Done and dusted

 The fair is over and I am about peopled out. All of us are, I think. The abortion guy came back with a model fetus he borrowed from the right to life group and made a big deal about 'baby killers'. The Republicans were set up right next to them, so I imagine this was planned ahead. 

Our current representative was there at the republican booth. The fair was being covered by a television newswoman, who was scoping out the happenings for stories. She spoke with Kathy Rapp about some issues. During the course of the conversation, the elected official dodged the question she was being asked to say 'Have you been to the Democratic booth? They've got antisemitic material over there.'

Shocked, the reporter said, 'No they don't.'

The representative said, side stepping responsibility for her lie, 'Oh? Someone told me they did.'

The reporter stopped by to see how things were going with us and related the exchange, which was maddening, because we were purposely trying to avoid criticism. Our goal was to engage and provide information. How to vote. Where to vote. These are our candidates. If people wanted to talk, we didn't shy from that, but we weren't there to argue or make people mad. It appears the republicans were playing by a different set of rules.

I met some lovely, lovely people. Lou and Lynn, married for 68 years. We talked for a long time. I said, 'Listen. What is happening now is unsustainable. It is going to collapse at some point. Financially it is imploding right now. We will get past this, and when it is over, we will be looking hard at what led us here.'

Lou said, 'I hope you are right.' We looked at each other and said almost simultaneously, 'We can't lose hope.' We spontaneously reached out our hands to each other. 

There were plenty of thumbs up. I had a indepth conversation with a woman about her third party vote. Another man stopped to talk about issues. We got on the issue of the NRA. He felt strongly that every gun owner should join the NRA. I was surprised because we had so many things we agreed upon. But his point was that if the NRA had more moderate gun owners, their votes would change the laws. I pointed out that the NRA had no power to change gun laws but that these membership dues went directly to lobbyists to persuade (bribe) lawmakers to oppose changing the laws. He listened and and nodded.

It wasn't a bad experience mostly although one of my last interactions nearly did me in. A man from Florida came along and wanted to know who we were going to run for president. 'I don't know, and I am not going to speculate.' You could tell that surprised him. He wanted to know why. I said because he would spend his time arguing about their theoretical lack of merit for the job. 'If you want to talk about right now, I am ready.'

What followed was a parroting of trump talking points. America is respected and all other countries are following our lead. (No, they are not.) Our stock market is booming. (10% of America owns 93% of stock. Things are going really well for them.) He agrees with our actions in Iran. (You agree that burning through our armaments and oil reserves is good for national security? I think we are very vulnerable right now.) He brought up Benghazi. I brought up Syria and Trump's phone conversation with Putin. I asked him what he thought about Ukraine. He did cede a bit. He said we are beginning to make that right. Gold plating statues was being done by donation. (no, the department of interior has spent 95 million taxpayer dollars so far). It didn't stop.

What made it difficult is that for whatever reason, he had triggered the other person there. She was mad. I hadn't seen that in her. She had been a very mellow person up to that point. I think his arrogance, coupled with the fact that he was all over the place with his comments...it was like getting hit with a verbal shotgun.  We had been dealing with this for six days, and I think it had become too much. She yelled and even cried. He weaponized that.  When I tried to counter him, he interrupted me to mock her or tell her to be quiet, and then simply moved on to a new topic.

He finally left when I said, 'you know, we are not going to agree and we need to accept that.' He agreed and I told him to enjoy the fair. That was a hellish 20 minutes though. I am proud that I was able to hold my own. He was trying to command that conversation and it did not happen.

It sounds like there was a major issue at the Republican booth after I left. That was poorly thought out and shouldn't have happened, but there was an eye-popping conversation with some Christian Nationalists who believe that like the old testament, God is directing them to kill all Muslims, men, women and children, to bring about the second coming of Christ. 

These people are fucking nuts. If Jesus came back they'd deport him.