The Coopster called me today and went on a marvelous 20-minute rant on liberal friends who foist their opinions on us. I wish I had a transcript!
He ended by saying "maybe I will get so fed up that I will get involved in a campaign and teach people how to speak and present themselves!"
Myself, I wish he would run for something. He is very articulate and his high school speech teacher said he was the best extemporaneous speaker she had ever had.
Oh, if you don't mind me chiming in on that topic, last Easter when we were anticipating our family get-together, my husband I vowed not to discuss politics with his very vocally anti-war, liberal brother. Then the brother and girlfriend arrive wearing anti-war BUTTONS. Somehow I got seated at the table closer to this couple, so the strain was more on me, but I managed to say not one word, except to insist that I knew who Barbara Kingsolver was, when the brother mentioned he had met her (she lives in Tucson), and when he asked me if I knew who she was I said "yes", then he started to explain she was an author so I interrupted and said, "yes, I know who she is", and I turned away.
Thankfully the children were to my right, so whenever they started to hold forth I diverted my attention to the kids.
We noticed that while this couple felt free to ascend a soapbox, we felt compelled to keep silent in the interest of maintaining a pleasant and lowkey dinner.
Sigh