Tales from a Wingnut Family II

I'm learning -- slowly -- that when the political talk gets too heated, I should just leave the room. At least that's true while I'm here for a funeral ...

See, the problem is that my aunt is as stubborn and opinionated on the Right as I am on the Left. Not a good combination. Here's yesterday's Tale:

We were discussing the relative merits of cable vs. a satellite dish when my aunt began complaining about her cable service in Ohio. "They don't carry Fox News," she exclaimed, "and I've called them several times to say that I'll cancel their service if they don't get it. I can't stand CNN." Finally, I thought to myself, some common ground! "I especially don't like the round-faced guy they have on at 5:00," she said. "Lou Dobbs?" "Yes, that guy!" Again with the common ground! "I know," I said, "everything with him is about illegal immigration ... it's ridiculous!" Then she dropped the bomb: "The thing with him is that everything is Bush's fault!"

I couldn't believe my ears. "What?" She repeated herself. I couldn't help it -- I started laughing.

"Everything is Bush's fault!," I said, my voice rising a notch or two in volume. "He's the worst president in history!"

My aunt just blinked and said, "You just wait. In ten years, you'll look back on this time and think Bush wasn't so bad after all." "Oh, please," I responded. "Bush is even worse than Nixon." My aunt countered: "Better than Obama, who doesn't even know what he's doing."

That's about the time that the cognitive dissonance became too much for me. "I met Obama. He's a great man -- a big improvement over a dried-up old alleged 'war hero' who spent five years kissing up to the North Vietnamese!" Then I left the room.

Okay, maybe I should just keep my mouth shut. But I won't let my kids listen to such outrageous statements unchallenged. Drunky McStagger has made precisely the wrong decision at every step of the way. Three out of four Americans now recognize this. But my aunt (and my mother) have drunk the Kool-Aid, and they're card-carrying members of the 25% Club.

Do people still support Drunky? Surprisingly, yes. I'm related to some of them.