We had 48 family members at our Thanksgiving dinner gathering! Plenty to be thankful for! Plenty of food! Plenty of fellowship! And plenty of laughter!
There were no discussion ground rules, and only three of us ventured into the realm of politics - an apparent Democrat voter, an apparent Republican voter, and of course the apparent radio talk show guy, moi.
I say apparent because none of us ever used the terms Democrat, Republican, liberal or conservative to reference our respective views. We talked about candidates, campaigns, public perceptions and the dysfunctionality of our federal government intermittently, while watching the Panthers beat the Cowboys.
The apparent Democrat voter said he did not see a strong candidate in either party, and wasn't inspired by any of them. To me it suggests he's not excited about Hillary, but he can't quite bring himself to like a Republican candidate. A lot of Democrat voters are having that same struggle, but they won't admit it.
On the other hand, the apparent Republican voter predicted that the eventual Republican ticket would be Trump and Cruz. He liked Trump's forcefulness and tendency to irritate the establishment. He liked Cruz because he knows how the political establishment works, but he is not afraid to challenge the establishment. He added that Cruz is a Texas senator and it might help to win Texas for the Republicans.
They both asked my opinion, knowing that I follow the presidential race closely for radio discussion purposes. I said it's too early to predict, because there are too many unpredictable things that can happen during the course of a presidential campaign.
However, whether you like their assessments or not, it is good food for thought from two people who see the presidential race from the perspective of Main Street USA. One is a successful retiree (not totally dependent on Social Security benefits), and the other family member has taught school for more than 20 years.
We did agree that Hillary is the apparent Democrat nominee, and that there are many other scenarios that could evolve from the Republican field of presidential candidates. We also acknowledged that this time next year, we will not be talking about what might happen in the presidential race, but, rather, what happened and our Main Street USA reasons as to why.
I hope we will be talking about the outcome for which we are all praying, and that includes the apparent reluctant Democrat.
Imagine that, a civilized discussion about politics at a family gathering without insults, hurt feelings or a violent incident.
Hint! Stay away from labels that the media uses to define and divide us.
We had 48 family members at our Thanksgiving dinner gathering! Plenty to be thankful for! Plenty of food! Plenty of fellowship! And plenty of laughter!
There were no discussion ground rules, and only three of us ventured into the realm of politics - an apparent Democrat voter, an apparent Republican voter, and of course the apparent radio talk show guy, moi.
