Pool Side Conversations

POOLSIDE CONVERSATION
@ a hotel in Jamaica

I spend the afternoon in the pool with a bunch of young republicans from the mid-west. They are curious as to they I am here by myself and then somehow, the conversation turns to politics.

“Hey guys, we have a liberal here”, one of them loudly announce to the group. For two long hours I hear what was wrong with all of my well intended but misguided thinking. They call and forth to each other to see if these evangelical republicans have been successful in converted me to their way of thinking. As one man fails, another man slides over to the edge of the pool and fills me with one defensive, intolerable statement against immigrants, welfare recipients, healthcare, Muslims, Mexicans, minimum wage earners and job opportunities.

One man told me he thought a family could live on $15/hour.  I reminded him that the minimum wage was $7.50/hour.

“Well, then don’t take that job.  Those people should only take a job that pays $15 an hour”, he says dismissively.

I explained to another man why the Affordable Care Act is so important to me. He has never been without a job and good healthcare.  He pays $800 a month for a family of four and is outraged at this high premium.  I tell him that I pay that for myself and my prior policy didn’t cover chemo or radiation.  I tell him that I had made the decision to forgo treatment if I had cancer  because I couldn’t afford to go through all of my money for treatment. It finally sinks in, just a little bit, that not all benefactors of Obama care are welfare queens.

“OK, that’s wrong, OK, that needs to be fixed.”  But he still wants to throw out the ACA.  “It’s just wrong,” he states adamantly. He offers no alternative.

Finally the wives tell them to shut up. One woman shouts, “Leave her along. Oh my God, you’re a broken record. Let up on her, will you.”  She apologizes to me.

I tell her I hear this all the time from my Republican friends.  I don’t tell her that I just ignore then and hope that I never feel a need to convert people to my side.