Yuk.. My best friend's new "boyfriend" is a tea-party guy

[SoCalDem]

She brought him to dinner with us last night. She's had a perfectly horrendous run of luck in recent years:

death of her oldest son (drunk driver hit the car he was in)
divorce
foreclosure on her home
illness
and she's the caretaker of her older brother (early dementia)

so I am always happy for her when something good happens for her. We always include her on our dinner-out nights, to give her a little break from her routine.

Recently, she has been "unavailable", so I thought she might have met someone. She did. She was reluctant to introduce him to everyone until she knew if it was going somewhere.

I am happy for her, but it was all I could do to not "engage" him, as he went on and on about how teachers should all be fired, or that unions were the ruination of the country (he receives a union pension though :rofl:..).

My friend is one of those totally apolitical people we all hear about. I had to TAKE her to the registrar's office to get her registered to vote (she's 56), so to her, his political ideas are not important.

My husband & I were polite to him, but in the car on the way home, my husband said ... "whew..he's a pip, isn't he"?

[vi5]

1. Good for you for not engaging him...

..I'm the same way. As rabidly political as I am myself and with my wife or kids, I just try not to engage people, particularly those I've just met or who are important to people who are close to me. SOmeone like that you are not going to change or convince or anything of the sort so why hurt the friendship just to prove a point and get in an argument.

[pepperbear]

2. so you just met him for the first time and you already know his politics?

who on earth would make that a topic of conversation upon first meeting?

[lunatica]

3. Teabaggers are obsessed with politics

Haven't you noticed the never ending outrage lately? The Beckian talking points? The call for violence?

[Dappleganger]

5. It's quite amazing to me that perfect strangers in a hospital waiting room

will make rude comments about the president/Nancy Pelosi/other issues while automatically assuming that a stranger like myself would not just jump right in with those comments. This is yet another reason why I'm happy to have an ereader now so that I can purposefully ignore these rude people.

[SoCalDem]

4. He was talking about where he lives & how he's active in politics

and my husband's company often bids on school projects, which brought the conversation around to schools & how we "waste too much public money" on schools & how he was happy that his town kept voting down bond issues for a new school..

First meetings often revolve around "where do you work-what do you do" sort of conversations. It was not adversarial..just informative. We talked about many other things in the 2 hours we spent with them, and I will always be friendly with him, as long as she's with him:) her friendship means more than locking horns with someone I do not agree with:)

I was just a little stunned to actually "meet" one :)

[Zoeisright]

15. Teabaggers have big mouths. They just can't shut up about politics

and they display their ignorance with the first breath.

[uncommon]

16. Teabaggers, that's who.

[SargeUNN]

22. uh maybe you should reread

I think the answer to your question is clearly stated and maybe, just maybe, you were to anxious to post your negative response that you didn't bother to read all. I was taught in a listening segment of a communications course that such acts are called ambushing and most of the time just end dialogue.

[pepperbear]

23. I have no idea who you are, but it seems you're the only one who thought I was somehow

blaming the OP. perhaps you should re-read.

[guitar man]

6. Good thing you didn't engage him

He might have tried to stomp on your head! :wow:

[SoCalDem]

7. Life is too short to argue with people you don't even know

and he was not being argumentative when he badmouthed teachers & unions.. It was pretty easy to tell in a few minutes, that this was just his personality:) If my friend likes him, that's all that matters to me:)

He could NEVER be worse to her than her ex-husband was.

This guy is retired and has time to give her. She recently has some surgery & he took her to the hospital and took care of her post-op for 3 days.. even made her homemade soup:)

[guitar man]

13. Yeah I was just pulling your leg a little :)

Living in Oklahoma I am surrounded by teabags all the time. They are pretty wound up right now so I just let them go on with it most of the time. They are going to burn out soon enough on their own I hope. A lot of them are good folks at heart that have been taken in by this so called "movement" and I know many of them will see the light in the near future.

However, I did dump a bunch of so called "friends" from my FB account last night for cheering on the stomping of that poor woman. I won't associate with trash like that.

[beac]

20. If he does stick around, you might want to say a polite

"We don't seem to agree on politics, so maybe we should talk about other things" the next time he starts up.

You are being a good friend and very diplomatic by not engaging him, but I don't think you should have to listen to his drivel and suffer in silence. If you're not going to share your opinions w/ him, asking him to do the same is only reasonable.

Glad he seems to have some merits to balance out the teabaggery. :)

[bigdarryl]

8. then your best friend's boyfriend is a RACIST!!!! plan and simple

[Brewman_Jax]

9. Sorry to hear

it's sad to see a good friend in close company with a teabagger. :(

[SoCalDem]

10. She's not all that political, and we'll accept him as HER guy

We'll just agree to NOT talk politics:)

[Brewman_Jax]

11. Hopefully, he'll agree to the same terms

[oswaldactedalone]

14. I'd have to drop her as a friend

She clearly is showing bad judgement here. She'll begin to complain about what a dickhead he is and burden you with her worries. Drop her now!!!

[bullwinkle428]

12. "unions were the ruination of the country (he receives a union pension though)"...

classic tea-bagger hypocrisy!

[Le Taz Hot]

17. Thread hijack

. . . I'm totally stealing your sampler idea. :P :hi:

[Javaman]

18. Don't be the least bit surprised if your non-political friend suddenly turns to the dark side.

love will do some truly strange things to people.

[Enrique]

19. get her some kind of helmet

Teabaggers like to stomp on women's heads.

[Leftist Agitator]

21. "My husband & I were polite to him"

That was your first mistake.

[RagAss]

24. Tell the ASSHOLE - "You have one vote like me, so get a life !"