My reply to an old friend who "didn't want to talk politics!".

[Boxerfan]

This is a good friend of mine. We fished many hours away. We often talked politics. He listened to Rush-back when he was out of Sacramento.

Times pass & I moved away. Keeping touch by e-mails he flamed me after I forwarded a list of Bush jr's screwups. He basically told me off in an e-mail so-delete & life goes on.

He tracked me down & I can appreciate the fact he wants to catch up. But I'm not in a mood to forget.Forgive yes-but I felt compelled to let him know where I stood.

Here's what I wrote. After this I caught him up on life & family including some current pictures.

-----------------------------------

Gadz it has been a while...





Before I go into the the big "catch up" I must inform you I'm not mad at you . I am horridly mad at the freaking Republican party & the Dem's who act like battered wives asking for more.



I've taken to taping C-span Washington Journal every mourning 365. As an insomniac & an early riser the 4-7 AM time frame is a little early even for me. So I tape it.



I highly recommend the show. People call in on daily topics-taken from a variety of newspapers & periodicals. They allow an open forum unlike the AM talk shows & other media that pander.Frankly its a rarity & is my best source of information.



I remember-fondly-have coherent discussions on topics with Rush on your radio. He was annoying but not that I cared much. Politics had yet to become a focal point. It took Bush jr to do that so I guess I can thank him there. Now I give a damn because I see how it works-or doesn't work. C-span again.And the talk noise has reached a crescendo pitch-they want my President dead. They have demonized him & used every southern strategy trick in the book. Glenn Beck is a poster boy for re-instating the Fairness doctrine. And now the Supe's have Ok'd corporations -because they are people too?- too spend as much money as they want to influence the feeble minded. And boy howdy that is working swell.



Also having kids & an investment in my community will do that to you. Our schools & programs have all been cut to the bone & suffering. My wife volunteers but all I hear from Republicans is teachers are evil & overpaid-and GHASP-UNIONIZED!!!



I WTF over?. When has destroying the American working base been a part of the game plan. Oh righhht-Since Reagan.



John Boner the tan man without a plan could not explain to Dave Gregory on MTP how Tax cuts would pay for themselves. But he still insists on them-increasing the deficit-while denying the people who's unemployment extensions-as they will raise the deficit.



So you may be tired of them-but noooo-I'm not over it by a long shot.I want Bush Jr & Rove,Negroponte yada yada yada up on war crimes in an international court. I'm pissed they took it "off the table". Like lying us into 2 wars is no big deal & should be forgotten. I'm sure the military families appreciate being worn to a thin gruel while life goes on for everyone else. War should be for honest cause. With shared sacrifice.



If you still care to talk I can do so without politics but you must understand where I stand.



-------------------------------

[crazyjoe]

1. If you don't want to be friends with the guy because he doesn't

agree with you politically, then don't. I find it sad that some here will end friendships over politics, life is too short, and friends are hard to come by.

[izquierdista]

5. Life is too short

...to hang out with fucked up people.

[Sapphocrat]

9. You go find out the difference...

...between "politics" and "core values," and get back to me.

Those who do not share my politics--

I am a democratic socialist

--can still be A-OK Good Joes in my book, and are welcome on over for a BBQ and unlimited beers.

Those who attack my core values (and, thus, the very core of my being)--

Everyone is equal, no one is better than anyone else by "virtue" of money, skin color, or other undeserved yet fortunate happenstance

--can go fuck themselves on a sandpaper-covered pole.

Sideways.

[WVRICK13]

10. I Could Never Be Friends

with a NEOCON because those beliefs reflect a core part of a personality and we could not have enough in common to be friends. Just like I can never be friends with a right wing evangelical.

[Throd]

2. Perhaps he values your friendship despite your beliefs.

Even people who I totally agree with politically get tiresome when they are always "on".

[Martin Eden]

3. Here's the email exchange I recently had with an old college buddy who I still occassionally see:

Him:
I can not contain my anger any longer regarding the alien who is in the White House.
He is a bonafide freak who if allowed his way will reduce our already dwindling standard of living to something bordering on serf-like socialist subsistence provided via our benevolent alien-in-chief.

Fuck him. What I had to hear about Bush for 8+ years and now compare the treatment of Obama -- or rather the non-acknowledgement of responsibility along with the outrageous hypocrisy of his supporters is truly sickening.

Me:
I too am disappointed in Obama.

Some of us were hoping for REAL CHANGE, but what we got was basically a centrist Democrat whose efforts at bipartisanship garnered nothing from the other side of the aisle except obstructionism, ridiculous claims of "socialism" and "death panels" for granny, and almost no shift in field position after the goalposts have been steadily moved to the right over the past few decades.

Although health care reform managed to right some of the worst wrongs (eliminating pre-existing conditions & dropped coverage) and will eventually achieve nearly universal health insurance, we didn't get even a watered-down puiblic option to break the grip of private insurance corporations that skim a big chunk off the top, whereas most industrialized countries enjoy better coverage & health for less cost.

Meanwhile, the enormous gap between the richest few per cent and everybody else (including the declining middle class) continues to grow along with the federal deficit, yet Obama has, overall, lowered taxes instead of raised the top bracket to anytjhing even remotely approaching the rates that applied when Eisenhower was president. We are indeed moving towards "serfdom" with a relative handful of lords, in no small part due to the influence of the true elites of wealth & power who (with media oulets like Fox News and rightwing talk radio) have managed to convince a lot of useful idiots like the teabaggers to carry water for the wealthy while protesting against their own best interests.

And rather than getting out of GW's military misadventures, Obama has doubled-down on the Afghanistan conflict that might have been winnable in the early going if Bush hadn't squandered the gains and diverted attention and resources to his thoroughly fucked up invasion of a country that had neither WMD nor anything to do with 9/11.

Now we've got this gusher in the Gulf, and while it's true that the industry cronies in the Minerals Management Service who greased their palms rather than enforce safe drilling practices are holdovers from the Bush administration, Obama has had a year and a half to replace those corrupt officials with public servants to enforce the regulations and oversight that anyone with half a brain can clearly see is absolutely necessary to prevent major disasters to our environment as well as to our economy (as in the 2008 Housing Market economic collapse).

How many disasters will it take before people understand that private corporations will not police themselves, and that strong -- and honest -- oversight from our federal government is required to safeguard our capitalistic economic system and the livelihoods of citizens?

Are those the complaints you had in mind when you expressed your anger at the "alien freak" in the White House?

[glitch]

6. Wo. I hope your old college buddy actually read your email, but judging from his

he might not have been able to process it. :scared:

[Martin Eden]

11. His reply was "Not on the same planet"

Our other college buddy he copied on the email (a long time DU member) let him have it even harder.

[glitch]

13. At least he can perceive that! I wonder what planet he thinks he is on.

Tragic though, to see an old friend take a path to knowhere.

[tilsammans]

4. I was getting so much RW crap, I developed boilerplate templates

I modify them according to the specific talking point(s) being spewed.

[Boxerfan]

7. Put it this way-I do value friends-But I can do withouth those that are honest

And he was a died in stripes Republican so I assume he was just ashamed of the last 8 years. That doesn't mean he wasn't cheering it on the whole time it was happening.

And I've changed a great deal since we were friends.I was rather timid having just come out of 20+ years as a alchoholic. I didn't really find my political legs till after I became well & truly sober.

So this was a say my peace so we can move forward speach. I do hope he took it that way. I included some family foto's & did a quick catch up on the family.

So if he didn't know I had changed he does now.

And yeah-it was baggage maybe better left behind.For others but not for me-I know him & he still feels the same way. He just doesn't want to talk about it. I'm OK with that as long as he knows I'm not a go along to get along person.

Cheers!

[Boxerfan]

8. He mailed back-

He actually said he was glad I had found my legs politically. And that while we were basically polar opposites thats what was good about America. I agree & I'm glad he knew what I was getting at. Just making my peace.

He's an owner of a fairly lucrative company. And I'll give it to him that while I knew him he treated his employees well & paid very well.

So it did suprise me he went flame on back when. it was kinda a thing I got used to after a while. Almost all the Republicans I know went into attack mode. My brother was another casualty & he is still out there-waaay out there.

Glad he's well & we have some catching up to do..
Alls well that ends well & the air is clear for a frsh breath.

Cheers!

[glitch]

14. I am happy for you that you kept the connection.

I have family members who have kind of snapped out of whatever they were in (shocked and awed by 9/11 and Fox) and are returning to sane. If I had cut them off when they were most rapid I would miss out on knowing them now, that would be my loss, and theirs.

:applause:

[Brewman_Jax]

12. I know the feeling

I've found that most of those friends that "don't want to talk politics" are RW and freeper-types and middle-class millionaire wannabes that don't want their delusions upset--and a black man in the White House is VERY troubling to them.