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August 25, 2009
Exclusive: Yes, Virginia: Just Desserts at the Dinner Party
Virginia, what happened at last week’s dinner party? At the beginning you simply sparkled. How did you ever learn so much about Pashtu and Urdu? I would never have known that the capital of Chechnya is Grozny and the president of Tajikistan is Emomali Rahmon. You certainly do keep up with the news.
You looked so buff and tan and you now pronounce all the “stans” like Christiane Amanpour…as in Pahkeestaahn and Aafghaneestahn…it’s charming. And your documented litany of Republican depredations and insults to President Obama came just a wee bit short of being strident. You were passionate and articulate, especially when you spoke about the 45, 372, 004 people languishing without health care coverage.
Then that churlish man sitting near you asked if you knew anyone who had no health insurance. Your eyes flashed a bit when you averred that you certainly do. Rudeness personified, he just kept at you asking who. The minute you answered that your gardener and your maid had no health insurance you knew it was the wrong answer. He just sighed. You gamely went on.
You recounted how your maid got pregnant and you offered to pay for and squire her through an abortion. To your horror she refused and said she wanted the baby and you realized with particular sadness that the fanatic right wing zealots brainwash young people against pursuing their “reproductive rights.”
That cad next to you snorted. “My dear,” he asked in that offensive Republican tone of his…”Do you know anything about anchor babies? Are you aware that this “maternity tourism” gives birthright citizenship to millions of children of illegal aliens born in this country? And then it becomes impossible to deport them if they are apprehended. Have you any clue how this outrageous law encourages illegal immigration?”
You gamely responded: “This is America and it’s in the Constitution.” Bad move, Virginia. The lout corrected you: “It is federal law, not in the Constitution, and the Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution requires that only babies of legal immigrants be U.S. citizens.”
“In fact Virginia, there is the pending House Resolution 1868, known as the Birthright Citizenship Act of 2009 which would amend the Immigration and Nationality Act to clarify which babies are citizens. It recommends that one of the parents be a citizen; or a lawful permanent resident alien; or an alien performing active service in the United States Armed Forces.”
“As of May 29th of this year HR 1868 languishes in committee while the Democrat Congress is hell bent on pushing the president’s so called reform socialization of medicine.”
After that right wing disquisition, weren't you just shocked, Virginia, when that conservative oaf said that he had mixed feelings about that resolution because he has real compassion for those who face such danger in their desperation to enter America looking for work?
Desperately seeking to regain your composure and momentum you brought up the subject of global warming and the imperative to control it. Again, your knowledge of oceans, atmosphere, carbon footprints, gas diffusions, and CO2 was admirable. The cur asked you if you gave any credence to cycles in global temperature rather than man made causes. He used the example of Greenland, gently prodding you with the fact that that icy, eternally wintry island once boasted cattle and farmlands and vast grazing and growing plains and temperate climate until an ice age descended and virtually froze it over.
I have to hand it to you when you retorted that you were discussing about here and now and not eons ago and even as we spoke glaciers were receding, waters were rising, polar bears herds were thinning, rivers were drying up, fish were rotting, and the earth was in danger. Why, you said, Angela Merkel and Sarkozy, and Obama and other leaders of the West and thousands of scientists all over the world were in a race to save the planet.
He did nod his head and say “God help us,” and he did comment on what a beautiful late model, eight-cylinder SUV you were riding over the barren, craggy and rugged desert mountains of the Hamptons.
At that point, someone brought up Sarah Palin and you immediately responded: “Please, we’re eating.” There was an appreciative little titter of laughter. The boor said he was not overly fond of Palin but she was doing no harm whereas Nancy Pelosi was doing plenty of harm.
The groans at the table inspired you and you got a little wind in your sails, so you brought up Sonia Sotomayor and asked the grand inquisitor if he was pleased by her nomination. He responded that he had great faith in the civility of the court and it was a place where Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsberg were very close friends in spite of serious differences. More titter and groans.
Unperturbed, he continued that he was far more disturbed by the behavior of the Justice Department and Eric Holder for air brushing and dismissing the charges of serious voter intimidation by the New Black Panthers on Election Day 2008. There was enough documented evidence of serious malfeasance, but the Justice Department continues to stonewall.
Which led you, Virginia, to ask him point blank: “Is there anything you like about Obama? Or is he too…."other" for you?” The blackguard responded with a big smile.
“I have to think about that one…..but is there anything you dislike about Obama?”
With that dinner ended and he extended a firm handshake and told you how much he enjoyed meeting you.
When he left you asked the hostess how she could invite such a Neanderthal. Her answer unsettled you.
Virginia, he is a well known civil rights lawyer and advocate, and publisher of a very liberal magazine.
On your way home you became more upset, wishing that you had known more about him and wishing that he had liked you more, replaying the whole scene in your mind over and over again.
You were agitated and undone. Your boutique linen pants were as crumpled as your boutique politics.
Oh, never mind Virginia….tomorrow is another day…and there is that A-list luncheon fund-raiser for what’s her name? The one who canceled a Town Hall meeting because she can't stand right-wing nuts.
Yes Virginia. Onward and upward.
If only you would endeavor to clear your mind of cant.
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Ruth S. King is a freelance writer who writes a monthly column in OUTPOST, the publication of Americans for a Safe Israel. Feedback: editorialdirector@familysecuritymatters.org.
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