I had an interesting email conversation about politics recently with somebody I grew up with. You can take that as a friend, sibling or neighbor.

He said it was great Obama won re-election because he represents ordinary people. That statement tweaked my brain cells, what few there are. I started thinking out of the box about what's "ordinary." To avoid being too controversial let me say up front it is true there are ordinary people in both political parties, but I submit there are a whole host of extraordinary people who make up the Democrat Party and embraced by it.

To me, "ordinary" means hard-working, tax-paying, family-oriented, and God-fearing people as we have known most people to be, looking back in American history. In other words, like most people we find in western Kansas.

I would argue Republicans and Democrats are poles apart when it comes to this topic. Let me explain.

Democrats cater to special interest groups that really seem to be out of the ordinary. For example, I don't consider radical feminists, whose philosophy is all about changing the traditional family structure, to be ordinary. That can be said of gays and lesbians as well. These three very liberal groups are unusual and helped re-elect Obama.

Hollywood and the entertainment industry are, obviously, very liberal and few vote Republican. For the most part, I don't consider all that acting to be ordinary. Life is about reality, not make believe.

I don't consider pro choice, pro abortion people the norm although one has to wonder with America approaching some 56 million abortions since the 1973 Roe vs. Wade. I would hope abortions are out of the ordinary.

I suspect most atheists vote Democrat. Since a majority in America consider themselves to be Christian, I would construe that to be ordinary and it's my understanding there are more Christians in one party than in the other. For the record, I noticed Obama got a huge majority vote from Muslim Americans, another out of the mainstream group.

Environmentalists are out of the loop in as much as they believe, too often, the environment is more important than humans. They would protect the environment at the expense of what is best for you and me as God intended.

Anti-military groups are out of the mainstream, as are coercive unions, socialists and even communists such as Obama's former czar Van Jones and some others.

With 95 percent in the black community voting one way election after election, I say, that is not common practice whatsoever when you look at ethnic groups as a whole. Besides, they only constitute 13 percent of our population.

Whoa! Seems of late (looking especially at our last election) some groups have surfaced many haven't talked about before.

There are people who pay taxes and those that don't. There are people who work for a living and those that don't. There are the self reliant and those who depend on government. There are takers versus the makers. Nope, it is not "ordinary" to take out of the system (food stamps, unemployment, etc.) more than is put in.

Let's be clear. There are ordinary folks in both parties. Some ordinary people became something else through no fault of their own, but many have chosen to live off the government.

Sad to say all those extraordinary groups combined had a lot to do with re-electing America's most extraordinary president. I believe I make a good case to that person I grew up with that Obama favors special groups rather than ordinary people.

Les Knoll

Victoria and Gilbert, Ariz.