Abe Unger bellied up to the coffee condiment bar at Starbucks at Washington Street and Varner Road in Palm Desert Tuesday afternoon, clutching a rolled up copy of the Wall Street Journal. On the front page was a photo of Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, who’s facing a recall election today.

Unger and his wife Shirley  have a home at Sun City Shadow Hills in Indio, but they also spend time in Wisconsin, where their daughter resides.

“We usually leave for Wisconsin for the winter,” he said, laughing. “We do it backwards.”

He has a very strong opinion about the recall election.

“I’ve been in Wisconsin enough to know Scott Walker should stay in office. I’m a registered Democrat. But I’m an American first, a Democrat second. What he did for the deficit – he knocked it out in two years. He’s taken on the unions and has said, ‘I’m not going to back down.’”

“Politics is crazy,” said Shirley, a registered Republican who walked up to the back table  to join her husband. “Who do you trust? “I trust my instinct. The old, conservative way is best … people don’t want to have responsibility anymore.”

“Smaller government, less taxes,” Abe said, chiming in.

Abe suggests we follow the lead of a couple of our past presidents to find a successful path to the future.

“John F. Kennedy and Ronald Reagan – two of the best presidents this country has ever had. I used to stop my truck to listen to Reagan on the radio … he said, ‘Government isn’t the answer, it’s the problem.’”

Abe reflected on Kennedy’s famous speech urging citizens to ask themselves, ‘what can we do for our country, ‘ as opposed to asking the country to do for them.

“Our president wants to take it away from us and control it all,” he said.