I was at a restaurant after the men’s conference and was telling the owner about my adventures during the Scott Brown campaign and CPAC when he introduced me to a reporter/democratic operative who had come to eat with his wife. It was a very interesting experience.
When I was asked to explain the reasons why I thought Martha Coakley lost I started out by reminding him of her abortion flip flop concerning the healthcare bill. The moment I brought that up the gentleman started filibustering saying I had no business voting for Scott Brown since he had flipped on abortion. He would not let me finish my point when he started making “tea bagger” references. I reminded him that this was a vulgar sexual reference, quite inappropriate as he was sitting with his wife in a public restaurant, but he continued to use the reference and then maintained that the Obama joker posters were beyond the pale and other than the odd union sign democrats never acted this way.
As I was in fact born after the invention of the internet and did live through the eight years of the Bush administration I wouldn’t let him get away with that either, saying he could tell that to the marines but not to me. (Even Charles Johnson wouldn’t fall for that). It was astounding, it was the same tone deafness that the Coakley campaign had combined with a touch of the bigotry of the Boston Berkshires and ‘Bama lady.
When the gentleman started to suggest that my mother who left the democratic party this year was “confused” it was definitely time to excuse myself. I game my respects to his embarrassed wife (I felt bad for her, she seemed a nice lady and her reaction to my respects suggested that she had to deal with her husband in this capacity before) and left them to their dinner.
His inability to listen, suggestions that I was not capable of learning or understanding, lack of basic decorum; particularly in front of lady were troubling. Combine this with his attempts to make assertions that were false on their face and frustration when I would not accept them leads me to believe that Coakley’s weaknesses are not unique among democratic circles. If that is the case then the Democratic party in Massachusetts may be in much worse trouble than they know or will acknowledge.
