"OK, so here goes the first question." I started "Since I don't really know much about either of your political preferences, I guess I should know whether you guys are Democratic or Republican? And, have you always been a member of this party?".
With the same runaround antics experienced at a multitude of dinners with my own father, Pop nonchalantly said he was going to leave that one to Eleanor. With a short chuckle, I agreed again and let Eleanor take a stab at the question. "Well, my family has always been democrat, but I feel you shouldn't limit yourself to this." My grandfather, sensing a little uncertainty in her voice, interrupted and amusingly blurted, "She's tending to vote more Republican now." "Yeah, I suppose I am Cas." confirmed Eleanor. "Jeez, if my father knew, he"d turnover in his grave." She continued on, telling me about how she feels incredibly more hesitant to agree with many of the political policies held by modern Democrats. She suggested that maybe it wasn't really the politicians so much as it was herself. She admitted to having many of her personal interests change and ultimately attributed her political party change to that.
My grandfather wasn't entirely secretive for the whole interview and even implied a lot of his political ideals indirectly. "The first memory for me personally, would have to pertain to WWII." Pop said at one point. He continued on commenting that Harry Truman really impressed him. "Harry Truman was real honest. He let you know how it was and didn't pass the buck! Dropping the atomic bomb on Japan; that was a real difficult decision and Truman made it." My grandfather continued, emphasizing that " Truman was the last honest president in America. You don't find that so much now as you used to. It's something I really don't like!" .
As I was listening to this praise of Truman, I recalled a significant drop in his popularity due to some of his foreign policies.
