I was at a breakfast meeting today, and unfortunately the subject of politics came up for a few minutes. This can be tricky ground to navigate if you're part of an organization that wants to keep harmony and mutual respect alive throughout the membership. Like in families, certain topics need to be off-limits, such as almost everything, and certainly politics.
So with that in mind I didn't put up a fuss or argue any point, but just let whatever remarks there were pass like they were inaudible, like a fly buzzing in the next room.
But this guy -- a Republican, though level-headed in many other respects -- said something about Obama, that he didn't know anything; he essentially said Obama is stupid.
And so there I am, thinking, the Republicans gave us George W. Bush -- as incompetent and dopey as anyone we've ever seen on the public scene, but for this guy, Bush was someone smart enough, good enough, competent to be president of the United States. I've never heard a peep out of him about Bush's intelligence, curiosity, ability to color within the lines, anything.
Then we get a guy, Obama, who has been a professor in college, speaks in complete sentences, can propound an argument in such a way that you can see a logical train of thought, a guy showing thoughtfulness and insight. And this guy can sit there and say Obama doesn't know anything!
Like my title says, the world's upside down for a lot of people. Up is down. Intelligence is ignorance. It's maddening. Like, hey, "Reality called and it wants to get together with you sometime!"
