On I wrote Drinking lunch, on the subject of Politics and Conferences.
Just had an entertaining lunch with Steve Chipman and Kevin Smith and Travis. I need to write down all the people I've met since otherwise I'll forget that I've met them, which would be a bit bad. Good fun lunch, considering we drank about five beers: that's a proper lunch. Yes indeed. They've all gone off to buy cowboy hats, but I already have a cowboy hat and so am now back at the SxSW venue. Thirsty for more beer, mind, but I probably ought to dial back until this evening.
The three of them reaffirmed my contention that no Americans that I know support Bush. We talked politics for a bit; about ten people I've met since coming here have said "please don't judge us by our leaders". What I don't understand is that I know plenty of Americans, and they all seem decent literate clever people, and not one of them votes Republican. So where are all the Republican voters?
I should stay out of arguments I know nothing about.
I did find out that you're allowed to pay waitresses less than the minimum wage here on the assumption that they'll make it up in tips. Astounding.
Jeremy Dunck
sil
Jeremy: thought someone might say something like that. It just seems a bit weird...
G.
Loads of Stuart's friends over here vote Conservative though, that's proably why he's confused ;)
Jeremy Dunck
I think the Conservatives there are conservative in the, uh, traditional sense of the word, no? The Conservatives here are not so much...
Travis Forden
Hey Stewart. Just saw your post about our lunch. To Jeremy's question, yes, a conservative in England is quite different from a conservative in the US. Further, the conservatives running our government now are dominated by right-wing religious conservatives. I'm not entirely sure they come to conferences like SxSW and most assuredly do not consume as much beer as we did at our lunch.
Dustin Diaz
Stuart, I don't remember, did we ever meet up? I think we met in passing:
http://www.valleywag.com/tech/sxsw/sxsw-bloggerati-swarm-the-yahoo-sellout-party-160746.php
Dustin Diaz
That's not what I meant to post, it was this one:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/nataliedowne/112323048/
Stuart,
You're at SxSW, a liberal arts conference in a liberal Mecca (Austin). All your online friends are webby or linuxy, a strong filter for eccentricity and therefore liberalism.
Where are all the Repubs? How about 80%-ish in the Dallas area? In my >1000 person company, I'd wager over 90% are Repubs.
Of the 32 reps and 2 senators for Texas, 21 reps and both senators are Repubs. Hutchison, one of the senators, is on her 3rd 6-year term.
Sorry for missing today... I feel terrible-- sore throat, sore body, small fever, generally tired. And I also needed to finish up a project for school due Monday. Hopefully, I'll feel better in the morning...
Eh... I broke my promise to drink more tonight as well. :-/