Yesterday I ran into an old friend, and our conversation quickly turned to politics being it’s that time of year. Now, you have to understand, this old friend is a true bra-burning hippie liberal from the sixties, someone who most of the time makes me feel like I’m a centrist. She has always been someone I looked to when I wasn’t sure which side of an issue a good liberal should be on. But that all changed in five seconds flat.
My dear friend said she liked Sarah fucking Palin so much that she might vote for McCain. My brain exploded. I asked why. She told me some bullshit about Sarah being a maverick and a rebel and new to the system. I almost shit my pants.
Holding back some serious ranting, I tried to calmly explain Sarah’s position on rape kits and abortion. I told my good friend that Sarah made women pay for their own rape kits and believes that all abortion, even in cases of rape, incest or threat to the mother’s life should be illegal. My friend looked shocked, puzzled. She said, “Really?” Yes, go look it up I replied. She told me she would have to see what the League of Women Voters said about Palin to decide.
I dropped the subject and switched to the guy at the top of the ticket. I stated that I can’t vote for McCain because of his support of never ending the Iraq war, regardless of its realities. My dear friend then said something that made me throw-up a little in my mouth: “He’s a veteran, what else can he do?” I looked her straight in the eye and said that I too am a veteran, and that McCain dishonors our troops every day by supporting sending them to die in a land we invaded to steal oil. I tried not to scream as I explained that supporting the troops means making sure they only go to war when they have to, not for corporate interests, not to take over a country in a colonial fashion.
I had to explain this to someone who prides herself for protesting Viet-fucking-nam. What the hell happened to the sixties generation? When the fuck did they sell out? I had to say good to see you and walk away. I can’t fucking believe what she said. I brought up Sarah’s religious extremism, I tried to tell her McCain is a war-monger; she just didn’t seem to get it. What the fuck?
This is what we are up against. I should have asked her if she would vote for a black man. I should have asked her if she had ever had an abortion (from past conversations I think the answer would be yes), I should have said more, but I was stunned; this wasn’t someone I thought I would ever HAVE to say to or ask those things.
For fuck sakes, this country is loosing it’s collective fucking mind.
