Our visitors from the South

Andy's mom and sister (and her husband) are visiting. Andy's mom and sister are from Texas but the sister's husband is originally from Arkansas and the two of them now live in Oklahoma. Naturally I talked politics and assumed that we would all agree on a lot although I knew that Andy's mom had voted for Perot and I had argued with her about that at the time, telling her that that would mean Clinton would win.

But the sister's husband shocked me - I'm sure my jaw hit the floor - when he told me that he had voted for Obama and still thinks he's "good for the working people."

So of course I had questions. Turns out the "good ole boy" Arky husband (who is a former Marine and now a Bible-thumping preacher man) is a life-long Democrat who has mostly voted Republican until McCain whom he furiously dislikes. He readily admits to having been raised prejudiced and to call blacks "niggers" but has since "seen the light." His whole family voted for Obama not only because they hated McCain but because they felt that the Bushes are not true conservatives and have "destroyed" the Republican Party. He defended Obama as a "centrist" pretty well but his arguments were full of holes and he turns a blind eye to certain contradictions.

I guess we will have to agree to disagree. He is my age and as stubborn and set in his ways as me. I think I will have to stay away from talking religion and politics with him. He is also a teetotaller so I can't talk about wine with him either although he didn't mind that his wife had some champagne last night as it was her birthday. About the only thing we can talk agreeably about is guns and hunting and fishing.

But he is basically an amiable and charitable fellow and last night, when it was time to go to bed, he took my hand and called me "brother." He's not the first Southern Bible-thumper that I've met who is unpredictable and contradictory.