My mother invited me over for dinner last night.  It was a beautiful day in Maine; no humidity and an invigorating breeze blowing through the sheer curtains.  We were enjoying our salads when, out of the corner of my eye, I spied someone climbing the stairs to the door.  Male or female, I couldn’t tell by the loud, tie-dye shirt of many colors and the plaid cap.  The character reminded me of Greg Brady from the episode where he dresses up like a hippie to impress a girl, season 2, episode 18.

The clipboard and the clownish outfit gave it away.  It’s an election year and various political organizations hire men, women, and Greg Brady-look a-likes to go door to door during dinner time promoting the talking points of various causes.  The spiel begins with something innocuous like “we want to make sure everyone in your house is registered to vote.”  Then, there’s a pitch, using code words specific to the cause or party doing the pitching.

Was it wrong of me to quickly shoo away the dancing clown on my parent’s doorstep during our pleasant family dinner?  Seriously, at this late date in history, why would any failed political party or community organizing movement use the door-to-door disturbance technique?  Maybe it’s by design.  Create polarization between people so they don’t see the real problem is the broken system itself.  I told the clown everyone in the house was registered to vote and we didn’t need any of that clown talk during dinner; thank you and have a nice evening.

Family trumps solicitors in our house.

The incident soured my salad and left a bad taste in my mouth last night.  I slept fitfully and I’m trying to erase the clown-funk with a shot of Moxie simple syrup in my coffee this morning.  Click on the cuppa cuppa for a happier family of clowns.

Send in the Moxie clowns.