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I don’t think ‘liberal’ is the correct categorization of many of these people. They are leftist ideologues, or Marxists, or Commies. It’s difficult to be specific because most are not rooted in a defined ideology because they really haven’t researched or thought about what they believe. Thus, ‘leftist’ suffices.

‘Liberal’, on the other, connotes a notion of openness. There is no openness with leftists. They don’t even listen or watch what they attack. They are blind to the results of their ideas and policies. It’s simple a matter of repeating talking points from MSNBC.

I’m open to debate, but it takes some guts for me since I try to keep the peace with friends and acquaintances. However, this past Wednesday was a bit different. I was out and about with the one leftist in my family. We ran into one of my friends, who just happens to be black and very conservative. My friend exclaims, “did you see Steve Bannon this morning?” We had a brief conversation and went our own ways. My relative then asks me, “I can’t believe that guy watches Steve Bannon.” It was said in a tone that implied black people aren’t supposed to do that. I quipped semi-sarcastically, “yeah, you would think he would be watching Sharpton on MSNBC.” He was in total agreement. I went on say that it was completely racist, assuming a black man should only listen to Sharpton and it was equivalent to keeping blacks on the Democratic plantation and blacks should only think one way. No one expects whites to think one way just because of the color of their skin, so why should there be that expectation for blacks. I also said something to the effect that my relative probably never watched Bannon and all he knows of him are from out of context video clips on CNN and MSNBC.

He was found wanting. He had no idea what Bannon stood for and that’s typical of ‘racist closed-minded leftists’.

I thought I blew the peace in my family. I had strayed from safe conversations about sports, health and food. I knew I really ripped into him, if he listened to what I said. I uneasily thought about that multiple times Wednesday and Thursday knowing I would see my relative on Friday. On Friday, the first thing he asks me, “what do you think of Wikipedia?” He had researched Bannon on Wikipedia.

My next step is to get him to watch Bannon.

Moral of the story, I need to find the guts to have more potentially peace breaking conversations.