I'm in a smelly cab of emotion

Yes, the theater is only a 15 minute walk from my house. But it was raining, and after 9pm, and I can justify taking a $7 cab because I spent 7.5 hours today sitting behind a desk 'working'. So, on the corner of Lincoln and Beldon, I hailed a cab.

I sit. I smell. I regret.

It smells in the cab like wet 3 day old cigarette butts. At first I think the smell is from the last passenger. But as it does not dissipate, only permeates, I realize it is the driver. Ok, I can handle this. It is only a five minute cab ride to my place. But then, he wants to talk.

Now I am all for chatting up cab drivers. I have found cab drivers some of the most informed people in the city. I wish I could be that informed - and if I listened to NPR for 12 hours a day, I would be. But instead of NPR, this cab driver is listening to far right wing talk radio. Awesome.

So he starts in on the West Virginia primary today. I have not checked any of his facts, so if I misrepresent anything, please let me know.

Apparently Hillary won WV by 80%. All of this, according Cabbie McSmelly, to the lack of focus on the white, heterosexual, male. (His words.) I contemplated jumping out of the cab at this point. I can deal with smelly cabs. I can deal with chatty cab drivers. But both - with radical right wing conservatism - I just can't handle.

So screw it - just because he is in the driver seat of the cab doesn't mean he is the driver of the conversation. I challenge him, "Don't you think that election have solely focused on the white, heterosexual, male vote for quite a while?" I try to counter his arguments, but how do you form an intelligent rebuttal to a crack-pipe regurgitation of politico talk. So I give up.

I am calculating the crappy tip I am going to give this cab driver; but then I see that he is just an old man trying to make a living. He didn't charge me the $1 surcharge for high gas like he is supposed to. Once I stopped talking to him, he started to back peddle. He wished me a good night. I wimp out, tipped him fully and added the extra buck surcharge.

I don't think this means that I don't stand on my principles. It means I acknowledge the time and place to get on the soapbox. Maybe I am wishy-washy, but I like to think of it as compassionate. Has anyone coined "compassionate elitist"? If not, you heard it here first. Obama is a friend of mine on Linked In. Maybe I will pass it on to him.