Bigotry of Liberals

This Sunday, my mom's friend A. invited us over to show off her newly done kitchen. While there, she, near spontaneously, started attacking President Bush.

She blamed him for single-handedly being: the cause of anti-Americanism in the world, the Iraq War being a total failure and the problems with Social Security. She followed this up with saying he was a stupid moron who was simultaneously smart enough to commit the massive evil deeds that his cruel mind comes up with.

If you think I'm exaggerating, I'm not. It was an incredibly vicious attack...with no provocation.

Incredulous, I asked her if she was serious. She responded with an 'of course' and continued her attack.

I reminded her that 51% of the country strongly disagreed with her (and, as soon as I figured out how to say it politely, I planned to continue with 'and many of the other 49% voted because of policy or party and not because they have such ridiculous and nasty ideas'). Before I could say anything else, she said "and how scary is that? That those kind of people live in this country."

I was stunned for a moment.

This is a woman who decided to file for bankruptcy, maxed out all of her credit cards immediately before filing, and easily lived off the salary of her neurosurgen husband when she did actually file.

The idea that this woman dared to judge anyone else left me near speechless.

She continued saying something along the lines of them being religious fanatics.

I started saying that, most definitions of 'religious' used in polls in this country result in 96% of people being given that label.

She said that that was scary as well.

Every so often, my mother comes home and says something about A. that leads my stepfather to ask, "Why are you still friends with her?" the unnecessary bankruptcy just one incident in a long line.

I now know she has only disgusting things to say about the President and is bigoted against people from the parts of the country that is not ultra-liberal as well people who are religious.

I was the only one in that room who was disturbed by her comments. Why did others think that this bigotry was okay when I know that racial bigotry or bigotry about sexual preference would have produced horrified, shocked and embarassed reactions.

Why is that the case?

And Mom, why are you still friends with her?