It's hard to hold my tongue when I'm working with Trumper families. I came close to losing it.

[phylny]

I work in a very red part of Virginia, and this one family has three "Don't Tread on Me" license plates, a wooden bear holding an automatic weapon on the deck, and they watch Fox News, although they turn it off when I'm there.

Today, we were talking about speaking Spanish because one of my iPad games for kids was set to Spanish (I speak okay, but would love to speak fluently) and I talked about how when my relatives came from Italy, the women in the first generation didn't speak English, but the men did for the most part because they were out in the work force. My great grandmother's English to me consisted of, "Such a big-ga girl."

In the conversation, which was very nice and civil, I talked about how the Hispanic children I see are going to be so lucky to be bilingual, and they agreed that most countries excel in teaching languages where we don't. They started talking about "illegal immigration" and I said that some of the families that I work with had parents were brought them here from Mexico when they were children. I'll spare you most of that conversation, and the fact that I was very cautious not to be too abrasive, because I'm a bleeding-heart liberal.

The step-father barged into the conversation and said, "YOU'D rather put AMERICAN CITIZENS in jail for hiring illegals, but think dreamers should stay?"

"Yup, I would, because the dreamers have no life in Mexico and they came here through no fault of their own."

He started talking about "how terrible LIBERAL California is doing" because of "illegals" (he hated Prime Minister Trudeau, too, for good measure) and I talked about how successful Jerry Brown has been in California.

"Well, OBVIOUSLY you are listening to the FAKE NEWS."

I shut it down.

"You mentioning 'fake news' just stopped this conversation." I ignored him and finished writing my note. The mom and grandma of the kid I see were quiet. I think they knew I was insulted.

Fox News loving, gun nut, birther, Trumpeters. No, I won't reach across the aisle, I won't give them the benefit of the doubt.

Nope.

[Kimchijeon]

1. Oh I don't blame you... It has got to be excruciating

So hard to maintain civility with some people, when they are just so hardcore nasty. Not just the stupidity or being uninformed... but just the nastiness. Sigh.

[Squinch]

2. Are you working with the families in any kind of public service capacity?

You mentioned writing your note which made me think of my old job working with families in their homes on a state funded program for kids.

[phylny]

6. Yes. Early Intervention.

It doesn't apply to this family, but I cannot tell you HOW MANY of the families here have WIC, SNAP, Medicaid, SS disability, agricultural/farm support, and use local charities. The stupid. It's just incomprehensible.

Frankly, I'm not going to be hurt by most of these cuts and changes. We are so fortunate to be at the end of our careers, and we are financially set - I know we're so freaking fortunate. I am though, hurt and worried for my fellow citizens.

The families that I live near? Good luck.

[Squinch]

14. EI was what I was doing. Here in NY it's been cut to smithereens. Can't imagine it won't be

reduced everywhere after this budget. Interested to know how these folks feel as the shit comes down.

I, too, was able to drop my EI business and stay afloat on my second job. So we are the fortunate few.

[phylny]

16. I provided EI services in NY in the early 2000s (I'm a speech-language pathologist).

Here in VA, I know they're going to ax it. Medicaid is frankly supporting the entire system.

Either they put the money into these kids early, or they put more money into them later. The problems aren't going away.

[Squinch]

24. The aughts was kind of a golden age in NY. About 2010 they cut reimbursement rates 20% and started

messing with mandates, like giving 1 1/2 year olds hour long sessions. Then the next year they cut the rates 20% again and quadrupled the paperwork. THEN they said that each therapist had to work on each of the goals of each other discipline. I worked with very, very disabled kids, so that meant I would have to show proof of working on feeding goals. As a PT I know nothing about feeding, other than to understand that I could kill a kid working on feeding without knowing what I was doing. I got out around then as did tons of other providers, effectively gutting the program.

And you're right about money now or money later. I saw a "study of the studies" that looked at the research. The only disagreement was how much EI saved the taxpayer. The lowest estimate was that it saved taxpayers 7 times its cost. The high estimate was that it saved 21 times its cost over the lifetime of the recipient. So, hey, let's do away with it!

[Phentex]

3. It's hard to do...

So far the two open Trump supporters at work haven't said much of anything since the election. But I am ready when they do.

[renate]

4. I like your method of ending the conversation

It's pointless, yet so tempting, to try to convince them that they're the ones watching fake news.

Your solution is simple and elegant. Well done!

[smirkymonkey]

5. It's impossible to get through to people like that and it's so frustrating.

Facts don't matter to them. If it doesn't fit their narrative it doesn't get through.

[Angry Dragon]

7. I find if I just take their Make America Great Again hat they lose their Trump tinfoil

and then begin to start thinking a little

[CountAllVotes]

8. I did lose it

What I thought to be a very close friend voted for it and I know it.

I became angry listening to the bash the Mexican crap sprinkled with *snorts* and lost it, yep, lost it.

I found myself screaming, "That is all the pukes can to is bitch about some immigrant somewhere! They claim that Obama was not born in America, that is how they waste their time, the idiots! And now they have this."

Haven't heard a word since. No loss in retrospect. I'm glad to get away from this garbage!

Stupid ass people among us no matter what race nor economic status.

Sick lot indeed!

[Warpy]

9. I would have asked him when he'd visited California

because most of the undoocumented workers are picked up near the border and shipped to big cities all over the country to work in slaughterhouses, the garment trade, and other sweatshop industries, as well as being shunted around to pick the food on his table.

Then I'd tell him Republicans were going to get just what they voted for, and that prices on everything were going to go WAY UP as companies had to hire Americans to do all the tough jobs and Americans are going to want a living paycheck.

And if that didn't cause him to stroke out, I'd tell him the conversation was over because my Mama always told me it was impolite to talk about politics, sex and religion with relative strangers. Bless his heart.

Wingnuts only rant at me once.

[phylny]

17. I mentioned some of this.

That immigrants are doing jobs most U.S. citizens cannot or will not do. He knew it, you could see he did. I said there are not going to be people to do these jobs.

I lost one other client back in November because I was talking about my retirement and was hoping Medicare and SS would be there for us, since I've been paying into it since I was 15.

They called the service coordinator and said they no longer wanted me to come because I spent "the whole session" trashing Trump.

I only wish I'd done that. I didn't. Wish I had.

[Thomas Hurt]

10. Fake News

to a conservative does not mean it is false........it means that anything that offends them or they don't agree with or makes them look bad if fake news.....whether it is true or not.

So in short, a lame ass attempt to censor you by claiming you are lying.

[Thrill]

11. They'll change their tone when they see the effect of these cuts on their families

They'll be in denial for a while though

[LuckyLib]

23. Yep. When elderly parents move in because

thecost of elder care is off the charts.

[tirebiter]

12. S'ok, we're used to it

I had a Don't Californicate Oregon bumpersticker when I lived there. We're expensive because we're worth it.

[Vinca]

13. Congratulations on your patience.

I go out of my way to avoid them because it would get very nasty very fast. The one acquaintance I have who voted for Trump found out the hard way what I thought of that.

[KingCharlemagne]

15. Feel sorry for the kids of these yo-yos. Just like Dreamers had

little or no say in their destiny, so too with the children of the Deplorables. It's not their fault.

[maxsolomon]

18. I'd wager that Step-dad has never been in CA.

And can't name a single thing they're "doing terrilble" on. He's never been to Europe, Mexico, or even Canada.

They know not of which they speak.

[Cosmocat]

19. This is spot on

We are where we are today because this country relentlessly indulges the fantasy world, and hyper sensitivities, of these people.

We are well past the point where we need to draw a line.

[mdbl]

20. I too work with a bunch of right wing loonies

I have kept quiet since the election. Recently, one of them brought up the fact I wasn't talking politics, to which I replied: "I am too mortified to even talk about it - and just when I think I can come up for air, another dumbass tweet comes from the dork you put in the white house"

[DFW]

21. I get the same thing sometimes, in reverse

I live in the western part of Germany. My wife is German, we have always spoken German with each other. My work usually takes me to France, the Netherlands and Belgium once a week. I also speak French, Dutch, Italian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Catalan (coming to you live and in color from Barcelona tonight--I lived here for a while as a teenager). It may seem like a lot, but when you travel for work as much as I do, it becomes second nature before long. But all that is to stress that I have no problem communicating with the locals--I do not misunderstand what they tell me.

I see posts, sometimes even on DU, glorifying the single-payer system in Germany (total fabrication--we have no such thing, never have). For a while, it was fashionable to praise the "socialist paradise" of France, sometimes with cartoons of smiling families on a balcony with smiling birds flying around. The truth is, the French are so fed up with their socialist president Hollande that he didn't even bother to try to run for re-election (a 17% approval rating will do that to ya, I guess). Some people just want things to be so, and can't handle it when they're wrong. It's usually the ones who have no clue that are the most fanatic, too--like the guy who just KNEW how horrible California was. I've been to Romania a few times, a guest of the government there. I still get people who have never been there telling me they know better than I do what it's like.

A comfortable lie is preferable to many people to an inconvenient truth.

[calimary]

22. Your last two lines.

"Fox News loving, gun nut, birther, Trumpeters. No, I won't reach across the aisle, I won't give them the benefit of the doubt.

Nope."

I'm right there with you, phylny. Right there with you. I'm tired of being told that I must understand these people and sympathize and be nice to 'em. When they voted to ruin this country for me and for everybody else here - AS WELL AS FOR THEMSELVES????????

I keep thinking about how Hillary Clinton was ripped up for the word "Deplorables." Well, there they are. In all their "glory."

Making America GRATE Again.

[Ilsa]

25. They don't understand that DaVoss' programs will

Strip money from the same public schools that their little one needing extra help will be attending. The private schools don't want kids with special needs.
Hang in there. The little one needs your help.

[DemocratSinceBirth]

26. California is awesome.

[lunasun]

27. Just another example of why not to waste your time IMO

[CountAllVotes]

28. Exactly

A waste of time and energy indeed!

[Blue_true]

29. We are a party that cares. The kids need the help. Parents are lost.

In my family, I have learned to put my family hopes in the younger members of our family.

[Quayblue]

30. K&R

We shouldn't be doing any reaching.

They should be reaching out to apologize for voting for this monster and working to fix all the shit that has been, and will be broken in the near future.

I highly doubt any of this will happen so I'm definitely not holding my breath.

[Cha]

31. Brainwashed beyond redemption.. that would be so

hard to be right in their homes listening to the result of years of hating on reality.