Desperately Seeking Bob

I have a friend that I see once or twice a week in purely social settings, and this person has suddenly developed an intense desire to start a political discussion. As you know, I seldom shy away from such a fight, but I frankly do not see any one good thing coming from it. I've picked up on this person's politics before, but that's not what keeps me from taking the bait that they've thrown out there each of my last few encounters. I detected this person's relative position on the political matrix ( and BTW, it is a matrix and not an axis) but I've also gotten a feel for the depth of their political acumen, and it's mostly from a level of Rachel Maddow talking points. And that means very particular subjects from a very particular angle. Let's just say that keeping Iran from going nuclear would not be on the list, nor would the best way to stimulate the economy and create jobs. No. it would all be about the social positions of particular conservatives, and the quotes from them that I would be asked to defend or condemn.

They seem to be quite desperate to engage me in particular, and I'm kinda having fun with it in that I am frustrating them at each turn. At the risk of sounding conceited, I'm guessing that they just don't know any other smart conservatives to engage. It seems that I am their Holy Grail and they are convinced that they can take me down, as long as they can pick the subject. I'm sure I have not seen the last ham handed attempt to pick a fight. But you know how I said in my last post that I do have friends that I can argue with, and remain civil? I don't think this debate would fall into that category. So I think I'll just enjoy keeping my mouth shut and seeing how far they will push it.