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A friend of mine, Bob, who owns a small business, just told me this story.
He has two employees, Nathan and Vera. Nathan imprints items that Vera assembles; both are long-term, hard-working, nearly irreplaceable employees. Nathan has always been a Republican, but recently has veered rightward into Tea Party territory, as a daily listener of Beck and Limbaugh. Bob and Nathan used to be comfortable talking politics until the 2004 election. After that, they just worked together, and both now keep their politics private. A note about Nathan, that will tell you why Bob doesn't bother tussling with him -- Nathan is a single-issue Republican, one who pays child support to a woman he slept with only once. Nathan seems to be certain that Republicans are opposed to child support, and thinks that they will eventually give men the right to force abortions on women they've had sex with, instead of allowing the women to make the choice.
Got that? He's weak-minded, confused, and a little weird. In other words, perfect Teabagger material.
So Bob feels more sorry for Nathan than disliking him, and as long as he keeps his politics out of the workplace, leaves him be. Nathan can be apparently quite friendly and personable under most circumstances, as long as ideology is kept off the table.
Bob arrived at work the other day to greet a sobbing Vera, tears streaming down her face. Vera is a grandmother in her fifties, an immigrant from Laos putting five children through college without help from her husband, who was laid off last year. Vera told Bob that Nathan had yelled at her, that he hated her, thought she was a bad person. She said she felt that she did not deserve to be treated in this way.
Vera's 'crime' was showing up to work fifteen minutes early.
Bob told Vera he would make things right. His company is small, only eight employees left after the recession, and there's just no room for that kind of discord. Bob feels like he runs an enlightened company, pays a living wage, and pays for eighty percent of his employee's skyrocketing health insurance -- even as the company barely skirts bankruptcy.
Bob asked Nathan to talk to him outside. From Nathan's characteristic shit-eating grin, he could tell Nathan was expecting something. When he asked Nathan what had happened, he admitted to yelling at Vera, but then suggested that he was justified.
Bob, stunned, asked why it was ever justifiable to make a hard-working grandmother cry, and asked Nathan if he hated Vera.
Nathan replied that he did hate Vera. Why? Nathan replied that it was because Vera's an immigrant. And because she hasn't learned to speak English more fluently during her employment with the company.
Bob counted to ten. Then he tried to clarify -- surely Nathan didn't mean --
But he did, repeating his Teabagger-implanted opinion quite clearly, in terms that Bob recognized as parroted Fox News-speak.
Bob lost his temper. He said he was just too shocked by what he heard to maintain.
Later, all was shakily patched up. Nathan semi-apologized, and was notified that Vera had generously suggested that Nathan be allowed to keep his job under the condition that the behavior never occur again. Nonetheless, everyone in the company was shocked, and the event really altered the tone of the workplace, permanently.
Bob feels like it's just another nail in the coffin for the business.
Beck and Limbaugh make a lot of money, and will never experience the harmful consequences of their awful mouthings, and the terrible poisoning of weaker-minded folk who carry their hate-mongering lies into the real world, where it hurts people's lives, and damages the nation.
Tea is expensive. For everyone.
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