who started blaming Obama in about April, 2009. I was a bit shocked. I mentioned that Obama had inherited the biggest mess since FDR. He contended that didn't matter. It was Obama's economy and it was a mess.
I tried to explain that when Clinton left office we were on our way to paying down the deficit and putting America on a healthy fiscal path, and Bush came along and wrecked everything. There was no way, even with a cooperative congress, that Obama could fix that mess in a few months. He contended that Clinton had nothing good, and that all the good in Clinton's economy was the result of Reagan.
At that point, I was flabbergasted. He was serious. When I pointed out the absurdity of his argument it was as though some sort of disconnect set in. This was a fairly intelligent man who'd managed to retire early from a technical career, and in all other ways, was a nice, normal guy, but when it came to politics, his brain seemed to shut down. Over the next few months I learned that his hatred of Obama was really bigotry, and he became a major Beckhead during Beck's craziest period.
It's not just propagandists and political operatives spouting crap. There are people out there who actually believe things like that - when it comes to politics, they have their 'beliefs' and are absolutely impervious to any form of evidence or logic that challenges them. I've had many conservative friends in my life, and we rarely discussed politics, but when we did, they were rational. I haven't met anyone else like that, but they do exist, and they're kinda scary. The oddest thing was, he considered himself a deep thinker.