General Discussion

My wife's family hails from there. They are good people -- working to help others in their professions and making this a better world by treating others with kindness and respect.

Oh, and many of them are MAGA as all hell. But when we were their guests during the eclipse last April, they treated us like royalty. One of the things they did to make us feel welcome in their home was removing (hiding) all their political magazines, tchotchke and propaganda. And they didn't say a bad thing about Democrats or President Biden while I was in the room, anyway.

The reason I bring them up is that they have their "reasons" for believing as they do: Family traditions, old Bush GOP, liked Ike, etc. the thing is, if they had more liberals around to talk politics with, who knows? They and their state very well might start to think, act and vote differently. All it takes is good information from someone known and trusted.

Later last summer, some visited us in Detroit. We don't have much "stuff" about, but our books, so we didn't scrub our place to protect our guests' sensibilities. The husband of my wife's cousin and I sat down to talk -- weather and sports I thought at the time should do the trick -- but the FIRST thing he said, "I don't know how you feel about Trump, but I hate him." I said, "Me too." We got along like brothers after that.