Conservatives: The untouchables of America.

I had a strange thing happen to me the other night and I thought some of you would find it fairly interesting…

Due to the relatively pleasant weather that we Milwaukeeans were enjoying this past Sunday afternoon/evening, my wonderful girlfriend and I were invited to a barbeque with some of our friends.

To be honest, they were her friends first, however, in the nearly two years I have been with my girlfriend; I have become friends with them as well.

We were at the incredibly posh condo of one of the couples that has done very, very well in real estate development. The condo is located on the fashionable, trendy and extremely liberal East Side of Milwaukee.

There were three couples all in their late 20’s or early 30’s, a woman (the neighbor of the host) who is probably around 50 or so and her small dog.

Very good group and atmosphere. Casual, lighthearted, fun.

The night was quite pleasant as the food was quickly eaten, beers and martinis drank and humorous stories ranging from pets, grandparents, professional mascots, chimpanzees and awkward encounters with neighbors were exchanged.

For once politics did not really come up…but I do stress the word “really”.

Knowing the political leanings of the other two couples and after hearing the neighbor woman go on and on about Jon Stewart’s “brilliant” performance while debating Jim Cramer, I knew that my girlfriend and I were outnumbered…badly.

And let me be honest about this…I’m perfectly fine with that. Many of my friends are liberals and I have no problem hanging out with them, confiding in them or even discussing politics with them. To me, they are not defined by their political views. Even if they were, I am not that close-minded to only surround myself with like-minded individuals.

Anyway, as I said, we were discussing chimpanzees and I brought up an old program that Fox ran a couple of years back called “Man vs. Beast”. “Man vs. Beast” was a ridiculous competition pitting humans and animals against each other in athletic events.

The strange thing that happened to me was when I brought up the show.

I said, “Have any of you heard of the show “Man vs. Beast?”.

No one did.

Somebody asked me what channel it was on and I responded, “Fox”. The neighbor woman heard the word “Fox” and replied, “Well, there’s your problem”…she was clearly referring to Fox News.

At that point, one of the girls mouths to the neighbor woman with her eyes open wide and a slow nodding of the head, “No, he’s a…”.

In response, the neighbor woman mouthed “oh…”, eyes equally big, nod equally slow.

She didn’t even have to say or mouth the word “conservative”…she knew what she meant.

Now, I know they did not intend me to see the exchange, so it’s not like they tried to make a big deal about it or anything, but it just kind of struck me as odd that the exchange even took place. It was as if to say, “Well, this barbaric and simplistic interest is only explained by his conservative viewpoint”.

And the look on the neighbor’s face was priceless, as it seemed to convey the thought, “My God, one of them slipped in!”.

The rest of the night concluded without incident and nothing more was made of the issue.

Maybe I’m being sensitive here, but the more I think about it, the more it stays with me. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I was offended or hurt, but after it happened, I felt different, apart from the rest of the group. It was a feeling I certainly didn’t have before this brief, seven-second exchange took place, that’s for sure.

So, is that what we conservatives have been reduced to, a group of untouchables? A boorish and uncouth group of people that must be identified before speaking as to alert the other, more civilized members of society of our existence? A collection of people whose thoughts and ideals are backwards when compared to those of the enlightened Left?

Hopefully, that’s just the case on the East Side of Milwaukee.

That’s all for now folks. Until next time, take care and be well.

-John