Teabaggers aren't racists? Bullshit - met one when voting.

My wife and I voted yesterday in Fort Worth. The signs were ambiguous on the building as to which door to enter in, so the first door we tried to open was locked. A man behind us got annoyed, and mentioned something about that if they are locking to doors to keep him from voting, he was going to call the police right away. Jokingly, I said, "Well, if there is any voter intimidation going on, I know who to call as well," thinking about teabaggers challenging voters and making them file provisional ballots.

What he said next was pretty shocking: "Ain't no monkey going to keep me from voting!

My wife isn't as experienced in American culture or history, so she didn't know the connotation and use of "monkey" in the South as a racial term for blacks. I didn't say anything else, because he looked like the kind of idiot who would start some trouble. Briefly, I thought about turning up a thick accent and telling him that we must do all we can to steal this election for the glory of the socialist Democrats, but I figured he'd either physically attack me, or make trouble with the poll officials (i.e., old people) and try to stop us from voting. It wasn't worth it.

He looked older, like a Vietnam vet, with a green vest with a lot of buttons and badges on it. I took a closer look at it when he passed my, and sure enough - "Don't tread on me", various Republican buttons, a "Nobama" one, and something that said, "Tea", but I didn't catch the rest of it in the quick glance I got.

My wife didn't think much of it at the time, and I didn't want to say anything yet. Even douchebags have a right to vote. After we got home, I explained the history of the word "monkey" and how it was used as an incredibly demeaning term. She was pretty pissed, and asked if that was just some wildly random racist asshole that we met.

I don't think so - the polling station was not crowded at all - there were maybe 4 or 5 people voting at the time. He was the only one in the parking lot when we came in. It could have just been random, but we have so many examples of racism from teabaggers online and in the news that I doubt that he was the one of a handful of assholes in the precinct and we happened to cross paths for the five minutes we were there. My wife knows that a certain subset of Americans can be very racist, sexist, nationalist... but this was the first time she had to deal with something that obvious, that open, and she's not happy about it.