ManicDDaily

I am in Florida today which is an amazing change from downtown New York City.  For one thing, the 99% humidity rate is breathed rather than falling all around me.  Windows are shut tight, inside air is refrigerated and people stay in that air, by and large.  (At least, the only other people who stood or sat outside at the airport, where we waited for our car service, were smoking cigarettes.)

And then the guy who picked us up–a very nice, young, friendly, helpful guy, who really did not seem in any way a nut job (at least I didn’t worry that my life was in his hands as he drove us down A1A)–compared Obama’s proposals to those made by Hitler in Nazi Germany.  (Granted this was towards the very end of our ride.)

People in Florida are extremely nice, friendly, helpful.   This guy seemed another one of these nice, friendly, helpful types.

Who turned from the steering wheel to ask me whether I realized how much Obama’s civilian corp was like the S.S.

He was friendly enough to genuinely not mind our heated argument both before and after these comments.  He did not take offense at my use of expletives.

He talked about studying facts.  (I do not believe these included facts about Nazi Germany.)

He, like Joe Wilson, spoke of Obama as a liar.  When I asked him to give me an example of a lie, he couldn’t actually come up with one.  (I should have given him advanced notice he said.)  Finally, he said, well what about statements that the health care proposal would not cause cuts in Medicaid.  I said that Obama did talk about cutting waste in Medicaid.

Then he said, oh yeah, and what about Bill Ayers?

We both complained about the lack of personal responsibility in the culture.  I mentioned that Obama also stressed the importance of personal responsibility.

But he had a hard time hearing that, given Obama’s exchange with the Joe the Plumber.  He was very upset at the way that Joe the Plumber had been treated, by the way, which he seemed to view as treatment meted out by the Obama administration.   I mentioned that Joe the Plumber seemed to have landed a job as a news correspondent.

I do not want to make fun of the guy.  I liked him, even as I yelled at him  (in a motherly way).  And he, in a sheepish way, seemed to like me (though since I was also the paying customer, this is a bit hard to assess.)

But the experience genuinely shook me.   I had not realized how very far from home I’d come.