it is your time live with an administration you don't like, so don't give me any crap about not being able to stand four more years. You can. Deal with it." She didn't say much to me for the rest of the night.
~~One of the women came to me late in the evening and actually whispered in my ear: "I just want you to know I didn't vote straight Democrat. I voted for Senator Brownback." Ya know, I was happy to hear that, but I am wondering why she found it necessary to whisper so that the others didn't hear.
Anyway, thanks for listening to me vent. I found this evening interesting if only for the fact that it confirms what I heard a month ago from the Liberal Texans ~ for many of the Democrats, this is not about them liking Senator Kerry and thinking he will be a good president. This is about hatred ~ not dislike but raw palpable hatred ~ for President Bush.
