Not really. I’d get in trouble. For speaking the truth to power, I suppose. With a smirk.
A young guy comes to my door and has a quick three question survey. There were five choices in the first question “what do you rank as most important to you”, and the “options” left me thinking I was simply to choose what *kind* of democrat I was. Saving the environment, protecting a woman’s right, etc. I said none. He pressed. None, please. We went on.
Who would you choose for governor? I know what you’d *like* to hear, I thought. “Definitely [Pawlenty](http://timpawlenty.campaignoffice.com/).” “Oh.”
Then what party. Then the discussion began.
Don’t I want school funding to increase? Heavens, no! And so we started talking about school funding, per capita costs, and related issues. It turns out he’s a school teacher in Minneapolis. By the time he and I were done talking, he seemed as ready as I to gut the public school system and even start by privatization. It turned out to be a very agreeable conversation.
Time to go, but he felt compelled to give it one more run. Healthcare costs have gone up 33%. Mike Hatch sues healthcare types. So vote for Hatch. I laughed. Yeah, but he sued Big Tobacco… what good has that done? Lots of new anti-smoking ads, of course. So *someone* got the best of it. But overall, a big nothing.
I said that I’m sticking conservative because I want less money to go to broken systems (because I don’t like supporting broken) and because less money will force change. Not that conservatives these days seem particularly good at spending less money. Different topic.
“Yeah, Hatch isn’t really a strong candidate.” he said, “I’m really only out here because it’s my job.”
I like it best when the job description on the office door to room 319 comes up “Monkey Trainer”. It always makes me laugh!
Well, I have five kids… it’s pretty accurate. :)