(Commentary by Jennifer L. Lawless, Commonwealth Professor of Politics, and Mary Kate Cary, adjunct professor of politics and a senior fellow at the Miller Center) Worried that 2021 could be filled with cringe-worthy political conversations around the virtual dinner table and, post-pandemic, in real life? The two of us – one a card-carrying liberal and the other a self-avowed conservative – just survived 13 weeks of hour-long political conversations, twice a week every week. And get this: We actually enjoyed it.