Every election I have the “privilege” of spending time with a rather outspoken local Republican here in suburban Philadelphia. She’s Italian American (as is most of her extended family), Roman Catholic, calls herself religious, and is happy to share her opinions with anyone who will listen.
In the spring, she was still upset that Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats had won the House. She happily opined to anyone who would listen that someone should “cut off Nancy Pelosi’s head” and “put it on a stake in DC”. [Did I say she is opinionated?] I have zero concerns that she is actually violent or a physical threat to anyone. Her comment about Pelosi was merely her way of saying she does not like Nancy Pelosi.
This election season I decided on a different tack. Rather than get upset with her comments, I would just accept them for what they are and not push back too much. I opened with, “Why do you still support Donald Trump?”
She immediately responded with “Trump talks about God” and “Israel”.
I asked her if she is aware that most Jewish Americans are Democrats, and probably 65% or so (give or take) in each Presidential election vote for the Democrats and disagree with her about Trump. She said she knows that “but those Jews are bad Jews and they are not loyal to Israel”. She followed up with “those are stupid Jews”. When I asked her to clarify, she said they are both - “bad” and “stupid”. I reconfirmed with her that she is Roman Catholic, but she says support for Israel is important to her. I told her that many Jewish-Americans might find her comments about them offensive on multiple levels. She shrugged her shoulders.
I asked her what she means by “Trump talks about God”. She said it is important to her to have a President who openly talks about God and his faith in God. I posed a question: “When Trump was with porn star Stormy Daniels about to have sex, while his new wife Melania was home with their infant son, and Trump was telling Stormy Daniels that he would not wear a condom when he screwed her, do you think Trump also talked about God with Stormy Daniels?” She hesitated. I did not change the subject and waited for her response. Finally she said she didn’t want to talk about that.
She told me that some of the Democrats are not totally bad — she said Tulsi Gabbard is a Democrat who has some good ideas.
She said if the Democrats beat Trump next year she plans to leave the country and already has two places in Italy in mind. I told her I would go to Philadelphia airport to see her off if she does that. She thanked me for offering to do that.
I likely won’t see her again until the April 2020 primary. I look forward to her thoughts then about Trump and about our Democrats.