I’m visiting family in Missouri, and ran into a longtime family friend in the store. I knew he was firmly in the right wing, and let the conversation drift to politics. Oops! I felt a little overly safe going into the conversation because he had already said “I want the election to be over already”. ”The dialog from here:
- Him: “Hillary and Trump! Is that the best this country has?”
- Me: “Clinton isn’t as scary as Trump”
- Him: (now clearly irritated) “Oh no, with Congress and the courts, we can live with 4 years of Trump. But I’m scared of what Clinton will do to the Supreme Court! She wants to do away with the 2nd Amendment.”
- Me: “I don’t think she ever said that”
- Him: “Oh yes she did. She said ‘we didn’t get the 2nd Amendment quite right.”
- Me: “Well, that’s the not the same thing as saying she wants to do away with it”
- Him: (clearly pissed off now) “What the hell does it mean then? She’s either for it, or she’s against it! What she’ll do to the Supreme Court will take a hell of a lot longer than 4 years to undo”
At this point, he was storming away, despite my desire to salvage the conversation. What should I have said? Any convincing arguments or conversation strategies y’all can point me to, or should I studiously avoid politics in my conversations while I visit?