Legal Sea Foods
17/01/08 19:21
I'm currently
sitting in Reagan National Airport waiting for my
delayed flight. It's gonna be a while, so I might as
well kill some time here.
I just left an hour-plus long dinner conversation at Legal Sea Foods in the airport with four random people. I took the hostess up on her offer to sit at the high-table to avoid waiting a half hour for a private table. I sat down right in the middle of a pretty intense political discussion with clearly smart, powerful people all wearing suits and playing with their BlackBerrys. I was a little nervous to jump in the conversation, sitting there in jeans and a Red Sox hat with my two year old Razr, but couldn't resist (of course).
From what I gathered from the conversation, all four of them were fiscally conservative, socially liberal independents. We talked a lot about taxes and spending, abortion, and political candidates in general. It was interesting hearing the opinions of people who didn't always agree with me (socially or fiscally) and see their thought process in choosing a candidate.
One "former Republican" was a Giuliani fan. But she said she'd probably jump ship to Hillary if he didn't get the nomination (there goes a Republican vote- Rudy's not winning).
Another lady was clearly a Republican fiscally, as she decried the ridiculous spending and debt of the Bush administration and hated the thought of higher taxes. She claimed she was personally pro-life, but didn't want to legislate it. From what I could gather, though, she was voting Democrat (though she said she could live with Romney).
Another guy was a former military man who had worked his way out of poverty. He was adamently against the idea that the poor can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps and hated the fact that his tax money was being spent to aid some people relying solely on the government. He was an ardent supporter of Mike Huckabee's FairTax. He took issue with the fact that men have been deciding abortion laws throughout time. He didn't direclty state his opinion on the matter, but he was clearly pro-abortion. I couldn't decide who he was voting for.
The final guy was an American from somewhere in Europe who graduated from Georgetown but hadn't been in the U.S. for a while so he was a little bit out of the loop. But, he was an extremely educated economist who talked a lot about general tax policies. He hated the idea of the FairTax because it isn't progressive enough for him. And he claimed that the poor are incapable of saving, a point that the other man took offense to. (Though, statistically, America does have a savings rate of -6%).
It was a good conversation. All these people had good reasons for their views. It was nice to see such politically-informed and politically-interested regular people. But its sad to see people jumping ship from the Republican party because of some of the damage this administration has done to the Republican name.
I just left an hour-plus long dinner conversation at Legal Sea Foods in the airport with four random people. I took the hostess up on her offer to sit at the high-table to avoid waiting a half hour for a private table. I sat down right in the middle of a pretty intense political discussion with clearly smart, powerful people all wearing suits and playing with their BlackBerrys. I was a little nervous to jump in the conversation, sitting there in jeans and a Red Sox hat with my two year old Razr, but couldn't resist (of course).
From what I gathered from the conversation, all four of them were fiscally conservative, socially liberal independents. We talked a lot about taxes and spending, abortion, and political candidates in general. It was interesting hearing the opinions of people who didn't always agree with me (socially or fiscally) and see their thought process in choosing a candidate.
One "former Republican" was a Giuliani fan. But she said she'd probably jump ship to Hillary if he didn't get the nomination (there goes a Republican vote- Rudy's not winning).
Another lady was clearly a Republican fiscally, as she decried the ridiculous spending and debt of the Bush administration and hated the thought of higher taxes. She claimed she was personally pro-life, but didn't want to legislate it. From what I could gather, though, she was voting Democrat (though she said she could live with Romney).
Another guy was a former military man who had worked his way out of poverty. He was adamently against the idea that the poor can't pull themselves up by their bootstraps and hated the fact that his tax money was being spent to aid some people relying solely on the government. He was an ardent supporter of Mike Huckabee's FairTax. He took issue with the fact that men have been deciding abortion laws throughout time. He didn't direclty state his opinion on the matter, but he was clearly pro-abortion. I couldn't decide who he was voting for.
The final guy was an American from somewhere in Europe who graduated from Georgetown but hadn't been in the U.S. for a while so he was a little bit out of the loop. But, he was an extremely educated economist who talked a lot about general tax policies. He hated the idea of the FairTax because it isn't progressive enough for him. And he claimed that the poor are incapable of saving, a point that the other man took offense to. (Though, statistically, America does have a savings rate of -6%).
It was a good conversation. All these people had good reasons for their views. It was nice to see such politically-informed and politically-interested regular people. But its sad to see people jumping ship from the Republican party because of some of the damage this administration has done to the Republican name.
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