A Little Less Conversation

I went to a great party Saturday night at a friend’s house. Lots of people, music, good conversation. Usually at our parties, the crowd starts thinning about 10pm. The responsible people decide they need to get up in the morning, leaving us scallywags unsupervised… which is why most of the good stuff happens after 10pm.

So it was just like clockwork Saturday night when we witnessed the bulk of the party-goers leaving. Now it was just us… the normal crowd. About 12 of us huddled around the table out on the deck. Little conversations sprinkled here and there. A couple of guitars playing made-up songs. All the leftover food placed in the center of the table in hopes that it gets eaten. Which it does.

Normally, one of those little conversations takes on a life. Spreading itself throughout the group. This causes people of like minds to mentally congregate… separating the crowd into teams: the losing team and the winning team. Of course both teams think they’re winning. Naturally.

This particular game was over the topic of politics. Not usually a good topic amongst friends, huh? Or maybe it was the perfect topic. Normally I would think that the two teams represented would be the republicans and the democrats. But it seems over the past few years the line that separates everyone has changed into Clinton-Haters and Clinton-Supporters. The rule is that you have to declare up front which team you’re on.

I’m not necessarily a rule follower. I sat there listening to my friends while nursing my margarita and eating way-to-many of those homemade chocolate chip cookies. It occurred to me that the topic was a little less political and maybe a little more moral.

The Clinton-Supporters bring out their briefcase of political facts which they incorporate into their usual and rehearsed “Why I Defend Clinton” speech. Normally I would think that you debate political facts with opposing political facts. But it seems to me that the “Why I Hate Clinton” team always brings up the moral issue every time as their defense. They always go straight to the “but he LIED” and then right into any other morally wrong doing.

What REALLY cracks me up that inevitably the argument always resorts to “personal” testimonies. “My cousin’s friend’s wife used to work for a guy who knew Clinton and he said that…” These unproven stories never end well either.

So here’s my problem: This is all a bunch of crap.

I’m not a politically driven person, but I do think that people are arguing the wrong fight. I’m not going to defend or chastise Clinton’s political history because, frankly, I’m not that interested. However, I am going to say something if all you do is use someone’s sexual history and those “personal” testimonials as your political argument.

If you’re going to attack a President on political grounds, use politics as your weapon. And don’t use the whole “but he lied to us… to America” line. You would lie, too. If you were placed up there in a chair in front of millions of people and asked if you had sexual relations with some intern in a blue dress, I guaran-dog-tee you that most people would have lied under that amount of pressure.

I just wish that people would use politics to fight politics. Use morals to fight morals. And that’s only if you have your own moral ground to stand on. Don’t hold your wife’s hand while politically slamming another man for immoral behavior when you have stained a few blue dresses yourself.

Whew, I’m on a roll. Get out of my way.

I did voice my opinion to the crowd Saturday night in between my regular feedings of chips and dip. Turns out there was another believer there and so we made a team of two. It was nice to have back-up.

Maybe this conversation is always brought up because I live in Arkansas. People here take the Clinton issues pretty seriously. They are either proud of him or ashamed of him. And since we ALL know him personally, we feel that our opinions are correct and validated.

After our debate sizzled out, it was suggested that we now tackle topic of religion. The group vote was “NO”. Smart people. Very smart.

One thing that I do find interesting: For not being a politically driven person, these past two blog entries have been politically oriented. Wussup wit dat?