Philadelphia, 2016. Outside the Dunkin Donuts across the street from City Hall, very late one of those oppressively muggy nights. Attendees of the Democratic National Convention emerged from the subway station, hungry and tired.

Among a cluster of Hillary delegates-- you can tell from a block away, they're the ones dressed for a fancy cocktail party-- a man wearing a nice gray suit with a shiny pink tie and a convention lanyard sighed in tipsy happiness and said to me, "I don't know how anybody could have seen Obama's speech tonight and not feel inspired!"

Oh boy. Here we go. "Well, he's broken a lot of promises, and a lot of us just don't trust him anymore." I answered carefully.

"How could that be, what has Obama ever done wrong?"

"He supports the TPP, for one thing."

Laughing, he scoffed: "Who wants those jobs, anyway?" 

"I do." I held his eyes calmly. Unsmiling.

With absolutely no sign of awareness of the fact he'd just given a very casual finger to a huge swath of proud American labor, he rationally explained to me that the poor are only poor because they buy too many TVs. I told him slowly, "....That's class prejudice, right there. What you just said."

"Yes." he confirmed cheerfully, without hesitation.

I just stood there for several seconds staring at him with my mouth open. Stunned.

I remember telling him, "Obama dropped more bombs than the Bushes ever dreamed."

And that's when he lost his shit. He sputtered as if I'd slapped him, raised and pointed an accusing finger at me like this just turned into Invasion of the Bodysnatchers, and began screaming at me: "SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON YOU!"

Bewildered, I tried to ask, "...Why? For what? What did I do?" Seriously, what the actual fuck. 

"SHAME ON YOU! SHAME ON YOU!!"

"Really?" What I would give to know what on earth was going through his head then, but his eyes had gone glassy. Furious, shaking, and red-faced, all he could do was repeat himself, completely unhinged. I shook my head at him, gave up, and turned away to remove myself from the situation. His shouts followed me across the street. 

"SHAME ON YOU! ....AND THAT'S COMING FROM A MAN IN A TIE!!" was his idea of a triumphant parting shot. 

That's the DNC in a nutshell, for me: smug, rotten aristocrats totally convinced that they're not morally bankrupt.

#2016
#SeeYouInPhilly
#Primary
#Primary2016
#DemocraticParty
#DNC
#BlueMAGA
#Classism