On Politics

Dear Ben –

I can hardly imagine an election without your dad. I met him at Rice in 1987 when I was 18 and he was 19, so I’ve never voted for a president without talking or emailing with your dad about the various candidates, snafus, and issues.

He loved politics & debate. He even loved the procedural and statistical elements of the political process; for instance, he was an early follower of a political polls/probability blogger named Nate Silver. (Your dad & Silver also shared a love of baseball; and your dad’s instincts about Silver were later validated when the New York Times picked up Silver’s commentary, presently found at: http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/). Although to my knowledge, Greg invariably sided with the democrats, he was a learner, always open to good policy, good ideas, and good discussion. He could see the merit of a good idea from any source; he could find inanity in virtually any position or politician. I remember one of his Facebook posts congratulated democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on his selection of Joe Biden as his running mate. Your dad really liked Obama and in many ways liked Biden, though Biden was and continues to be unpredictable. His post read, “[Greg Kahn] would like to congratulate Barack Obama on his selection of Joe Biden as running mate. He would also like to make sure that Obama knows that Biden is … well… crazy.”

Your dad made that sort of remark a fair bit, whether in conversation or on Facebook, giving praise to his candidates even as he found humor in their humanity. As I say, he leaned democratic, but he was the sort of democrat who could laugh at democrats. More than a partisan, he was a citizen, and a world citizen, at that. Yet even so, one day a few years back – right before you were born, actually, some of his comments or links annoyed one of his friends, who then then chided Greg in a post on his Facebook wall. I saw her remarks and was a little surprised – quite honestly, I can’t think of too many times when I heard someone express annoyance with your dad, which if you think about it is pretty remarkable.

Anyway, I didn’t think much about the comment, but it must have bothered me, because a week or two later I wrote your dad a message:

Got to thinking about you this morning, as I was cleaning, of all things. Don’t think they’re related!

But I was thinking about somebody’s post on your wall a while back, something like, “Geez, Greg, you’re beginning to sound like my husband’s dad.”

I was thinking, If that means that Greg sounds like a liberal old coot who speaks his mind with an intelligent and charming candor, then Greg is not “beginning” to sound like that – he’s sounded like that since at least 1987 and I suspect well before that!! And I hope he has no plans to change.
…

He didn’t change; just a week or so ago we exchanged emails in which he talked about living overseas and noted that he cherishes “the idea that I’ll be back home [in the U.S.] around the time that the right proper President Hillary Clinton takes office.” So I guess I have one, maybe two presidential elections before I’m voting without your dad. I can tell you that I – and so many others – will never enter a voting booth without thinking of him and being thankful for that liberal old coot.

Love,
Beth