Back in 2009 I had a conversation with a very outspoken tea partier. He had been attending the local kick-off of Glenn Beck’s 9-12 rallies, which happened to fall on the same day as an event with Senator Michael Bennet. Given that the senator’s event was open to the public, a few of Beck’s fans decided to cross the street (the two events were literally across the street from each other) to hear the senator speak; their real intent, however, was to heckle the senator. Bennet handled them with grace and aplomb, much to their consternation.
Anyway, after the event we were outside chatting and one of the Beckers wandered over and joined the conversation. He was carrying, of course, the Gadsden flag, and he was accompanied by his wife, who didn’t speak but nodded or shook her head. Many of his compatriots were very vocally supportive of the “personhood” effort, and he was quite happy to enlighten us on the subject. He explained that it was just the beginning of what they hoped to accomplish, namely, returning the Constitution to the "state of purity it held prior to its corruption by the Bill of Rights."
He answered in the affirmative when we asked if he was really advocating the elimination of all amendments. “So we’d go back to having slaves and making voting available to only white male property owners?”, we asked. “Yes,” he answered. We turned to his wife and asked her if she agreed to having her rights taken away; she nodded, and with her eyes lowered whispered her only words to us, “It would only be temporary.” My god.
Turning back to him, I asked “Do you really expect me to give up all of my rights?” To which he puffed out his rather scrawny chest and answered, “It IS necessary.” Not willing to let that go, I asked “So your purpose, then, is to take all rights away from women and minorities?” His response, “Yes, but you just don’t get it.” With that, he turned and began to walk away, stopping only to turn and glare at his wife until she followed him.
He was right about one thing: I don’t “get” it. Nor do I want to.
From yesterday, my post on much the same subject:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10025199911
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