I grew up in a Democratic household and was a liberal until the late ’80′s. I remember being shocked when I found out a co-worker of mine had worked for a Republican Congressman (I lived in DC then) and was an enthusiatic Reaganite. I remember he told me, with some irritation, “Liberals always assume that people they like must be liberals too, because they believe nice, intelligent people don’t vote Republican.”
Well, 20 years later, we have flipped sides. Now he lives in LA, works in the movie industry and will vote for Obama on Tuesday, and I will vote McCain. But I have found that what he said back then is true.
I don’t bring up politics at work, but the Democrats routinely do. The director of my Department is a doctrinaire liberal and she makes exactly the same automatic assumptions that I made back in the ’80′s – that all good-hearted, reasonable people must believe as she does. In my experience, liberals do it far, far more than conservatives.
And yes, I lost a friend recently. It turns out that an ex-friend is a 9/11 “Truther.” She was emailing me all this bogus crap about 9/11 being an inside job and I finally told her that I have no more respect for the people who churn out that stuff than I do for neo-Nazis, John Birchers, or Communists. Haven’t heard from her since.
