A victory for me today. [View all]

[Bubzer]

I have a long-time friend who now very definitely leans conservative. He didn't start that way. I grew up with the guy, which means we went to the same schools and hung out a lot, had some seriously in depth conversations... meaning o life type stuff.

He was a really smart guy. Like well past the genius range of 140. I can only surmise I was at least smart enough to give him the occasional provoking thought, for him to want to have those kinds of conversations with me. Anyway.

Eventually he and I drifted apart, not because of anything we did... life just kid of happened, in the way it usually does.
He moved to Florida, I moved to the west coast, and we didn't really keep contact. Then, after a number of years, facebook happened.

In relatively short order, we rediscovered one another through friend invites. He discovered that I'm heavily liberal, and I discovered he's a quasi libertarian/conservative. I can only guess at what his reaction to my facebook page was like. All my pro-Bernie and anti-GOP images and posts.

He had a post on his page that was more or less an anti-Obama screed. I mean, he wasn't a screaming-ultra-conservative whackjob, but he'd bought into some provably wrong notions. My mind was a little blown. I found it very hard to reconcile the differences between the incredible intellectual I once knew and the liberal-despising-Obama-hater I was seeing.

We didn't talk politics or ideologies at first. I think we both wanted to avoid conflict for as long as possible.
Then a friend of his posted something mildly political, and before I knew it, I'd typed up a reply and hit send. Apparently, he'd pretty much done the same, since our posts showed up within a mere handful of seconds apart.

That was the TNT that exploded open the damn... we went back and forth on all manner of topics, occasionally throwing snide remarks at each other, and some fairly derisive things... things we never would have said back in the high school days.
At the end of that day, I was so very frustrated... and sorely tempted to delete and block him from my friend-list.

I'd like to think my mind took over and forced my emotions to take a back-seat... but for whatever reason, I left it alone. I suspect he did something very similar... or at the very least, he didn't block me for some reason. We both had a cool-off period where we left each other alone.

Then came elections season. I catch one of his comments; he hates all the options. He wants a re-do on candidates.
On a somewhat hesitant whim, I responded that I liked Bernie. He responds with Bernie has his own issues and I should stop drinking the koolaid. I managed to avoid giving into the desire to retort, and instead, engaged him. I asked What issues does he have? He responds: You wouldn't believe me if I told you. I recognize the quasi dismissal. Instead of walking away, I re-engage: Well I can know what's wrong with him if you don't tell me.

That did the trick... he opened up...just a little. He hates Bernie's tax plan. Says it's all just a big giveaway with no way to pay for it. I resist the urge to reply. I let him go on for a bit...then he says I should go look up his plan and do the math myself. I play along. I go find http://www.ontheissues.org/2016/Bernie_Sanders_Tax_Reform.htm and say I found something interesting, and post the link.
Turns out the only thing he had serious issue with was how the taxes would be handled. He started reading up on the tax plan, which lead to learning more about Bernie... and guess what?

He's feelin the Bern!
Even better, I get my friend back. Even if he is a little more conservative than when we parted.

Have a great night everyone!