In defense of the sanctimonious women's studies set || First feminist blog on the internet

Why Work and Politics Don’t Mix

Lauren

SCENE: I am helping a client while a TV silently plays the local news in the background. Obama is slated to appear in Indianapolis today and the Indy newscasters are mouthing the pros and cons of an Obama presidency.

CLIENT: Who do you want to win this thing? Obama or McCain?

ME: (lying for the sake of workplace politeness) Oh, I don’t really pay attention to those things.

CLIENT: Oh, sure you do. You’re young, I’ll bet you’re going to vote for Obama.

ME: (avoiding)

CLIENT: C’mon.

ME: Well, actually I voted for Obama last week at the courthouse. (tries to change the subject) It took me longer to find a parking spot than to actually vote.

CLIENT: You know what? (lowers voice) I heard that Obama was born in Kenya. He’s not even an American citizen.

ME: Hm, well I’m pretty sure Obama was born in Hawaii. And actually McCain wasn’t born in the U.S., he was born in Panama.

CLIENT: No way, no way. Plus, I hear Obama is a socialist. And a Muslim. He’s the one that voted for all that bank bailout stuff.

ME: Well, um, kind of but not really. McCain voted for it, and Bush was the one that was really pushing it. Along with a lot of other people. Plus, Obama is a pretty dedicated Christian from what I hear.

CLIENT: Well, whatever. You know who you really shouldn’t vote for?

ME: (cringes) Who?

CLIENT: [Seated Indiana governor, privatization junkie, and GWB lackey] Mitch Daniels. If you want a job in the next five years, you’ll vote that asshole out.

ME: Consider it done. *

Surely I’m not the only one to have inane conversations about politics at work with customers or fellow employees that make you want to put your head through your desk. Share yours in the comments.

_________
* Daniels is competing for the governorship against Jill Long Thompson. Thompson has a good chance of winning the seat and would be the first female Indiana governor. She is a proponent of bringing more manufacturing jobs back into the state in addition to pushing vocational education, both of which are very important to the state’s economy.

62 thoughts on Why Work and Politics Don’t Mix

  1. Amen, sister. I teach Women’s Studies here in Indiana and I hear these same conversations every day. It’s not so bad in the Women’s Studies office, but in the classroom, it is really difficult to keep on point. Every topic we have discussed relates to the presidential campaign and it is always brought up. I don’t see it ending, even after election day. I am however, hopefully, looking forward to our 1st female governor.

  2. I can’t even talk to my father. He gets all his info from Faux Newz and right-wing emails from friends. Same thing. Hoosiers can be so dumb sometimes!

    And I sure hope we can get rid of (NOT) My Man Mitch. He’s a tool….

  3. Word, both of you. Mostly I’m appalled at how the people I talk to have such a low standard of information, like, this dude at work who listens to the radio sez… For someone who isn’t much of a wonk, it makes me feel all wonk.

  4. Agreed. The chalkings all over campus saying “My Man Mitch” (right next to the 9/11 truth ones) sort of make me ill, but at least my father and I have called a moratorium on all election talk. I don’t want to know what Sean Hannity has to say.

  5. Midori, locally I think part of it is that Daniels’ daughter is (or was) enrolled at Purdue. I remember a lot of students wearing t-shirts in support of Daniels during the last election because she was a relatively public figure and it was a gross sort of name-dropping in the Greek crowd at the time.

  8. I had nearly the same conversation in Wynne, Arkansas.

    All these people get their information the same place. And politely debunking it… Just never seems to work, really.

  9. Like I’ve been consistently saying, there’s one-quarter to one-third of the populace (what’s Bush’s approval rating, again?) that should be ignored in their stupid entirety.

  10. “Daniels’ daughter”

    I attended school with her during my adolescent years; “my daddy’s really important and influential because he works at the White House and is sooo politically connected, and I’m sooo getting into an Ivy-League school, and I gotz loadz of moneyz, tee-hee.” Shut-up, snobbish prat.

  11. The Senior VP of Sales at my office told me the following things over the past three days:

    “I vote based on who will make me pay the least in taxes, and nothing else.”
    “If my daughter [who is 10] gets knocked up, I’ll make her have that baby and I’ll raise it.”
    “That Obama is a smooth talker for a n–.”

    I shit you not.

  12. Heh, nope. I work at a university library in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any time a political conversation comes up, it’s raving liberals agreeing rabidly with each other.

  13. Patient: So who are you voting for?

    Me: Oh, I don’t think we should have that discussion.

    Patient: No, I want to know. I’m curious.

    Me: I really think we should move on to something else.

    Patient: Oh, come on, you know it won’t ruin our relationship.

    Me: Seriously, I’m not going to have this conversation.

    Patient: Well, you know Obama changed his name so he’d sound more Muslim.

    Me: No, he didn’t.

    Patient’s husband: And my taxes will go up if Obama’s elected.

    Me: I doubt that, unless you make a lot more money than I do. Last week’s New York Times had a good review of Obama’s economic plan.

    Patient’s husband: Oh, I don’t believe anything you read in the Times.

  14. I just started a new job about a month ago. About the second day there, I was doing some training with one of my coworkers and inevitably she asked if I knew who I was voting for. I figured I’d better just get it out there, and said I’m voting for Obama.

    Surprisingly enough (I’m in Nebraska, albeit the somewhat-bluer, more urban eastern corner), she vehemently agreed with me, told me most of the people on our team that she’d talked to were also voting Obama, and we ended up discussing politics, both local and national, in a very friendly manner.

    That’s when I knew this job was a keeper.

  15. I tended to avoid political discussions at work to forestall the possibility of having my political views held against me, especially in the more corporate areas of financial services and law. This was reinforced when I witnessed two co-workers at a law firm getting fired for having a heated political discussion which attracted the negative attention of a partner and some attorneys working on another case nearby.

    Heh, nope. I work at a university library in the San Francisco Bay Area. Any time a political conversation comes up, it’s raving liberals agreeing rabidly with each other.

    How “liberal” were they? Were they democratic party “liberal” or further to the left?

    Just asking as if they were further to the left enough to accept Marxism/Maoism, they’d sound like the vast majority of my undergrad campus in a certain small rural Northern Ohio town.

  16. About six years ago, I was working in the corporate offices of a major U.S. oil company. A totally Bush-loving, Limbaugh-admiring environment.

    And you have no idea how many billions of times I had to hear about how Hillary Clinton murdered Vince Foster, or how global climate change was all a hoax perpetrated by liberal scientists and environ-whackos.

    I really should get a freaking medal for keeping my mouth shut in that nest of wingnuts.

  17. Ugh yeah, I live in Oklahoma, so all summer at my job I was constantly told that “I don’t know the real Obama” or “What he’s really about”

    Because watching Fox News obviously guarantees that you have more knowledge about a political figure than the people who intend on voting for him.

  18. Actually, I don’t mind stomaching the Vince Foster was murdered by Hillary stories at that oil company.

    The day I knew I was neck deep in a morally corrupt environment, was during a meeting with company management, when the Iraq war was looming. They were actually totally psyched for war because 1) it would drive oil prices up, and 2) it would potentially open up Iraq’s reserves to exploitation by western oil companies.

    I’m talking, they were literally giving each other high fives.

  19. Look, I’m pretty far to the left. Obama had me at hello, and I already ditched Mitch. I voted yesterday.

    But I have a really serious question:

    Why do we think that democracy is a viable model of government if we daily encounter people who do not base their votes on facts, even though those facts are quite available?

    Do we somehow believe we can change people’s relationships to knowledge and thus make democracy work (through better education, more responsible media, something I haven’t thought of)?

    Do we understand ourselves as immune from this resistance to facts and thus more suited for democracy than other people?

    I ask these questions quite seriously. They are not intended to be critiques of anyone’s position or comments. They are questions that have been troubling me throughout the election as I (mostly) lurk at both conservative and liberal blogs where the comments consist almost entirely of affirming one’s own side while critiquing (or just out and out slamming) the other side.

    I wonder quite often — do I really believe in democracy any more? Do I really think we can fix it enough to make it work? And is my assumption that somehow I’m part of the “we” who should fix it actually just a smug way of looking down on people who don’t have the kind of education I have?

  20. I work for a health-related nonprofit doing telefundraising. The other night I called a woman who’d previously given $100 through some fundraising walk she’d done a few years back, and asked if we could send out a pledge letter for the same amount (so clearly this had NOTHING to do with politics in the slightest).

    Her response?

    “No, because if Barack Obama wins, we’re all dead. Goodbye.”

    *SLAM of phone in my ear*

    In related news, I’ve been drinking a lot lately -_-

  21. It’s this kind of thing that always comes to mind when people suggest making voting mandatory as a way of combatting political apathy.

  22. Yay for ditching Mitch!

    I went for a dental cleaning last week and the hygienist gave me an involved lecture on how Obama would raise her taxes (apparently taxes above $250k go up, $100-$250k go down, under $50k go down, but $50k-$100k go way up. Huh?) Of course she did this while her hands were both stuffed in my mouth. I resisted the urge to bite.

  24. In line to vote the other day, I had a miserable experience. The person next to me was spouting all sorts of racist nonsense.

    The conversation went something like this:

    She: Who are you voting for?

    Me: no answer, eyebrow raised. I know I’m in a red state.

    She: insert racist nonsense here, aspersions on Obama’s religion, beliefs, etc., and a final comment about blacks and Mexicans.

    Me, bristling, searching for words to smite this awful person: you may be mistaken.

    She, noticing my dark skin, dark hair, dark eyes, which have earned me voting challenges in the past for the same assumption: “Oh God, you’re Mexican aren’t you?”

    Me, finally finding where I put my dignity: No, I’m not. I’m appalled, offended, sickened, and as far as you’re concerned, I’m the person who is canceling out your vote.

    It felt goooooood.

  25. prefer not to – democracy has always been limited and problematic. It doesn’t solve the problem of when majorities are simply wrong

    think of immediately post-civil-war Southern USA (or pre, for that matter). even without the (admittedly massive) disenfranchisement of black people, the state legislature would have been controlled by white racists, because they were the majority.

    but you are right that it’s a conundrum. Democratic representation may be good in lots of ways, but it doesn’t guarantee a good outcome. I think it would guarantee a better outcome in the current election (if people are not kept from voting), but in itself it is not a guarantee that the best person wins, or best idea wins. Just the most popular.

  26. I recently had a conversation with someone who works for my employer. It basically consisted of him wanting to know why the Army needed to comply with the law of war, what was wrong with turning the Middle East into a giant piece of glass, and how it was only fair that we killed in vengeance for 9/11.

    The fact that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 did not dissuade him.

  28. exholt, not quite that liberal. I go to Stanford, not Berkeley. 😉

    Gotcha!

    Interestingly enough, there was a classmate who transferred to my undergrad campus from Berkeley because he said the student body was becoming “too conservative” and pre-professional for his taste.

    Out of curiosity, would someone who is a bona fide Marxist/Marxist-Leninist be welcomed at Stanford?

    Have a Marxist undergrad classmate and friend who is currently looking to apply to grad school there in poli-sci/sociology.

  29. exholt, yeah, I’ve definitely got a few Marxist-type friends. It’s actually a pretty politically active campus, almost always in a liberal way (despite our unfortunate conservative think tank, the Hoover Institution). The majority of the students here are just garden-variety Democrats, but it is fairly easy to find the crazy pinko feminist queers (or whatever we’re called).

    The story about your classmate transferring is hilarious. I guess if Berkeley is too conservative for you, Oberlin is the only place left!

  30. I have literally lost the ability to have rational discussions with people in this election because I can’t pretend to be nice to the people that say dumb shit that just ISN’T TRUE (ie, Obama is a Muslim, he’s friends with terrorists, he’s going to raise your taxes (coming from middle class people), he’s “an A-rab,” and all the other bullshit) anymore. I also can’t listen to McCain spew his lies anymore. So instead of alienating people from Obama by sounding like an insane person when I burst out with something like “HOW CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT HORSESHIT?” I just quietly mutter to myself.

  31. Don’t forget, there’s a conspiracy involving Obama, his cousin the Prime Minister of Kenya, Condoleezza Rice, the goddess-worshiping Muslims of “Obama’s home village in Kenya”, and “Oprah’s 200 million followers”. They’re doing “witchcraft curses” against John McCain “to make him look confused and like an idiot” so that Obama will win: this is “SATAN’S PLAN FOR AMERICA”. So all good RealTrueChristians must practice “spiritual warfare”, must “PRAY AND COVER MCCAIN AND PALIN WITH THE BLOOD OF CHRIST” (sounds rather sticky to me) to protect McCain from these curses.

    (Via Pharyngula.)

  32. One of my roommates is a 50-something former cop. His mother was raped on a city bus by some black guys when he was a kid. So… he has issues. He claims he’s not a racist… he just “hates everybody.” Last week we spent a good 5 hours talking about riots, Rodney King, and Reginald Denney. It took about 3 hours to disabuse him of the notion that the LA riots were connected to OJ Simpson. I did learn a lot about keeping a mf on topic, since he would try to jump every time I proved he was factually wrong.

    He agrees that GWB is an asshole, and Sarah Palin is woefully stupid. But he just can’t let go of hating Obama. Today it was that “Obama is so secretive, if you thought Dick Cheney was bad, you haven’t seen anything yet.” It’s really weird though, because we’re pretty sure he’s a closeted homosexual, and he’s generally progressive on class issues. His pop. 500 home town in Vermont had a 60% unemployment rate. But at the same time he can’t refer to Sarah Palin’s daughter without prefixing it with “slut”, and he thinks Feminists are “just in it for their side”. His morals are totally internally inconsistent. He dislikes Republicans intensely, but he just can’t get over voting for a black guy. He’s also 100% convinced that no matter what people say, racism will win when they’re behind the voting curtain.

    So, gay white guy who hates republicans, non-whites, and women. Maybe he does just hate everybody.

  33. I thankfully work in a liberal field in Indiana (mental health) so there are plenty of Obama fans and many campaign workers in my office. However, we have one very conservative guy and he happens to work in my department. I have been treated to at least three of his rants which involve him throwing anything rush limbaugh has ever said in my face. He worked as an EMT in the inner city of chicago so he has decided that gives him knowledge about “those people” and therefore Obama. He also likes to talk about the “jar of dead babies” at abortion clinics.

  34. Cough, not American here. And probably irrelevant as y’all are wrapped up in election season. But I do have a few.

    Basically, political ignorance is the same outside the U.S. of A, in case you’re wondering. People refuse to listen to facts or reason, and prefer knee-jerk reactions that pander to their classist or racist fears.

    Case in point: In recent years, there was a referendum here in Ireland about citizenship. Before, if you were born in Ireland, you were Irish. Now, at least one of your parents has to be Irish. The reason was because there was a “flood” of immigrants who were allegedly clogging up all social services. One argument was that the health service was in crisis (a fact) because of so many immigrants, particularly immigrant women having children (a fiction).

    Essentially, the percentage that year of births from foreign women in Irish hospitals was something along the lines of 5%. Which means the health service was already in crisis anyway. The referendum passed of course despite its overtly racist nature.

    A few weeks back, I am talking to one of the engineers from work. Turns out he voted yes on the referendum. He said it was because his sister-in-law was a nurse and she said her wards were flooded with immigrants and that her hospital had lots of births so the government’s statements must have been true. I told him what the actual statistics were. He said “well, all I know is this woman told me bla bla bla”.

    People don’t want facts. That is a fact.

  36. I actually hate the fact that my hearing is so good. One of my neo-con team members has a penchant for having (what they think are) hushed conversations with a couple coworkers about pretty much every Obama Smear any of us have ever heard of. Some of this stuff – I swear I don’t think they have any direct contact with newspapers or television or even the Free Republic and Drudge – since even those sources have debunked some of these right out of the gate.

    Hushed conversations are like acoustic train-wrecks to me. Add to it the fact that what their talking about is an intellectual train-wreck. More than once, I’ve had to cram my earbuds into my head and retreat into my iPod just to keep my blood pressure down.

  37. OT: Ever write something, edit it, and then post it before you realize that part of what you edited changed the context enough that “their” needed to be changed to “they’re”. Yeah… that just happened to me…

  38. Hello from Indy! Yeah – Mitch has to go! Even with a ton more money then Jill Long Thompson – she is running neck-in-neck with him. Could Indiana finally go Blue???

    Funny thing. Mitch’s Lt Gov. Becky Skillman is the equivalent of Sarah palin. Her claim to fame is that she was elected auditor of some po-dunk southern Indiana town when she was 25. She “attended” Indiana University – no degree. Our last Lt. Gov. (Dem) Kathy Davis had a degree from both Harvard and MIT.

    Sadly, so many hoosiers thrive on stupidity and hatred. Just got a McCain flyer in the mail yesterday (while I was at the Obama rally) that called Obama a “domestic terrorist.” All I could think was that all of my neighbors in suburban republican hell – would be eating that up!

  39. Somehow I was added onto someone’s email chain at work about some Obama smears… I was very quickly taken off that chain again when I replied to everyone and said you should base your vote off of facts and the actual issues and not some forwarded email, then went on to provide links to prove or disprove every statement they had in the email.
    Other than that (and one guy who swore up and down that Obama was sworn in on the Koran until I sent him 20 links explaining that it wasn’t him, that it was another politician, BO is a christian, and IT DOESN’T MATTER ANYWAY) my office is suprisingly liberal for being in a conservative city and we all tend to avoid political conversations most of the time.

  40. Ugh, the worse though was when the topic somehow turned to politics the 1st time I met my boyfriend’s parents. Talk about inappropriate conversation topics… especially considering his dad and I are definitely on opposite sides of the political spectrum. Luckily though that conversation remained amazingly civil and brief.

  41. Here in California, I walked into the Post Office the other day wearing my No on Proposition 8 button, and the gentleman who sold me my stamps asked me about it and listened intently to my explanation of why marriage equality was the only way to go.

    Then the clerk next to him leaned over and informed both of us (in horrified tones) that if Prop. 8 didn’t pass, the Post Office restrooms would have to be torn down and combined into one big unisex restroom by the government, because men and women would now be identical and indistinguishable under the law.

    Because yeah, that’s exactly what’s at stake, and the government has tons of extra money to rebuild restrooms, and OBVIOUSLY sharing a bathroom with GIRLS would be the worst thing that had ever happened in a Post Office. Jesus.

  42. FundamentallyFlawed: Unfortunately the bathroom argument works. I’m not sure why since pretty much everyone has unisex bathrooms at home. It was such a significant part of the anti-ERA campaign and helped the amendment get defeated in a number of states.

    I live in Kentucky, but it’s largely considered the most progressive place in the state (which shocks the hell out of me, but that’s another story). I work remotely, so I can avoid political conversations. We’re Unitarians, and our congregation is proudly liberal. Most of hubby’s co-workers are liberal, and the ones who aren’t keep their mouths shut about it. In general, besides visiting my in-laws, we’ve had a pleasant election season.

  43. my coworkers know better than to talk politics with me 😉 but my aggravating conversation happened yesterday at the dogpark:

    My dog has an Obama collar…

    Fellow Dog Owner: You’re not voting for Obama, are you?!
    Me: I am, yes.
    Fellow Dog Owner: Only the Saudi Arabians are voting for him!
    Me: huh?!

    (i had NO clue how to even BEGIN to dissect that one…) 🙂

  45. The story about your classmate transferring is hilarious. I guess if Berkeley is too conservative for you, Oberlin is the only place left!

    He could have also transferred to Antioch College(Not the university) as their student body is arguably just as radical and in some cases, more radical than ours politically.

    Unfortunately, because of various issues, Antioch has recently closed down your statement would be very apt if he was applying/transferring today.

    Speaking of radical-left progressive students, several undergrad classmates who attended NYU, Columbia, and Harvard for grad school are quite amused at their being constantly labeled dens of “radical-left liberalism” by conservative students and pundits. Nearly every time I’ve met them, they’ve complained the majority of the student body are either too damned conservative/right-wing or too damned politically apathetic.

  46. i met jill long thompson at an EMILY’s List conference this past summer, and i was struck by how friendly and approachable she was. not that it would necessarily make her a good governor, of course, but it’s worth noting.

  47. Not really work, but my mom and I were having a yard sale last weekend when we were approached by a man with pamphlets from the Republican party (my mom is a Republican and believes every negative thing she hears about Obama, including that he’s the antichrist). We mostly talked about Proposition 8, with him comparing gay marriage to the Holocaust (!) and me staring blankly, trying to figure out how to force reason into this man’s narrow brain. The funniest part was that his mannerisms and voice sounded very stereotypically gay. His closeted nature was confirmed when he said that if gay marriage is allowed to be taught in schools, then kids won’t be afraid to be gay anymore! I wanted so badly to tell him, “Fear may be the thing keeping you from acting on your gay impulses, sir, but I’m just straight, and no amount of liberal education can change my sexual orientation, just as no amount of fear-mongering and persecution can change yours, so stop wasting both of our days and just come out and stop hating yourself, already.” But instead I just told him to have a nice day.

    He also said that if evolution were true, there would be ape-men walking around today. I just told him, “Um, I don’t think that’s how that works…” and he moved on to a different topic.

    This is what infuriates me the most about the Republican Party. They make no bones about the fact that if you’re not a Christian, you’re not wanted in the club. I consider myself a Christian, but it sickens me to see my religion (or any religion) used to control one of the two dominant parties in a nation that is supposed to be religiously free.

  48. Co-worker: Are there abortions where the baby is born and then the doctor has to go out back and kill it?

    Me: That…is not an abortion.

    Co-worker: But that’s partial birth abortion.

    Me: Um…no.

    Co-worker: My friend says she swears that happens, and that’s what Obama’s FOR.

    Me: Obama generally seems to feel that should a woman encounter problems during a pregnancy, she should have options. Banning something like partial birth or late term abortion would eliminate the option to have a procedure to end a pregnancy if, say, the fetus was so deformed or ill that it would never live.

    Co-worker: I’m not really into politics. It’s boring.

    Me: (thinking) It’s boring until your rights are taken away, idiot.

  49. Here in Canadia-land, after the Conservatives “won” (for certain definitions of won) our most recent election, someone came down to our front desk and went on about how happy she was that the Conservatives won because it meant she got a payraise.

    Sadly, because I am paid to be polite, I couldn’t say “Oh gosh, how nice – I’ll just keep working two full time jobs just to keep my head above water, but it’s great that you get another pay raise! Go you!”

    I stopped entirely talking about politics the last place I worked after two incidents. One was an older member of staff, the day after Senator Clinton resigned, informing everyone very loudly that now “that bitch” was going to run as an independent and ruin everything (he heard it on the radio). The second was being informed that it was too “political” to expect my coworkers to back me in demanding an emergency escape plan for people with disabilities from the 12th floor of a high rise.

  50. My boss gets all his talking points from right-wing radio shows. He’s declared a moratorium on political talk until after the election, because he’s afraid he’ll piss me off so badly I’ll stop working for him. But this moratorium was declared only after he announced that Michelle Obama was an angry black woman who had a chip on her shoulder.

  51. Actually, just about two weeks ago, I found out my office-mate is an undecided voter. It’s made for some interesting conversations.

    Me: Why are you undecided?

    Her: I don’t know, I think they’re both just lying about everything

    Me: Oh. Well maybe you should just vote for the person who represents your beliefs more closely than the other. What do you believe in?

    Her: I don’t know.

    Me: (sad and confused) Oh. Well repro rights, health care, environment, economics? Any of those?

    Her: Well I have health care, so I don’t really care about that.

    Me: (sadder) Oh. Ok. Well maybe you should do some research or something.

    Honestly, I thought the truly undecided were mythical, like pots of gold at the end of rainbows. I guess I was wrong.

  53. I think the worst bit of must-keep-my-job, smile-and-move-on bullshit I’ve ever had to do was when I was 16 and working at the zoo, running birthday parties for kids. I was cleaning up after the party for a little six-year-old girl while her family was gathering up and leaving. Her grandmother hung around, telling me how abortion was “murder, murder, murder.” This was less than a week after my own abortion, and I had to work very, very hard to restrain myself from asking her whether she thought I should get the death penalty or just life in prison. In the end, I just smiled in a vague way and got the hell outta there.

  54. When I don’t want to talk about politics with someone, I normally try to make it clear that I pay a lot of attention to such things, and that if they really want to talk about it, they better be serious wonks, or I’m going to mop the floor with them. It’s like my gaming philosophy. I don’t let anyone win. Ever.

    If it’s inappropriate to have that conversation in the first place, I just say so.

  55. “But this moratorium was declared only after he announced that Michelle Obama was an angry black woman who had a chip on her shoulder.”

    Whenever someone tells me that, I just say, “Well, duh. Why the hell shouldn’t she be angry?”

    Of course, they always come back with, “Well, they are equal to us now in every way!” And I wonder what cave they have been living in.

  56. I have a *good* story at least; a young African American girl works in my (conservative) department. She tentatively asked me who I was voting for…and that she was undecided because “all politicians lie.” I didn’t argue with that, just told her I thought Obama’s plans were better, but not perfect. And then emailed her a link from a nonpartisan site that compared the two candidates on everything. She came back yesterday and told me she was voting Obama.

    On the other hand, there’s my coworkers who still believe Republicans=low taxes and my other coworkers whose preachers have made it pretty clear who they think Jesus wants them to vote for, and it ain’t Obama. And then one otherwise nice woman who likes to make remarks about “those people” and so I just don’t even bother.

  57. “Honestly, I thought the truly undecided were mythical, like pots of gold at the end of rainbows. I guess I was wrong.”

    more like pots of shit. I HATE it when ignorant people complain about how BORING politics are. Well, then please, for the love of GOD, don’t vote!!!

  58. Last weekend, our managing partner loaned out the office to the Obama campaign so that they could send information about the rally going on outside to headquarters.

    She’s also just let us know that the office will be closed on election day, to encourage everyone to vote, do election protection, etc.

    And the partners have given three of us associates the go-ahead to miss work the day before the election so that we can go to Reno and do legal work there at the polling sites.

    I think this is what people mean when they talk about living in a bubble …

  59. I have never been so thankful for my liberal academic bubble, albeit in a generally conservative-leaning state. On the other hands, I have seen VERY few McCain stickers this year and a lot of Obama ones (which was very much not the case in 2004). And that makes me happy.

    I really wish people too stupid or apathetic to actually look up the readily-obtainable facts would do the rest of us the favor of not voting. On the other hand, it must be sad to believe every conspiracy theory that comes along.

  60. I live in the Capitol of the Confederacy, complete with Monument Avenue, a cobblestoned road dedicated to JEB Stuart, RE Lee and one other guy I can’t remember right now. Oh yes, it’s quite fun living in “the real VA”.

    That said, there is a lot of segregation here, albeit much of it self-imposed for myriad reasons. So unless you work at a non-profit or with a bunch of social workers, it’s a mixed bag, mostly with republicans dominating the mix.

    Kay Olsen: I, too, work in a home health agency. This one lady touted Colbert at a republican comedian with a republican slant and of course she wouldn’t get out of the room fast enough for me to commence laughing hysterically at her ignorance. Ahh, it was almost poetic justice, : ).

    Mandy: I live in a very urban community so Obama supporters tend to be in the majority. My 1 Republican Friend doesn’t like that I occasionally snark on McCain and Palin though, like earlier this afternoon when I declared us safe from Russia because Palin could see it from her house. Heheheheh

    Just last week, though, my boss informed me and another very lesbian RN she was leaning toward McCain because he has more experience, yet she tends to be more progressive in thought and deed. So, um, what?

    The guy I used to date brought me to his good friend’s house for a party one evening. We walked into the kitchen just in time to hear the other best friend of the wife telling a gentleman about her chance to attend the republican convention, how great it was to see Giuliani, Romney, Lieberman, et al. My boyfriend looked at me right away, smiled, and asked, “So, how ya doin’?” I laughed and said I don’t challenge everyone right away, I do wait for them to hang themselves a bit then jump in.” Yeah, that was a rough night as almost all in attendance were the scary staunch Limbaugh listenin’ republican type. (I mean, seriously, the men and women were in separate rooms. At what was supposed to be a party.)

    Did I mention I live in VA, where, for the first time in my life, we might go blue? It’s actually a great feeling and will be even better if we truly do.

    Oh, and people don’t talk to me about politics either unless they agree with me or I’ll start being all logical and stuff, which the ignorant don’t like.

  61. I had a conversation with my father this evening in which he informed me that Barack Obama is the antichrist, and that George Bush is making sure that he won’t be president by dispersing military across the U.S. in inner cities. According to him, if Obama loses, the “blacks will all revolt and start burning things,” and Bush will declare marital law. If McCain wins, Bush will stage a faux terrorist attack and declare martial law “for the good of the nation.” Either way my father doesn’t believe that we’ll have a new president any time soon.

    Sigh.
    Fox News and republican chain emails claim another victim.

  62. I had to stop having insane political conversations with a co-worker who loves- loves loves loves- arguing about all the standard hot-button cultural issues after he brought out his wittiest anti-abortion bon mot (“I’m for abortion if you eat what you kill, hahaha!”) in a crowded Mexican restaurant at lunchtime.

    Surprisingly enough, he’s more likely to vote for Obama this year than the more reality-based Republican in our lab.

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