All my friends and family know that I routinely contribute essays to The American Spectator, essays that should make my position on the issues of the day perfectly clear. At the same time, I make a concerted effort not to import my political and cultural positions into my personal interactions. At this point in my life, most of my family members and friends share my conservative outlook, but there are notable exceptions, and I hope that will always be the case.

Memes matter, and they matter all out of proportion to the truths they might or might not portray.
One of the saddest aspects of 21st century life in America has been the politicization of, well, almost everything. I’m old enough to remember a time when our personal identities were shaped by all manner of things, not just our political party affiliation, or our passionate commitment to some great cause. The passing of Jimmy Carter reminded me of this, calling to mind experiences from my youth in Georgia.
My parents and my aunt and uncle — my mother’s sister and brother-in-law — were incredibly close, the best of friends. But during Carter’s years as governor, and even more during his presidency, they found themselves totally at odds about him. My aunt and uncle thought the world of him, my mom and dad came to detest him. But by a quietly attained mutual agreement, they banished discussion of Carter from their shared lives, and went on being there for each other in all the ways that mattered most.
I’ve tried to follow their example, sharing political and cultural observations on a personal level only with my wife and a handful of my closest friends. A by-product of this, however, is that I still have friends who I know occupy political space far removed from my own. We just tend not to talk about it.
Still, sometimes this becomes unavoidable, and the current ICE round-ups of illegal immigrants have become such an occasion. One friend, a woman of a notably progressive persuasion, just posted a meme on her Faceb...