"FACSIST"

Seeing this picture posted on Facebook reminded me of an incident from the last campaign. As we were walking to a political event, we had to pass numerous protesters. I noticed a person carrying a sign accusing the President of being a Fascist. The word Fascist was misspelled. It seemed to me to be my patriotic duty to correct the person on both mistakes, although my husband encouraged me to resist my natural tendency.

Pointing to the sign, I asked, with mock-innocence, "What's a Facsist?" The person asked, "Whadda ya mean?" I had deliberately pronounced the word as "FAC-SIST", which is how it was spelled on the placard. I pointed to the sign again. The person replied that the President is a Fascist. I said, "Oh, you mean Fascist? But that's spelled F-A-S-C-I-S-T." The person turned the sign around to look at it, obviously embarrassed. I said, "Then, will you give me the definition of FASCIST?" The person said, "It's someone who wants to control everything." I said, "No, that's a dictator, and of course the President can't do that; he hasn't even been able to get Richard Cordray appointed!" The person said, "He's trying to socialize everything." I said, "Then that would make him a Socialist, not a Fascist." The person said, "There's no difference; he's just a Communist." I answered, "So which is he, a Fascist, Socialist, or Communist? He can't be all three." The person screamed, "He's not even an American."

Realizing there was no possibility of rational discourse with this person, I said, "I only hope you go back to school to learn the differences of those political systems and also how to SPELL!"

I refrained from identifying the gender of the person because I was so sad that it was a female; I had had more hope for my gender!

See my all-time favorite political sign from a Tea Party rally: "KEEP GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY MEDICARE YOU DAMN SOCIALIST"