I'm walking on the sidewalk in the cul de sac where I live, toward the house which has been vacant for over a year. My errand is improbable: to retrieve a political door hanger recently deposited. Walking over, barefoot with the images--the sun shaving away, the alpenglow--of Dillard's "Total Eclipse" still washing over me, I feel the calm sureness of my meditative walking of last summer. Yet deeper, I'm rattled, heart quickens remembering the charged emotions of minutes ago.
"Can I give you one of these?" a young man of maybe 20 asks approaching my swing, stepping on my grass, entering my space.
"What is it?" I ask in a friendly tone; I'm pretty sure he won't give a sales pitch as he has been quickly leaving his hangers on each door.
"Tim Bridg...."
"No, I'm not interested in that." He turns and walks to the next house.
But to my surprise I'm not through with him: "Too bad you are wasting your time on that." He walks quickly up to the next house cutting across the lawn. I watch.
When he turns to come back to the sidewalk, I heckle: "So we need someone more conservative huh? That's what we need? More business. Less concern for the everyday guy?" He does not proffer even a turn of the head.
As he moves to the next house, my boys come out from the living room, wondering about the commotion. I tell them that young man is supporting a lunatic and I won't have it on my lawn. I'm kind of grinning but their faces tell me it may be a sinister grin. The young man sneaks a quick peak back at us. I wonder what is going through his head: "another crazy liberal--should have known it with that earring" or maybe he was silently singing a hymn, a tactic learned on his LDS mission, to fight his impulse to break my face.
I almost start to chastise myself: could have talked to him...should have engaged him. But no; I'm angry and I'm not apologizing. Could have been much worse: I fantasize imagining door hangers accidentally falling to the ground, my hose unfortunately dousing them...very sorry for that.
And now I'm walking, walking barefoot with beautiful descriptions of an eclipse in my mind to retrieve these political rantings. I want to assure myself that I wasn't overreacting. I first notice "race between....business man....lawyer" then "Stop the insanity" and almost panic: "maybe it's are actually critical of the the upcoming race, the whole thing." Relieved, yet profoundly disappointed, I see it is clearly a spot for Tim Bridgewater.
When Bob Bennett isn't conservative enough to make it out of the republican caucus you know you are in trouble. I'm angry. Knew I was peeved about all this but had no idea how angry. Tired of these rich people who tell us we should stop needless wealth distribution. How could this get a guy making 30K with no insurance to vote for Tim? But it will. And that guy will feel safer at night because he will believe that spooky Obamacare won't ruin our nation now that Tim is on the job.
10 comments:
Ew. I'm sorry. It's hard to live in the 2nd most conservative state. When Bridger gets elected, Utah can trump Arizona. Still. It's a good thing you said something. You're a brave soul out there alone.
Keep in mind that the kid could have been hired to distribute door hangers... so his lack of reaction to you could have been due to his complete indifference.
Feel free to move to Illinois, where Chicago shoves the most liberal (typically incompetent) Democrats down our throats. Take Rod Blagojevich for example, I'm sure you've seen him in the press.
I continue to find myself flabbergasted by this political turn of events. What's next? I can't understand how things can get more conservative than they are. It's pretty appalling--this "I'm more conservative than thou" thing they do. And who can stand that stuff in his own front yard? We got a signed photo in the mail of John McCain, thanking us for our support . . . what?! However, we kept it, for laughs.
Yikes! Yikes! I know we live in a haven amidst the...thorns? But I still balk at these conservatives. Aargh!! I'm trying to have a little hope. Interested in helping out with the Corroon campaign?
:)
Only in Utah is Bob (Montgomery Burns) Bennett not considered conservative enough. I'm glad you heckled the kid. More public heckling from sane people of these lunatics needs to occur.
I don't know where you live, but the conservatives are making a big mark here in my county in Maryland. The sitting governor, a Democrat, is being challenged by a Republican who has already held a term (I think maybe more than one) as governor. I was glad when he was not in office anymore, but now it appears that he may be back. I see in my county many conservatives getting huge followings in the local arena.
Steve next door says: Someone help me understand how I should be obligated, through MY taxes, to pay for YOUR health care. Government healthcare ..... yes, the government did such a good job with government housing, let's see them work wonders with my healthcare. I prefer my housing over government housing, and I'll prefer my current health care plan over any government's health care plan. Help me understand how more government control is better.
Whatever happened to pulling your own weight? Whatever happened to getting what you paid for? Or not getting what you don't pay for? Government's re-distribution of wealth will be the downfall of our nation. Anyone, or any group of people, who expect someone else to provide for them over the long term is deserving of the poor results they will most surely receive -- that is, the transformation of the greatest nation in the world to downtrodden welfare state. You will reap what you sew; eventually everyone getting a free ride from Uncle Sam will bankrupt the country, and no one, especially those who've made a lifetime of receiving handouts from the government, will know how to pull themselves up and move forward.
Screw all your snobbish, liberal, academic arrogance, your indulgence in a feeling of self-superiority over fighting for the betterment of the common man, your bleeding heart blah, blah, blah; there's a time and place for lifting someone up, and that's when they need help and you feel moved to do so voluntarily, not when people want all the freebees given to them by the true working people, and the government demand you help them / pay for them (through tax dollars).
Let's see how many other minimum wage young adults can be harassed for trying to make a few bucks.....
Well I can say one constructive thing: ironically atheist Rod and Christian Steve who fought it out on these pages before can find a few things to agree on. What strange bedfellows.
I just don't understand your anger Steve. And I certainly don't understand your fears about government redistribution of wealth. It's as it we are seeing the world from completely different vantage points.
I may have been, as I admitted in the original post, wrong when I hassled the guy passing out fliers. My post was actually less about the politics and more about how we suppress emotions which bubble up; but everyone commented on the politics. Strange because I assume most can relate to what happened to me as the anger surprisingly bubbled up.
I most certainly do not agree with you Steve. It seems to me you've lost hope in the government's ability to create good laws which will help us. While I'm certainly a skeptic about any entity doing good, I will generally pick the government over big business. To me it's just common sense. Yet I still hope others won't respond by more name-calling to your vitriolic speech here. Remember folks I know Steve; he's a good guy, even voluntarily gives my family free salt from his work in all its varieties. But in this context, my blog, Steve is outnumbered so forgive his lashing out.
In a strange way this is exactly what I was getting at--Steve actually is enacting the very dynamic I was pointing out. When the young man came along I lashed out because I feel outnumbered living in Utah. From this perspective, Steve, we may have more in common than first meets the eye.
Hey I just said that we get super-liberal incompetent dopes elected in Illinois, not that all Dems are the same. Don't assume I always agree with the Republicans.
That said however, I would have to lump big government in right along with big business... they're both corrupt, self-interested entities. It is my belief that big government (i.e. ours) seeks only to retain or strengthen its own power.
It disturbs me that seemingly the only eligible candidates for national office are wealthy attorneys.
Besides, now that I'm self employed, I'd be glad for you to pay my health insurance Ron.
Rod's latest post is a thing of beauty; well said Rod. This country was founded on an entrepreneurial spirit by individuals and families working to make a better life for themselves, and I applaud you Rod as a self employed person. People wanted less government interference(from the British monarchs) and more control over their own affairs. Think more government or less government is going to work best for Rod as a self employed person? Remember folks, a government that is strong enough to provide you everything is strong enough to take it away from you.
To Ron's point, which was not lost on me last night when I was typing, yes, we all need to be bold and speak our minds, and not be the silent minority (think first amendment rights here folks) or worse, the silent majority. Even when you're wrong, as a US citizen you have a right to speak your mind.
Ron, I'm not sure if I was more upset with your glaring & obvious misguided stance on the political subject matter, your harassment of the working man, or my own jealousy over your creation of a forum (your own "Counterintuitive" blog) in which to spew forth such socialist drivel. But alas, I hold my tongue out of respect for this being your blog turf, and in the interest of maintaining our friendship.
So how 'bout that World cup action?
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