I get this.
As a child, after attending a Winthrop Rockefeller rally on the town square, I dutifully put a number of bumper stickers on the family car. My dad was a self-employed restaurant owner, where almost the entire town ate a couple days a week. The next day, as I typically did, I went and hung out "down at the place" (that's what we called the restaurant) for part of my dad's typical 18 hour workday. It was how we got to see him.
He yelled at me, "Boy, go out there and get those bumper stickers off my car!"
Naturally, I wanted to know why. And his answer made a great deal of sense:
"Half the people in this town can't stand that man. If they see my car sitting out there with those stickers they'll never be back." I dutifully removed them, so as to hide the fact my eight-year-old self was a republican.
But throughout my life, I never engaged in political discussions, out of fear of it costing me a client. I had transplanted Chicago liberal clients who came in hating on Reagan, and I skillfully avoiding explaining to them why they were better off with Reagan tax policy than what we had. I just nodded and said, "Yassir. That Reagan!"
I still had just as soon rather avoid the topic with customers. |
