A week ago, driving from DC to St. Louis, I stopped in at the West Virginia State Fair in lovely Lewisburg. Amidst the food and animals there was politics and I dropped by the booths for the Democratic and Republican parties (about 30 feet from each other). Civility reigned.
The GOP booth was more crowded, all local folks from Greenbriar Co. There was a large sign with Trump's "accomplishments" such as the border crackdown, job creation boasts and anti-trade missives. I listened for a bit but the talk was mostly of hunting and fishing. One guy had a MAGA hat and we had an interesting conversation about the red/blue divide. At one point I said that many of my friends would be afraid of talking to a MAGA hatter and this surprised him. The notion that a white man like me who didn't like Trump came as a shock! I asked another fellow why he supported Trump, he thought and for a moment he seemed about to burst into tears “The babies, the little babies...” He soon left. I wasn’t about to push him.
At the Democratic booth, State Sen. Bob Beach presided. He is running for State Agriculture Commissioner. He was conducting an issues poll and I "voted" for health care as job #1 for the new administration. Beach looks a bit like a younger Jimmy Carter and I told him so. He was delighted and talked about visiting Plains with a church group for Carter'svSunday School. I liked Beach a lot. BTW - even in today's ruby red WV, Democrats usually win the Ag Comm. office. I asked Beach what one issue he thought was important that “city folks” might not understand “Rural brioadband!” he replied without hesitation. We agreed that fast internet is a must for economic development.
I did end up raising my voice at the booth for the "WV Citizens Defense League" - a "2nd Amendment defense organization." I was just listening when one burly fellow loudly complained about proposed "red flag laws." I asked him if he really wanted mentally ill people to have AK-47's, "No, but its a slippery slope till they take all the guns away." I replied asking if he could name one instance when the government came in and took somebody's gun. He stammerd something about some militia in Idaho. I left, it was hot and I didn't want the temperature to rise. The man at the booth apparently, made the exact same argument that Wayne LaPierre pulled on Trump, the “slippery slope”, thier last refuge.