My Close Encounter of the "Compassionate Conservative" Kind


Is this what our country has come to?

Send this to your Republican friends and ask them: is this what this country and their party have come to?

As I've been writing, I worked a voter registration table up at the Foothill campus this past week. And I mentioned in my post after Thursday's shift that I met an elderly Republican who appeared grandfatherly and friendly, but who was slightly patronizing nonetheless

Well, Mr. Republican stopped by again on Friday and decided condescension wasn't enough.

We were having what was basically a civil debate. He tossed off the old "liberal" appellation. I said I was a liberal, and proud of it. Clearly we were on opposite sides of the line, but all was polite and friendly.

Until my fellow Democrat at the table brought up the war. He said we never should have gone into Iraq. Mr. R. said, "how would you deal with terrorism?"

I broke in and said, "Well, I was in New York on 9/11, so don't think combating terrorism doesn't mean a lot to me, but going into Iraq actually diverted our resources from finishing what we started in Afghanistan and following that particular trail to its intended conclusion."

Mr. R. says, "you were in NY on 9/11?"

And this is the point where everyone I've ever met asks what it was like, or comments that it must have been scary or terrible or some other such human response.

This guy says, "you must have liked that, huh?"

I'm a little confused and say, "what did you say?" He repeats his statement.

And I still can't grasp what he's getting at, so I ask further, "must have liked what?"

And he says: "you must have liked that when those buildings exploded. I'm sure you thought we had it coming."

What do you say to someone who thinks that you enjoy the deaths of innocents and utter mayhem?

To that moment my strategy had been to stay calm and friendly, not let this guy get a rise out of me, which he had been trying to do for two days. And he was frustrated by it, I'm pretty sure.

But I couldn't let him think what he just said was OK.

So, this is how I responded:

"Why would you think that it is either appropriate or acceptable to say such a thing to a proud American who just happens to disagree with you about a presidential candidate? We were here having a civil debate, which is supposed to be allowed in this country, so why did you have to go there?"

He kept trying to interrupt me (and not to apologize at that point) but I was sick of "fighting fair" so I barreled right through:

"You represent exactly what is wrong with Bush's leadership: he sets the tone that it's okay to question the patriotism and even humanity of people who disagree or question. Well, you have deeply, deeply and personally offended me."

At this point, the guy may not have felt he was wrong, but he knew he had crossed a line. He did apologize. But only with as much passion as Bush's apology for Abu Ghraib. And he only conceded that maybe I wasn't glad, but there were "lots" of liberals who were, and who thought we deserved it.

I told him there was a big difference between analyzing and understanding what led up to these events (in order to prevent them happening again, I might add) and condoning that which you have come to understand.

And I know you won't be surprised to hear that in the end this guy said he would pray for ME!

As a side note: a campus policeman walked up to my table toward the end of this debate and was just sort of hanging around. Turns out someone had told him I was being harassed by this old guy.

I guess I was. I was certainly having my most basic character attacked.

This is what we have come to. This is where our leaders are leading us. Does one have to be a Democrat to think this is wrong and shameful?

And what I want to know is whether people who self-identify as Republicans are glad that Bush's brand of "leadership" has smoothed the way for his kind of behavior.

If so, so be it.

If not...then you now have the perfect and perhaps your only chance to reclaim your Party from the radical extremists who are trying to take it over.


Posted: Sat - June 12, 2004 at 09:48 AM       EmailFeedback

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