[From the diaries by susanhu.]
Since the time of the 2004 presidential campaign I’ve found myself involved in numerous discussions of a political nature. Some of these have produced interesting give-and-take, others have become a bit ugly.
Although the county where I live tends to go blue, it is decidedly red in the county where I am employed. So, having had a few too many heated exchanges with certain coworkers, I choose my battles a bit more carefully now.
I’ve been employed for almost 8 years as an assistant county attorney, dealing mostly with family court issues. One of our court officers, (hereafter, Officer X) a polite gentleman (and Republican) with several years experience has always greeted my concerns about this administration with a sarcastic, “It’s all Bush’s fault.” This statement was always accompanied with a smirk. I’ve grown to anticipate this response and usually just smile. Oh, don’t get me wrong, Officer X will actually listen to my rant du jour but he will remain unmoved, discussing but always ending with his favorite chant, “It’s all Bush’s fault.” And the smirk. This has now become our comfortable time-honored pattern.
Well, today, I had a shock. It seems that Officer X has changed his tune.
I approached Officer X’s courthouse station and offered my morning greetings to him. Immediately thereafter he started a discussion about gas prices and his increased expenses. We discussed the situation for a brief time, comparing our commutes and the gas mileage of our respective vehicles. He indicated his opinion that the price of gas was being manipulated.
And then it came. At the close of this discussion he looked at me and said, “It’s all Bush’s fault.” But this time he was deadly serious. The smirk was not offered. He continued, “I may have to go Democratic.” He was clearly upset. He looked a bit bewildered.
I was startled but made no further remarks. He has seen the light.
Welcome to the fold, Officer X.
Welcome Officer X!
How nice. And, if you’re half as good-humored in real life as you are here on the blog, it’s no wonder. And it’s neat you kept communications open with this policeman … he probably felt able to tell you about his change of heart because you hadn’t been negative with him personally.
Thanks Susan! I nearly fell out of my chair when I saw this on the front page.
One wingnut at a a time, one by one,they start to awake from the koolaid coma.
Welcome Officer X!
I love hearing stories like this. Makes me hopeful for the future.
Hooray! One more person on the road to cognitive recovery and release from denial!
We may get our country back yet!
Maybe you had more of an effect than you know. Then when the time came, it all came together for him. Great story.
My wife voted bush in 2000.
I planted seeds of doubt in her mind for about 3 years leading up to ’04. She walked in the house one day (In early September I think?) and snapped: “Bush is a hypocritical liar!” I smiled and listened to her rant for a good ten minutes about why she was “going to vote for Kerry now.”
I knew her actual vote didn’t matter much since we live in a pretty blue state, BUT it just proves that anyone that is actually willing to listen to what people have to say will eventually figure out the truth.
It just comes down to finding the people that will take the time to listen to what everyone is saying. The other people are (generally) a lost cause.
The price of gasoline has more than doubled, tripled in some areas, under the Bush residency.
It would have gone up in any case, given where we are relative to peak oil, refining capacity, and so on (see: diaries of Jerome a Paris, Bonddad, et al.).
But because of Bush’s failed “policies,” the increases have not been planned for, adjusted for, or controlled. Nor are they likely to be in future. Those, and the results of the tax cuts (far lower revenues for municipalities = reduced services and essential maintenance), will hurt people like Officer X hard, and keep on hurting.
Thanks for sharing boran2!
It’s stories like this that keep me from going (to steal from BostonJoe) batshit loopy myself!
😉
Did X think Bush’s imperialism would be free? Tax cuts, a senseless war, deficits that don’t matter. If we don’t get a handle on this, gas prices are just a down payment on X’s pain and X’s children’s pain.
Better he wakes up late then never even if his reasons are less then altruistic.
Don’t throw pitchers, but if I’m allowed to extend a metaphor here.. he had tasted the Kool-aid but later found that once the sugar rush wore off he was left with less energy than he had before. Basically, he crashed.
That’s where we’re all headed. So many of us got used to getting unlimited kool-aid, day or night. We’ve gotten used to it so much that we’ve made each drink sweeter than the one before so that once the stuff runs out we will all have the worst kool-aid hangover in the history of over-the-top metaphors
Excellent diary. I had a very similar experience yesterday with a co-worker I hadn’t spoken into in months because we got into a disagreement over the Iraq war. He was as right wing as you could get. His position was nuke Iraq and turn it to glass…
That was his position. Then Katrina hit, the levees broke and he is beside himself with rage at Bush. The former Bush cultist went on for some time about what a terrible leader Bush is by staying on vacation and how the administration gutted FEMA and why weren’t those people saved.
Thanks for posting this. Like the others above have said these ‘vignettes’ re-new my hope!
Or is he just the type of Republican that only votes his personal self interest (pocketbook)? If a D proposes a gasoline tax and higher CAFE standards will he run right back to the bigot party?
He seems to be sincerely disillusioned. Given his history and his statements, I believe that he will change.
If a wingnut loses his…wings…doesn’t that still make him a nut?
Of course, as a guy, I’m certainly not advocating him losing his nuts either.
</snark>
Sorry, I couldn’t resist :p
But in all seriousness, this is great work boran2. Your actions and your diary. It’s commendable that you showed him respect so that he wouldn’t feel uncomfortable questioning his views and admitting to you that he’d changed his mind. My hat is off to you!
Yahoo, it’s only stories like this that give me any hope at all. I’m thinking on the very positive side that this guy also has friends who are like him and he will be talking to them..and they may be more apt to listen to someone like him than one of those dreaded liberals..
Good job boran2.
I guess this is a good thing but to be honest, I’m still not sure how I feel about people like Officer X. It’s people like him who voted for this nightmarish pResident and I’m angry about it because a lot of people are dead now because of it. To me it’s just like a republican to see the light when his wallet starts getting tapped more than he’d like. What about the war? How does he feel about that? The lies, 2000 dead Americans and thousands of dead Iraqis?
I know we (the country) need people like him to shift their thinking but I’m not jumping for joy over it. I’d just as soon give him a nice kick in the ass.
Sorry
you do bring up a valid point.
I’m not familiar with Officer X as a person. But I do know an awful lot of other people. And several of them are Republicans and W lovers.
But they are also pretty uninformed. Our society makes it very easy to insulate people who don’t actively seek knowledge in a certain area.
But once real concerns like impact on the wallet start hitting home, more people will start to seek out that knowledge, and see what has really been going down the past few years.
And the ones who are willing to look at it objectively will be able to look at their newfound knowledge and change. And I don’t think we should scorn them (not that I’m saying you would!!) because it took a hit to their cash flow to initiate it.
Off topic, but still relating to the creature known as “wingnut”. Does it seem eerily suspicious to anyone else that the evangelical wingnuts are so silent lately?
Maybe they’re simply holding their collective breath preparatory to an orgasmic frenzy of jubilation when Roberts gets confirmed, but, regardless, whenever these wackos are silent for too long I worry they’re hatching some new diabolical plan to bring back witch-burning or something.
.
Only about a fifth — 22 percent — said they thought the president was doing a good job handling gasoline prices, which soared after Katrina damaged Gulf Coast oil facilities.
Nearly three-quarters — 71 percent — said they disapproved of his handling of the issue.
Average prices for regular unleaded spiked above $3 a gallon after the storm but have since retreated.
GALLUP POLL :: Leadership And Bush?
His strongest political asset – the perception that he is a strong and decisive leader – has eroded to the lowest rating of his presidency, 52%. That’s 8 points lower than in the previous poll, and 23 points lower than immediately after 9/11 – when his response reshaped Americans’ views of Bush.
A majority of Americans say the president doesn’t display good judgment in a crisis, doesn’t inspire confidence and doesn’t “care about the needs of people like you.”
The rebuilding efforts ahead will take place in the White House as well as along the Gulf Coast, says Bruce Buchanan, a political scientist at the University of Texas. “This goes right to the core of his strength and right to the core of the thing that has enabled him to stay plausible despite the political partisan divide in the country,” Buchanan says of Bush. “Now he’s in damage control big time.”
Neglecting Bureaucratic No opinion
domestic needs inefficiency
Blacks
2005 Sep 8-11 56 38 6
Non-Hisp. Whites
2005 Sep 8-11 37 51 12
MY DIARY —
▼ ▼ ▼
Have you checked out the “Bush Approval and Gasoline Prices” graph on Pollkatz? (A really interesting site.)
http://www.pollkatz.homestead.com/
Maybe pocketbook issues are the bottom line.
Officer X has just taken the first step in recovery.
“It’s all Bush’s fault” is not enough. He’s disillusioned now because of gas prices, but there’s still work to be done for Officer X to see that it’s Bushism–Bushist Republican governance–that has betrayed him and the rest of the working and middle class.
There’s no honest Dem or Republican that can promise this guy less pain at the pump. That’s the reality of peak oil, global competition and the consequences of our decades-long inattention to forging an alternative energy economy.
Bush will work frantically to manipulate short-term dips in fuel prices, but the long-term trend is up, up, up.
When he realizes that Republicans promise more of the same flim-flam and when Democrats offer a different vision of the future, he can be counted on as a convert.
It’s a testament to you Boran2 that he was able to admit to you that he is changing his views 🙂 Hooray.
However… I wish I could ask him… so it’s okay that thousdands of Iraqi children are dead? several napalmed (what does he think of using illegal weapons like that?) What does he think of a man who ran from his duty, both in Viet Nam and in New Orleans.
But with most of these Bush Lovers… it’s all about the oil.
I’m glad he’s starting to think… but sadly he’s concentrating on gas prices… sad.
But it is a wake up call though… (trying to feed my good wolf LOL) so HOORAY for wake up calls. I just hope he doesn’t hit the snooze button.
A bit off topic, but since gas prices have been mentioned in earlier posts (as reason for Repubs now disliking Bush), I thought I’d throw this out to see if anyone would comment.
A few days ago in our local paper several representatives of local oil companies were interviewed for comments on the recent spike in gas prices. One comment I’ve heard from ordinary citizens (and admit, one that I have made) is that it is not right for a gas station to raise prices on fuel that is currently in the storage tanks and was purchased at a lower price.
Seems there is a reason for this. A CEO from one of the companies stated that the price folks pay at the pump is the forecasted price to REPLACE the fuel in the tanks when the next purchase is made, NOT to pay for what’s currently stored. His company owns about 80 stores in several surrounding states, and he stated that price updates are relayed to the stores at least once per day.
I had never heard this before, nor, admittedly, never considered it. Thoughts/comments?
What you are saying matches what I observe in my local area. If the daily spot oil quotes go up (when do they not?), then I can make book that the prices will be up at the pump the next AM when I drive to the local station to pick up my morning papers.