My post about Gracie Gato yesterday ALMOST had it right. I said she needed to learn to be like someone from here, not try so hard to turn here into there (meaning Los Angeles). In the end, she couldn’t. Gracie Gato has ‘left the building.’
Related: The Perfect Example of Someone Who Needs to Learn “Don’t Be Like There When You Come Here!”
Commenter Political_qrm asked the question yesterday that many ask when they see folks come here for our lifestyle and environment but immediately “go to town” and try to change everyone to THEIR “there” model.
They then get upset when people won’t, and dare to actively push back:
Please, can she leave now?
Well, now, she has left. I got tipped off to this (emphasis mine):
The news I left New Hampshire on a permanent basis should be a relief to the New Hampshire GOP. I won’t be able to vote in that state again. (Pause for applause) However – the rough decision to leave my marriage was something completely different.
NO ONE wants to hear that a marriage has broken down. I watched it with my parents and then with some friends. Sometimes it’s a mutual and mostly friendly (at least polite) thing – but mostly not. But I think she identified what part of the problem as I did yesterday:
I won’t get into the details of he said she said. The marriage broke down in that state. He was home. I wasn’t. The problems I had with racism. The constant fights. I even stopped going to the store because I just didn’t want to fight with anyone anymore.
If you’re the one always having the fights, perhaps the problem is you rather the ones you’re fighting. Or, putting it bluntly, if you think everyone around you is an asshat, perhaps the truth is that YOU are the asshat.
In her case, it was that she:
- Had her “Racism chip on her shoulder” set to ON all the time. And always viewed Life through her “racism lensed” glasses.
- Believed that everyone had to change to suit her worldview and what they should be doing within it.
Paranoia much? A great deal, from where I stand. As someone else has just said:
“Another loud-mouthed-lib declaring themselves the bane of GraniteGrok slithers back to their progressive hell-hole, empty-handed.”
And she also hated being criticized – especially by me for having the temerity to call her out for the constant bad attitude. Like this next bit:
Being hispanic in a culture that hates anything different was hard. I wanted to make things different. I tried to fit in. I even tried to run for State Representative to bring big business in for New Hampshirites to have a chance to better their financial situation. My goal was to bring corporations in, to regulate the ongoing dysfunction of the NHGOP.
No, it wasn’t that you are Hispanic. There are a number of Hispanics here in NH (many of them Republicans) who are Americans first, New Hampshirites second, and not “race-based” at all. Look, I’m happy about my Irish/Swedish heritage – but it’s not something that is at the forefront of my being.
For her, it was/is above all else. It kept her from assimilating and enjoying New Hampshire because her own”racism” was blocking the view.
She refused to see that it wasn’t being Hispanic that was her problem; SHE was her own worst problem.
She failed to realize that other people don’t like being bossed around, being told their lives suck and that they’re all racists and such. She failed to realize that adults get more than miffed when someone from “there” is telling them all that; she was resented for portraying that she was their savior (her own words above).
And that included some Democrats as well. Basically, she thought way too much of herself than what was warranted – and people saw through that. She thought that the emptiness and chest-puffery of LA had a place here in NH where relationships take a long time to develop. People have a wariness of those “not from here” because of people like her. S
She thought she could immediately impose LA/California norms to centuries-old ones that pre-existed her dropping into NH and failed to realize that being “New Hampshire” is not just a location but a state of mind and heart.
As far as the NH GOP is concerned, far be it for me to say that they’ve got their heads screwed on right and tight all the time. We’ve called many a Republican out for saying or doing stupid stuff (like we always do). But like many Progressives, she did it from a subjective Progressive Higher Morality and Superiority attitude rather than from an objective and measurable standard of measure.
Gato automatically assumed she knew ALL about them when it really was a disagreement on policies and preferred outcomes (we liked the freedom and she wanted to diktat – ne’re the twain would meet).
She was the walking example that screamed “if you don’t agree with me, you are EVILLLL!” Not a good way to influence friends – or even enemies.
I wonder, however, if she is now going to suffer from that other aphorism: “You can never go home again” because the home you remember has itself, changed; only time will tell. Believe it or not, I do wish her well – hopefully, home WILL be home and she can find a measure of happiness to fill that void of emptiness.
I do wonder, however, if, upon reflection, she will realize that there were valuable lessons “here” that she didn’t realize were in front of her as she was here once she has returned to “there” for a while.
