My wingnut physician brother-in-law [View All]

(Cross posted at www.dailykos.com)

My brother-in-law is on his second marriage with my sister-in-law; actually, they are divorced, but live together to raise their daughter. He is older, 73, but in great physical and mental shape, designer clothes, Italian leather shoes, new Lexus every 6 months (no lie.) My sister-in-law is 45. He has two grown sons, and an 8 year old daughter with his ex-wife, my sister-in-law. This sets the stage for the family drama. (My husband is a disabled NYC fireman and I am a teacher.)

Our conversation started as they usually do - I was ranting about the lack of opportunities afforded middle class kids, especially now that Congress is targeting the college loan program to pay for the upper class tax cuts. My wingnut physician brother-in-law proceeded to discuss how he was able to afford to pay for law school for his two much older sons (43 and 41) and he could not see any problem paying to send his 8 year old daughter to "professional school." He said that his sons are now very, very successful and he had no worries about their futures.

I asked him, what about those who want to send their kids to law school, and their kids are really bright, and they can't?

He said, "So? I am not concerned about them. I have to take care of my own."

I said, "The middle class is being destroyed, and the govt doesn't care. You are a doctor, and you must know, people don't even get health care until it it an emergency."

The doctor brother-in-law: Well, they go to the emergency room.

Me: Yes, but it costs us all so much more money then.

The Doctor: I don't care, at least they are not coming into my office, not being able to pay.

I then said: some people cannot even afford to feed themselves, I read "Time" magazine this week and it discussed middle class people who put money away for their retirement and they were raped by the executives of their companies and Congress, who allowed this to happen.

The doctor: I don't want to discuss politics with you, but that is tough on them. They should have invested better.

I was truly stunned. I asked him if he were serious, and he said he was dead serious. I then asked him if he would care if the family next door to him did not have enough to eat.

The Doctor: No. I would not care. Why should I care?? They should have taken care of themselves.

At this point, my sister-in-law finally chimed in and said, "Your sons have no idea what it is to really work for anything, you gave them everything."

The doctor: That's right, I did, because I could.

I always knew he was a prick, but his honesty stunned me. I told him that if we didn't have an equitable society, his sons and daughter would eventually pay, no matter how successful they were. I told him he was uncaring because he told me he would not care if his neighbor was starving, and then he got mad about being called uncaring. Well, what the hell do you want me to call it then??? I asked. If you don't care, you are uncaring. And if you don't care that much of our society is hurting, then you are a typical republican, you are just more honest than most.

This, friends, is the republican party of today. There are millions of voters we can influence with this true message: the republican party of today is the "I've got mine, now FUCK YOU party." And they only make up perhaps 2% of the electorate. Add another 20% of wingnuts, and they will never have another majority in our lifetimes if we are successful at getting the true message of the republican party out to the masses.

On a happy note, the only time I saw any doubt in my wingnut brother-in-law's eyes was when I told him I, an ex-republican hardass (he had just made fun of liberals, saying they were too wimpy to be effectual) was going to work very hard to even the playing field. I was going to work for people who would make him pay taxes again, and that I talked to people all of the time, and there were a lot more of us than there were of them.

The best was when I told him that if he continued to starve Americans, the gate on his community was not tall enough to keep out the hungry, angry people. The flicker of fear in his eyes was worth all of my aggravation.