John Edwards Two Americas
Anyone else tired of this “Two Americas” scam? What kind of people label their neighbors as “rabid”?
Elizabeth Edwards afraid of neighbor
She has never met `rabid Republican,’ but wouldn’t be nice
MIKE BAKER
Associated PressRALEIGH –Elizabeth Edwards says she is scared of the “rabid, rabid Republican” who owns property across the street from her Orange County home — and she doesn’t want her kids going near the gun-toting neighbor.
Edwards, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards, particularly recalls the time neighbor Monty Johnson brought out a gun while chasing workers investigating a right of way near his property. The Edwards family has yet to meet Johnson in person.
“I wouldn’t be nice to him, anyway,” Edwards said in an interview. “I don’t want my kids anywhere near some guy who, when he doesn’t like somebody, the first thing he does is pull a gun out. It scares the business out of me.”
But Johnson defended the occasion he brandished a gun, saying those on his land didn’t have the proper approval.
“I use the gun for protection, and I considered that an appropriate time,” Johnson said. “Sometimes you have to take drastic measures.”
Edwards views Johnson as a “rabid, rabid Republican” who refuses to clean up his “slummy” property just to spite her family, whose lavish 28,000-square-foot estate is nearby on 102 wooded acres.
Johnson, 55, acknowledges his Republican roots. But he takes offense to the suggestion he has purposefully left his property, including an old garage he leases for use as a car shop, in dilapidated condition.
Johnson said he has lived his entire life on the property, which he said his family purchased before the Great Depression. He said he’s spent a lot of money to try and fix up the 42-acre tract.
“I have to budget. I have to live within my means,” Johnson said. “I don’t have millions of dollars to fix the place.”
April 9th, 2007 at 2:45 pm
Sounds like the missus is a classic GFW.
I guess all those security dudes with guns are different because they are on her payroll.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
A GFW and a snob.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:10 pm
Well, in all fairness, “rabid [thing]” is a common and established intensifier.
I mean, “Rabid Yankees Fan” is not any more of an insult than “Yankees fan” is (whether it is or not depends on how you feel about both Baseball and the Yankees).
It’s an insult (as it implies unreasonable/unreasoning fervor), but it’s nowhere near beyond the pale.
April 9th, 2007 at 5:44 pm
I see no difference in her calling him rabid than some of you guys calling the left and anti gun people “nuts” “moonbats” et al. On another hand he does sound a little redneck for chasing city workers out of his yard with a gun.
April 9th, 2007 at 6:02 pm
The most interesting part is that Johnson has placed his property for sale. The reason, higher property taxes. Looks like the Two Americas deal didn’t work out for Mr. Johnson.
Nice neighbors.
April 9th, 2007 at 6:56 pm
I live close to a “rabid yellow dog democrat”. He is 36 years old, an unconvicted felon, smart enough not to get caught, shoots up neighbors property, commits very destructive vandalism, has uncontrolled anger, gets into fights, threatens neighbors, and has always been able to buy his way out of legal problems. I wonder if “Dear Darling Elizabeth” would rather live close to him?
April 9th, 2007 at 8:35 pm
a few years ago, a gentleman chose to open-carry a pistol while working on his downtown lawn here in my town. open carry, although legal, is sufficiently unusual in my state that the local P.D. decided to stop by and ask him why he felt the need to do that.
so he shot and killed the officer who challenged him, and eventually was himself shot (don’t remember if he lived) in a long-ish standoff with the entire department.
which is one reason why the (mostly liberal, “blue island in a red state”) town i live in tends to think of “rabid gun nuts” as at least potentially unhinged.
…seriously, the “two americas” theory looks quite realistic when one’s a leftist scanning right-wing and libertarian web sites for some perspective and comparison. y’all just do not seem to think like my kind of people think, to the point where i’m not at all sure we’re living in the same conceptual country at times. Uncle is among the more sensible, reasonable sites on my daily reading list (not counting the leftists); there’s a lot of right-wingers i can’t stomach reading, because they frankly seem to be living on the planet Pluto or something. i can’t even think how to reach them and communicate with them effectively, so trying to is just depressing.
April 10th, 2007 at 8:20 am
Elitism: It’s not just for breakfast anymore.
April 10th, 2007 at 9:42 am
noname,
I feel your pain. From the other side, of course.
April 10th, 2007 at 10:49 am
Yeah, left wingers are just soooo more logical and all, what with suggestions that 9/11 was the first time in history that fire had ever melted steel and all that…
(Right wingers are more snarky, that’s a given…)