unravled

The husband and I, with amusement and trepidation, pulled up next to a van covered in right wing evangelical bumper stickers the other day at the Dairy Queen, the best of which was "God Spoke Through A Fiery Bush." As we stood in line for our Peanut Buster Parfaits we quietly took bets on to whom in the restaurant the van belonged. We narrowed it down to an older couple in the corner with a son of fifteen or sixteen, who, I'm sure, kills kittens in the alley behind his house for fun.

That was when I realized: We moved from Orange County, a Republican dominated suburb of a large, liberal city, to Vancouver, a Republican dominated suburb of a large, liberal city. Oh, but the subtle nuances of the Grand Old Party are fascinating.

In OC we were surrounded by upper middle class to extremely wealthy Republicans who were mostly interested in keeping as much of their money as possible, and publicly promoting keeping illegal aliens out while privately hiring them to raise their children, mow their lawns, and clean their pools. In Vancouver we're surrounded by religious Republicans who want nothing more than to convert you to their extreme version of Christianity and take away your right to choose what happens to your own body.

I've been trying to decide which is worse ever since.