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To: paulsy
Paulsy,
I've read thru the responses to date, and they mostly suggest walking away from an unwinnable argument with an intractable idiot. I (mostly) agree.

I recently took a job that placed me with a "partner". This guy turns out to be a similar character to how you describe your uncle. It was imperative for me to homogenize myself into the organization, and I couldn't do that if I alienated the very person who was supposed to be my "mentor" (of sorts). So I feigned an indifference to things political - expressing no opinion to his slams of President Bush and the Bush administration. I bit my tongue when he would spew the latest DNC talking point, of call him, "shrub".
But I'm established in my job now, and don't need him any longer (never did, but you get my point ;'}
SO I thought long and hard on how I would "come out" with him. I knew I couldn't stand to keep the pretense much longer, not as the election loomed. Finally I got an epiphany!
"Charlie", I said, after one of his tirades, "I just have to thank you. I never gave politics much thought until I met you. You gave me so much to think about, and I did think. And study. And learn about current events. And I just wanted to let you know that, based on everything I've studied and learned, I know now that President Bush is THE very thing that this country needs right now, and not only am I going to vote for him, but I've volunteered with the RNC to help in the election".
You'd a thought I had cut him with a knife. That was two weeks ago. He still walks around with a hurt puppy look, and generally avoids me. I'm still the same person that I was six months ago - just one who now has asserted himself. It isn't possible to think that I may have "created an enemy", because he defined the environment, not me. I recognized him as the adversary that he has proven to be.
It is possible that he will now actively work to sabotage me. I'll cross that bridge when (and if) it occurs.
Good luck to you if you choose to try to continue engagement with this man.
Familial relations aside, I wouldn't take any crap from him.
88 posted on 04/11/2004 8:22:17 AM PDT by rockrr ("If this were a perfect world, Democrats would just be a bad memory - like Typhoid")
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To: rockrr
Good story!!
97 posted on 04/11/2004 8:35:46 AM PDT by listenhillary (terrorism n. systematic use of violence to intimidate or coerce societies or governments)
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To: rockrr
Wow! Inspired response to 'Charlie'

Cyber High-Five

102 posted on 04/11/2004 8:52:13 AM PDT by kanawa (Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it one.)
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