Does Not A Liberal Bleed ... ? It was 101 here in my N. Texas town yesterday, and accordingly, I had to sell my (cunningly handcrafted gorgeous) soap outside in the local bi weekly craft mart.

It's a fun experience, fairly laid back, customers are nice, fellow vendors are interesting, and you make a little money. Conversation between vendors mostly ranges from how lousy business is to where the next revenue-producing show might be, and of course, complaining about our respective kids.

Politics usually doesn't come up, although we all did manage to do something for the Katrina refugees.

Some are liberal, like the bead jewler who said that Terri Shiavo's husband did everything for her. Some conservative -- like the woodworker who voted for Bush, but now blames him and his buddies at Exxon for gas prices. The potter and the silver-smith are peaceable conservatives, who just think Bush has lost his mind lately, but are comfortable with Kay Bailey Hutchison. But, most of us are just pretty much capitalist. We'll make money from anyone, anywhere, any time.

Anyway, yesterday, I flew into the area a little late, elated by Zarqawi news, which I couldn't wait to share with the jewelers next to me.

One of them, C., got a really sour look on her face, but her partner winked, and moved off, smiling.

C. asked how "that internet thing I have going" is doing, referring to this weblog. I said great, mentioning some of the links I've gotten lately.

The expression on her face got even more sour, then she exploded "I hate Bush. I wish he'd get out of our bedrooms -- they've got no business there! "

I blinked, thinking that yah, I go to bed at 9 pm, and probably wouldn't know or care if Bush was in my bedroom, then wondered briefly what went on at her house.

But, when she cooled down, and I finished setting up my display, I sat down with her for a minute and pointed out there are some things I bet we had in common.

First, I mentioned that the the Gay Marriage Amendment is the biggest frickin' waste of time on a non-issue that the Senate could pick. I'm glad it was defeated because we don't need it. There's a clause in the constitution that says whatever powers are not allocated to the Federal or State government are granted to the individual. And, I think that behavior between consenting adults falls under that category. There's some merit to allowing the individual states handle the issue, and more merit to just leaving all government -- and courts -- out of the issue.

C. and I could also agree that this country is doing squat about our energy situation, although her viewpoint is different than mine. I'm just sick of having third world dictators jack us around, C's concern seems more around the environment -- but okay. We can agree on the necessity for interventions, and that drilling in Anwar is a temporary solution.

Then she moved into explaining how she went with her husband to visit the middle east, and how she saw Muslim women in veils, with heeled shoes and Levi's underneath. And, how they didn't have to wear them inside the house. All of which is true, I think she was trying to convince me that it's wrong to go against an entire religion -- and I agree with that, but that's not what we're doing. The War on Terror, which includes Iraq, is not against Muslims, it's against murderers, but we didn't get that far in the conversation.

She also seemed to be trying to convince me that Muslims are just regular people, and I know that as well (take a look at BlackIris if you haven't been there, although it's silly to refer to him as regular folks. He's a genius with a heart, and a wicked sense of humor).

However, we both agreed that the problem is that moderate Muslims can be afraid to speak up, since in the Middle East they can be killed by the fascist element, which is not a terrific situation.

There was emphatic agreement that for a woman to wear Muslim coverings in America is incredibly stupid. Specifically, we were talking about how some blue eyed, red haired American female college students wear Muslim coverings in Texas heat. That's nuts, and it's also not what America is about.

Finally, there was Nomad, the fiesty blogger out of Somalia -- she is an outspoken Muslim woman who hates burka's. Islamic fundamentalists took over her country a couple of days ago, and while Nomad's anti-American, I'm a little concerned about her. After I explained the situation to C., she shook her head, frowned, and said "I'd be worried, too."

Then, we got customers.

It also occurred to me later how both conservatives and liberals are painted with a broad brush by pundits and politicians, who don't want us to know each other any more. Every conservative is supposed to be racist, fascist war-mongering and heartless(and I'm not). Every liberal is supposed to be a Godless, hedonist, yellow-bellied clueless hypocrit (And C. isn't)

But that's what we're lead to believe about each other. The 2006 election season is upon us, and I expect it to get worse; both parties are going to be shrieking that if you vote for the other one, then it will be the end of all life as we know it.

You want to send shock and awe into our politicians? Talk to a liberal, if you can get past the knee-jerk reactions (and yah, I know. At times, it's impossible; they get hypnotized by Bushlied, and it's like trying to figure out an adolescent girl who categorally hates another adolescent girl for unfathomable reasons. Libs tell me conservatives are given marching orders by Rush, too, via some sort of mind control. Go figure)

If we as Americans start actually talking to each other, we slip out of the control that politico's and pundits want to have over us. Who knows? We just might get ticked off enough to slip out of the daily memes ... and send a tsunami over Washington.

(crossposted at DailyKos and RedState)  ¶ 7:00 AM