Are you ANGRY at your right-wing friends, relatives and neighbors?

[UdoKier]

Poll question: Are you ANGRY at your right-wing friends, relatives and neighbors?

Are you ANGRY at your right-wing friends, relatives and neighbors for supporting Bush in spite of all he's done? Does it just drive you nuts to have to share the same country with these thugs?

[barb162]

1. yes, they are screwing up this country and they are too stupid to

even realize it

[sniffa]

2. they're disowned

[proud patriot]

3. I'm only angry at the ones who yell "STUPID HIPPY" and Vandalize

my signs and car .

The ones who debate me civily I'm more dismayed at
then angry .

[MatrixEscape]

4. I only have a problem with them

if they really have a choice.

[justinsb]

5. I wouldn't call them friends anymore

I wouldn't call them at all come to think of it. My Xmas card list is shorter this year.

[burythehatchet]

6. Combination of 1 and 3

It infuriates me that I have been influenced by my complete RW father and older brother. They oughta be ashamed. But, I've gone as far as I can.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

7. Yes

Their blindness, pride, self-righteousness, greed, prejudice and sheer stupidity cause suffering to untold billions. I hope the remember karma is a bitch and always bats last.

[justjones]

13. Blindness, pride, self-righteousness, greed, prejudice, sheer stupidity...

add arrogance and ignorance and I think you just wrote the entry for the word "right-winger" in the new progressive person's Thesaurus.

[fertilizeonarbusto]

15. Bravo!

n/t

[bemildred]

8. No, pity's more like it.

Sheep get shorn.

[rbnyc]

9. Yes and No

There are only 2, my father-in-law and my husband's cousin. My husband's cousin is in ROTC and is going to have his illusions shattered in a most painful way, I'm sure. So I feel sorry for him. My father-in-law is just wrong about all things political, but he's a loving grandpa to my son, and he respects my opinions. He says he'd rather talk to me than someone who just agrees with him because my opinions are well thought out and challenge him...I guess they just don't challenge him enough.

I get frustrated with both of them and have been known to raise my voice. My husband once had to stop me from stabbing his dad in the hand with a fork at the dinner table, but I love them both.

[justjones]

10. I know they say that you shouldn't let politics get in the way of....

friendship or whatever, but how can you pretend to respect right-wingers? The whole way they look at the world is self-serving and screwed and I just can't pretend to respect them.

And I know you can learn a lot from people who don't share your views...but I just can't stand them. I can choose not to talk politics with them, but then what do you talk about? To me, the personal is political and vice versa, so there can be no dialogue on anything that doesn't touch on politics.

And their arrogance is what kills me.....yeah, my disdain for the right has grown to massive proportions.

[impeachthescoundrel]

11. I just

feel sorry for them.

[Menshevik]

12. Yes

I hate how they don't care, or think this is just some big game

[MadHound]

14. And thus we continue to fall into the power elites' trap,

Divide and conquer. Get the people so whipped up into a frenzy over the percieved shortcomings of others whom they have more in common with than the upper class of either party that they don't notice how they're being screwed over by the power elites of both parties. A tried and true tactic that is sadly still working all too well.

What we need to do in this country is to start approaching those on the "other side" and find the issues and concerns that we share in common rather than dwelling over what little truly divides us. Then and only then will you see the disappearnce of economic and social injustices.

[UdoKier]

17. You make a good point

But it is not us doing the dividing and the demonizing.

And the anger is not unfounded.

It was all I could do to not use the word HATE in the poll.

[m berst]

34. wish more could hear your message

What you are saying is vitally important. People are only seeing two alternatives - hate 'em all, or compromise and be weak.

Hating "them" - and apparently the "them" we are talking about here is half of the population, to include our relatives and friends - is the weak position it seems to me, not the strong position.

I am advocating taking a very strong position, and I wish that more would. What is the strong position? The strong position is total resistance to the system, done in such a way that others - including Bush voters - understand the seriousness of the crisis and can see that you have the courage to stand by your convictions - the strong position is not hatred for your neighbor.

Hatred is the cowardly and predictable response. It has been factored into the plans of the tyrants and is a crucial element for their plans to be able to move forward.

I think when you say "find the issues and concerns that we share in common" people hear something you are not saying. The sorts of things that I am finding in common with my Republican neighbors are found in the Constitution and in the words of the patriots and freedom lovers who are our common ancestors. Others, I think, believe that you are advocating compromise on the hot button issues of distraction that have been used to divide us.

Resistance and hatred are perhaps opposites. Resistance sets an example. Resistance gives one strength and credibility. Resistance allows for the possibility of people being converted to the cause.

Hatred, on the other hand, blocks any possibility of conversion. Hatred allows you to avoid taking a meaningful stand, while deluding yourself that you are being strong. Hatred stands on the sidelines and throws rotten eggs and allows you to hide in the jeering mob.

Hatred allows us the luxury of being able to deny our own complicity in the coming calamity. It is a luxury that we cannot afford.

Falwell and Bush tell their flock - "see? They hate you, just like we told you they did. That is why you need us to protect you."

Every time I read a hate Republicans rant here, I get an image in my mind of a smug, self-satisfied and knowing smile on Falwell's face.

The tyrants can't win if we refuse to hate our neighbors.

[FizzFuzz]

53. I'm aware that my rageful feelings towards the RW's and Fundies is not

is not a good thing.

I struggle with this.

I'm thinking of two particular people whom I have tried to bring up issues that should be uniting. I'm not sure if uniting is the right word; more like issues I thought no one could find arguement with?

The first person I'm thinking of is a serious serious Evangelical. When I brought up some examples of Repub. policies that attack workers, elderly, poor people, etc., his response was to start praising the Lord that he is happy with his job and has what he needs, he is so blessed. HUH?? I have pretty much given up, I can only interact superficially with him now, on the level of silly jokes by the water cooler and no more.

The other person is a RWer although she is a sort of Zionist, claims to be a fiscal conservative/social liberal. I tried to point out some very dangerous social trends stemming from Bush/Repub policies, but she claims that no liberal concerns matter now that Arabs may get nukes. She gets a gloating grin on her face when she talks about loving Fux news, and positively wriggles with glee when talking about killing "Arabs". I have never been friends with her, but now I feel mosre strongly about avoiding her completely.

Well, I actually need to get going, don't have time to finish this train of thought. I just feel at a loss with people like this. And I feel frustrated with struggling at my own aspirations to act from my higher self, and my frequent coming short of the ideal wisdom and compassion.

Sometimes I just think, there IS nothing I can say and trust that truth will be revealed. When people are so deluded, usually words won't help, only a personal experience of disillusionment with their belief system will cause it to collapse. (the proverbial Whack in the head with a 2x4)

And sometimes I am so fed up and angry, I have to rant and rage with understanding friends here or IRL.

[BeatleBoot]

16. I moved from Anger to Pity

I pity them, because not only don't they know, but they don't know that they don't know...

They don't even get the fact that they don't get it....

Seriously...

Got it?

:crazy:

[mistertrickster]

20. I know the mods hate this, but did the Lions win against Green Bay?

I had to go to bed before it was over and my hometown paper didn't report it.

[BeatleBoot]

21. No they did not.

The Lie-Downs blew it again...

[mistertrickster]

31. *nod*--okay, thanks. At least the Pack is doing well at the end of

their season. The whole league is muddled and mucked-up this year. No one team is standing out.

[Harry S Truman]

42. Luv them Lions

Don't worry - they're coming to the climax of the team's 50-year plan.

That's 50 years since the last title.

[BiggJawn]

18. Dumbasses. Can't wait to say "I TOLD you SO!" eom

[mistertrickster]

19. I'm not really angry--it's more like sadness that people willfully allow

themselves to believe all the crap from the White House.

And who can blame them? Our own John Kerry said he believed the reports of Saddam's weapons programs--that's why he voted for the war.

Why? How? Could anyone EVER believe anything Bush says? It's a constant continual stream of lies issuing from this man's mouth . . .

If he says, "good morning," you can be sure that outside it's 10 p.m.

[oscar111]

24. Mistertrickster, you said it well.

that is how i see bush .

Reads what he is told to say, just a puppet of Cheney , with words refined by Rove.

Cheney the head puppeteer, i suppose.

[Yuugal]

22. Still very bitter

Since the elction I havent talked to any of my neighbors, friends or family that are repuke and I don't think I ever will again.

[maxsolomon]

23. i can't be civil to them

i've spoken to my parents once since nov. 3rd, and i'm not going back to s. ohio for christmas as i cannot bear to breath the same air with my lockstop GOP automaton catholic conservative westside cincy whitebread BORING relatives.

they're getting one hell of a jesus quotation on this years' SOLSTICE card. something from the sermon on the mount methinks.

there is no excuse for conciously choosing an incompetent to run the country.

[maryinohio]

26. I know it's hard but

as a Cinci west-sider myself, I think people just don't want to see the truth. These people really have been duped. Particularly the west-side of Cinci where all the Catholic churches are spouting BC04 slogans.
I don't think they're evil, they just have their heads in Ohio clay, and they like it that way, it's easier than studying and questioning what talk radio tells them.

[maxsolomon]

43. you are describing my father

who took me to a vietnam war protest in 1972 & then voted for reagan twice & bush1 twice & dole & bush2 twice. he needs to turn off the WLW. now.

i know they're not evil, but if i go back this year i'll alienate all of them permanently.

where on the westside? my grandparents were price's german & irish catholics. i was born in st. dominic's parish, then moved to st. catherine's parish in 2nd grade. it was a nice place then; local drugstores, bakeries, pizza places, bars that sold 3.2% beer to me when i was 16, a movie theatre to walk to, a ymca, a sled hill, nice architecture & right on the 21 route. my parents left there when the neighborhood started to "change" (coded language for white flight) & moved out to green township off werk rd., the land of church parking lots, no sidewalks & nowhere to go. my mom has gained 30 lbs. since she moved out. i fucking hate it there.

[newyawker99]

50. Hi maryinohio!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Jim Warren]

25. A big yes to that

Selectively though. Most of my rancor is reserved to those stupid enough to gloat about the "bush win" like it was their favorite sports team or something. And the worst of the lot is a certain brother-in-law who knocks down 50k@yr and thinks he's rich.

[trof]

27. More like disappointed.

Some of them seem so smart about other things.

[RPM]

28. an ardent repub friend of mine was bitching about his drug coverage....

... so I asked him: who'd you vote for (knowing the answer). He said **, and replied, "then shut the fuck up". Got his ire up pretty good, but it needed to said.

[Maestro]

29. Yes. My latest tirade was at members of my

church. :eyes:

My tirade at certain members of my church

[Mari333]

30. ComPLETEly cut them out of my life, whole biological family

wont have a damned thing to do with any of them. Gives me a good reason NEVER to have to travel to (UGH) Indiana.

[catmandu57]

32. I'm more pissed at the complacent

people, the couch potatos who'll take whatever because it doesn't affect them anyway. That's the people I'm pissed at, they live all around me, and I want to yell at them for what they've done to us, actually I'd like to kick their sorry asses.

We get to see before long just what we get, and it's not going to be pretty. I'm expecting to hand out many I told you so's.
The sad thing is there are more people like this that could'nt be bothered than people who got out and voted.

I believe we really need to address things that concern the unconcerned, fuck the middle class, fuck the security moms and nascar dads, like the talibornagains there's a great untapped market out there and their weight could have easily swung the pendulem.

[naryaquid]

33. ..I just left my therapist because she told me she..

voted for Bush...Why?...because "it's the only way we'll get caps on "pain and suffering awards" (tort reform)...meaning she's more worried about her medical malpractice premiums than she is about, well...anything
else..I was furious.."What about Iraq"?..people dying?, etc. She couldn't answer. I decided I didn't need a person with such shallow values to "guide" me.

[stanwyck]

37. You were wasting your time

with a therapist who has so little regard for humanity that she would jeapardize the future of our country by voting for someone who is anti-choice, anti-environment, anti-science, and pro-greed. I wish you well. You've already improved your life by leaving her behind.

[naryaquid]

39. ...Thanks, Stanwyk.

[Logansquare]

40. What an idiot!! How do people get advanced degrees with these brains?

n/t

[elehhhhna]

54. My (ex) shrink's a Bushite who said we should Nuke Iraq.

When I told him about Black Box Voting he called me paranoid. I asked if that was a professional diagnosis. (Answer: No.) He is sooooooooooooo fired!

[naryaquid]

55. ..WOW......I've definitely re-evaluated my ideas on shrinks!

[Forkboy]

35. I have no right-wing friends or family

And I ignore my neighbors regardless anyways :)

[fob]

36. Your poll doesn't get to a high enough level of rage.

I've unceremonisously ended 15 and 20 year "friendships" over there dumbassery.

[Skidmore]

38. I'm more angry at the people in our own party who refuse to

see glaring issues that should be addressed swiftly and consistently.

[Batgirl]

44. I love my wingnut/fundie brother

Many Christmases ago when I was a struggling single mom, my brother insisted on taking me and the boys to a tree farm where we rode on a horse drawn sled and picked out a tree, an unaffordable luxury which he paid for, and a lovely holiday memory for my kids. I don't know how he knew things were bad for me since I was too embarrassed to ask for help.

Those desperate times are way in the past, but if they ever came back I know I could count on him, and he on me. I guess I view the fundy stuff as being sort of a sickness that I hope will eventually pass. And as much as I hate fundy/wingnuts as a group, I have a harder time hating them individually. In a way I think they're all "unwell." (God, sometimes it's hell being a mushy liberal.)

Now on the other hand, I got into a fight in the grocery store checkout lane last weekend. The person behind me started out just being your everyday annoying chatty guy, interrupting me while I'm trying to read some horrible salacious article in a magazine I would never actually buy. At first I'm just nodding and periodically grunting in a kind of neutral acknowledgement of his comments. But then he suddenly starts talking about how great things are going in Iraq and how Kerry voted against the $87billion and how the soldiers were complaining about the lack of armor just because soldiers "always whine."

My blood started to boil as I replaced the Cosmo in it's wire rack and heard myself saying "I hate Bush, and I hate the Bush administration, and I voted for Kerry, and he actually fought in a war unlike these other chickenhawks, and I'd hate for any of my kids to be over there with no armor, etc. etc. etc." I NEVER make a scene in public but I couldn't stop myself. People in the next lane could hear our altercation, and the poor cashier was obviously uncomfortable. When I paid for my stuff she avoided eye contact, as though I was a dangerous crazy person or something. And at that moment, maybe I was.

The strangest part was, the guy I was fighting with seemed pretty unfazed, changed the subject, and when I was pushing my cart away he actually said "It's been really nice talking to you, have a good Christmas!"

Not knowing what else to say, I smiled (I think perkily) and said "You too." The whole episode had a surreal, out-of-body feeling to it. So yes, I guess I do have some anger issues.

[notundecided]

41. Who me angry

ANgrY, AngRY, FUCK NO i'M NOT aNGrY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[newyawker99]

51. Hi notundecided!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[readmoreoften]

45. RW and friend is an oxymoron for me

I have one associate in a graduate class who makes her Bush sentiments known, but almost as a "now that I've said that stifle your discussions because it's not fair for you to hurt my feelings." I'm pleasant to her, but I rip her politics to shreds if she so much as bobs her head above water.

All my fundy relatives are distant so I ignore them. I have one capitalist libertarian, anti-government, anti-Iraq war, anti-death penalty, neutral-gay, mixed abortion long time friend. I haven't even spoken to her yet because I don't have the language for it.

I have another old friend who has been kind over the years who is one of those 'moderates' who voted for Clinton and Bush. He may have voted for Kerry, but I don't know. Last time we talked politics he was totally pro-war and vicious. But after the election maybe things changed, he is mixed-gay, pro-choice, and incredibly INCREDIBLY anti-southern and anti-christian so...

But a strict RWer? I'm a big ol' queer so I don't go within 20 paces of those loonies.

[SudieJD]

46. Ticks Me Off...

It really ticks me off when one of them says "Get over it, your boy lost". No, I didn't loose. I won, knowing that I won't be a part of the crimes being committed by * and them letting him get away with it!

Sudie in MN

[AngryOldDem]

47. No. Why?

Life is too damned short.

[Princess Turandot]

48. I have a long term friend who recently adopted a baby..

from overseas..we haven't been that close in recent years, in part because her husband seems to have turned one of the smartest people I know into a Stepford Wife.

They set up a webpage with some pics they got of the baby before they went to pick her up.She sent me the link, and when I went to look at it, I noticed a link called 'politics'on the site. I clicked on it, and it was one of those derogatory caricatures of Kerry with his hair 'foofed' up. It was what I would have expected from her husband, but I haven't been able to bring myself to call her to ask about the kid.

[Ira]

49. Cognitive dissonance

Most of my Republican friends have drunk the Bush cool aid. They cannot believe that the President of the United States would tell the egregious lies that Bush is accused of. Maybe I am naive, but I believe that the disastrous events in Iraq will finally cause them to start thinking logically.

[WoodrowFan]

52. yes, and lost respect

Yes, and I lost respect for them. My Mom's husband was well-behaved about politics when we visited over Thanksgiving (as was I). but he did talk with my wife about the letters to the editor that he wrote. She told me about them later and said he's very naive and really has little knowledge of current events and how government works.

[Bouncy Ball]

56. I no longer have anything to do with

former friends who voted for bush. My family itself is very small and we are all Dems, so no problem there.

But any neighbors/friends I had who voted for bush are out. And have been since November 3.

So it's more like they aren't even a factor in my life any longer.

And it's nice, I have to say.

[GreenPartyVoter]

57. I'd be lying if I said they didn't tick me off now and again

------------------------------------
Would Jesus love a liberal? You bet!
http://timeforachange.bluelemur.com/

[thom1102]

58. Disappointed mostly