A Dinner Invite. A political confrontation. A victory of sorts.

My wife and I were invited by a co-worker of her's to dinner. Three women and a man were there. All in their 60s. I never met them.

The hostess told us she was a Mayflower descendant.

One woman was a guest from NY who was born in Nazi Germany and came to the U.S. at the age of 18. She related how once in school she got tired making the right-hand Nazi salute and she used her left-hand. Her teacher smacked her. She told her mother who came to the school to warn the teacher, who must have reported this to the authorities. From then on, her family was watched very closely.

The other woman was the wife of a naval flier who lived in the Virgin Islands for 30 years.

The guy was a retired investor. Nice fellow, a stroke victim.

All conservatives. I didn't feel too comfortable there.

We sat down to eat and a woman brought up Iraq. "We should bomb the hell out of those savages. Nuke 'em. They want to kill us. Let's get them before they get us".

I had no intention in getting involved in a political discussion. But I had no choice when they asked me for my views. As diplomatically as I could be (after all I was a guest) I offered my opinion that we had no business being in Iraq. That it was a war for oil and hegemony. And that Bush confused the issue by associating Iraq with terrorists. That the WMD were never found, etc.

The hostess went at me like a maniac: "You liberal! You just follow what the liberal media says. Bush wants to bring democracy to the people of Iraq. They buried the WMD in Syria".

I tried to calm her down. I said we should concentrate on our problems at home. And that $200 billion, not to mention the lives lost, would be saved if we brought the soldiers home..

The German lady said: "Thank God for the liberal media". I had a supporter.

The guy didn't say much, other than how he loved to play the stock market all his life.

And the other woman also said: "We should not get bogged down. Just nuke 'em. They are savages".

But the hostess went on to say how proud the soldiers were to fight this war. That we should support them. The other women and I countered that these young kids joined the service not to fight, but because they needed a job, and education.

Then she said how she remembered when FDR died (he was a hero to her and her parents) and she attended his funeral as a little girl. Kind of thru me for a loop.

I told them as bad as Nixon was, at least he did a few good things. Like going to Russia and China. And that Bush was in a class by himself.

Then the other woman went on about Clinton. How he lied under oath! So we got into a discussion about sex. Yes, I told them, virtually all presidents had extramarital sex, except for possibly two: Harry Truman and Jimmy Carter. And that Clinton was hounded from Day One. And how the bogus impeachment took away from his efforts to fight terrorism. And they agreed with me.

We finished our dinner. I was actually getting to enjoy the conversation. I felt I was making a few points. But it was time to go.

I may have won just a little bit of their hearts and minds. If I did, great. But the important thing was, I did not back down to please the hostess. I was winning them over with the facts. Just the truth.

Truth Is All.

Way to stand up for your beliefs! I especially like how the one guest is calling Iraqis savages, but then said that Bush is trying to bring Democracy to them. Man, I thought that colonial imperialist thinking was dead. Was I ever wrong.

extraordinary patience won the evening over to your side.

My freeper relatives used to think Bush was the answer to their dreams. I used to fight with them about it at family gatherings but I quit doing that about 2 years ago and stayed out of the conversation. I'm the crazy liberal of the family - of course when anyone is in trouble, who do they call, me the liberal (I'm also a lawyer - they hate that unless then need one) But I digress

Anyway, last week, the freeper relatives finally realized that Bush isn't conervative at all! Bush spends all of the governments money, screwed up the economy and made the entire world hate us. DUH! They told me that they are voting for Kerry. I almost flipped out of my chair! Anyway, I hope this trend continues for everyone's freeper relatives.

not exactly a great group though.

The man practically invented flop sweat.

I love "freepers see the light" stories!

:bounce::bounce::bounce:

How wonderfully dissonantly compassionate.

So it's like, you're being anti-democratic for not wanting to nuke the Iraqies.