Well – I know I said I got to pick the topics for Round 3. This time I ceded topic choice, however, unlike the national Democratic party of the last few years, I was prepared for whatever was thrown at me.

The week prior to lunch found me on the receiving end of such boisterous talk like “you’re going down this time” or “I’ll bring the first aid kit when we met for lunch”. The talk was punctuated with claims like the Democrats all knew there were WMDs here are the quotes, Here are some facts on Iraq (from Worldnet daily of course), Oh – I have proof that there were WMDs in Iraq.

I smile and ask if my buddy wants the license plate number of the truck that is about to run them over

In the parking lot I’m handed printouts of quotes from Democrats about WMDs and the Rick Santorum announcement of we found WMDs!

I smile, politely say thanks, and proceed…..

So we found WMDs eh? What is a WMD anyway? Is it some old Iraqi artillery shell that some Iraqi army officer fearful of the consequences didn’t destroy? So, what constitutes “mass” anyway? Car bombs? Shot guns at Columbine? Oh, who is saying this again? That Senator from PA? The one who upholds Republican Party values by funding the Green party I wonder why he is saying this? You know the two commissions Bush commissioned found nothing like we were told going in. We invaded to find old artillery shells? What is the motivation here?

As I watch the wind flee from his argument, my buddy shrieks “But all these quotes”! OK, There are a couple from 1998 some more recent but these are old. Maybe they were true at the time but per Bush’s commissions they were proved not true. Didn’t the UN destroy a bunch of stuff prior to the invasion?

So the response is “The UN – there is a worthless organization”. So we are worthless I ask? No the UN is worthless. So who makes up the UN I ask? Well we fund it!

Well, maybe, but the UN is made up of a bunch of countries who decide what they want to do. It doesn’t have an army or any type of enforcement power that it doesn’t get from its member countries. Darfur is a mess but if helping Darfur was a true value of the US or the other countries in the world they would enable the UN to do something right? So next time you want to blame the UN I say look in a mirror. Our nation or the other nations choose not to do all they can. Too bad Darfur doesn’t have oil.

The subject quickly changes to Israel. Surely points can be scored painting me as non-Israeli friendly. Something is said about supporting Israel. My answer Israel has the right to defend itself absolutely. But what do you know about Israeli history anyway?

I relate the simple version. Britain has Palestine as a colony; Jewish refugees immigrate to Palestine after the war. Palestine obviously has people who already live there. More “Europeans” come into the country. The Palestinians can’t be too happy. The Brits leave, Israel is created by that same “worthless” UN, invaded and promptly secures its borders. Palestinians leave or are expelled (depending who you talk to) and they go to countries who don’t want them. Fill in the rest of the story here. The Palestinians end up in Gaza and the West Bank. Little or no economy or for that matter hope. How would you like them to react? I argue that I’ll bet you could put Israeli and Palestinian kids in a room and they would get along just fine. It is the adults who have centuries of baggage. So it depends on how you look at the world.

So Israel most certainly has a right to defend itself. They are fighting guerrilla groups and the kidnapping of the soldiers was wrong. But, what did Israel do? Blow Lebanon off the map. You could argue that the response has helped ensure the next generation of anti-Israeli sentiment. That is why some people have questioned Israel’s level of attacks in Lebanon.

Time to trash politicians

Somehow the conversation continues its western travels from Baghdad, Sudan, Israel, to Albany. “I like Eliot Spitzer”. Really I say, Eliot? (this was an unexpected surprise.) I’m told about how he looks out for the little guy and then there is the evitable “BUT”. But, he flew back on some corporate jet and was late in reimbursing the jet use. I say what do you mean (I hadn’t heard this). Turns out my buddy admits Spitzer didn’t do any wrong. I drill down on helping the little guy and ask what are the Republican’s doing to help the little guy? Silence.

I say that I have met Spitzer and admire his passion and commitment. Have you ever met a state or national level politician? No is the answer. I offer to drag them along to the next visit of one of our state or national politicians.

So, whatever happened to the WMDs my buddy was all worked up about? They went the way of Santorum in the polls. In the end we ended up agreeing that Spitzer was great because he looks out for the little guy.

The check comes and we have to go.

Draw your own conclusions. of the top of my head here are some of mine.

• Look for something in common and build off it.

• Challenge everything. I believe it to be a mistake to let people just present opinions as fact. Show me.

• Distant politics is a cop out. Breakdown their arguments to something tangible. Use local and personal examples where possible.
• Fight the stereotypes. You are being evaluated - always. The “ACLU loving, G-d hating, flaming liberal commie pinko surrender monkey who burns American flags in their backyard on a table inscribed with the 10 commandments” as portrayed by the right wing noise machine spew looks a lot different when sitting face to face talking intelligently, rationally about how they share the same values. A little different in how to get there but in the end you can find common understanding when discussing family, education, healthcare, environment, or national defense. It is about shared values.

Something to build on for Round 4.
(maybe by Round 4 I’ll figure out this bulleted list thing too make it more readible too).