Fraters Libertas

Trying Burrito Brother

I rarely read the City Pages, but I did pick up last week’s ‘Best Of’ issue, listing what the editors and and readers think are the best people, places and things in the Twin Cities.

After skipping through most of the sections (including one listing the unlistenable DWI lawyer Ron Rosenbaum as the Best AM Radio Personality!) I got to the heart of what living in the city is all about. The hipster record stores? No. The musty used book stores that let you languish about for hours? Nah. I’m talking burritos.

Anyhoo, the CP had listed El Burrito Mercado as the best in town so I had to check it out. I was somewhat concerned that they had chosen it more on who owned it and who worked there than the burrite itself, but it indeed was delicious. Large chunks of white meat chicken, potato slices, incredibly fresh salsa along with flavorful rice and beans.

As I sat alone cosuming this fine meal, I could not help but overhear a group of what seemed to be engineer-types, about 5 in all, discussing the politics of the day. As is often sadly the case, one paunchy boomer-aged man with glasses was doing most of the talking.

He was carrying on about Saddam and his sons, about taxes, about concealed carry. Everyone else in the group was just sitting there kind of saying “Yeah” with little or no interest since they had the good sense to know that you shouldn’t discuss these kinds of topics around coworkers. The fact that he was the only one talking did not seem to stop him.

He went on and on with his incredibly cliched conservative talking points and I was about to get up and brain him with my Corona when I realized something. THIS is the personification of the Right Wing Talk Radio Listener.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Rush, Medved, Hewitt and the like as much as the next White Male, but this explains at least partially why talk radio is so reviled. It’s not so much the hosts that people can’t stand, it’s the minions who take the essence of what may have been entertaining communicated by someone with Big League talent, boil it down to it’s dullest and then go around haranguing people with it.

Some of the guys in the group were a little younger and the look on their face said it all: Shut the f up! I don’t think they were necessarily libs, they would have spoken up if they were, they were more likely just typically apolitical as many people are. They decide whom to vote for based on emotional issues, or what smart people are doing, or what their uncle said.

And they make opinions about conservatives and conservative ideas based on loud mouths like George from South St. Paul. Thanks George. Thanks for making me have to explain what I’m NOT for ten minutes when I tell people I’m a conservative.

He did seem to enjoy his chicken burrito though...