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Family Politics
Scooter
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
There's been a lot of parent stories in the AmPres thread, but since it moves at a rate of about 80 pages a day, I'm curious to hear stories in its own discussion.
How are your politics different than your family's, and why?
Personally, my dad is a conservative out of self interest, which I can kind of understand. He's a consultant for mostly oil companies, and while I don't know exactly what he earns, we're at least upper middle class. As a result I think he buys into other Pub talking points like a package deal; he mocks the concept of global warming and opposes stem cell research, for example (he's a well-educated engineer, btw). He's also a fan of talk radio.
As for me, while I resist attaching myself to a party, I've always been liberal. While our family is 'secular' basically, I'm outright atheist/agnostic, so the fundie control of the GOP has always scared me. My work history is a series of shitty/insecure jobs, and having worked retail (which my dad's never done) I know exactly how expendable corporations can view their frontline workers. And generally, I'm glad for the social services the government can provide to the poorly-off.
Generally we avoid talking politics in my family.
Also, my sister (who's the kind of person who when asked "Where's Paris?" responds "It's that country near London, right?") has apparently started soaking up Libertarian, or at least economically conservative, viewpoints from somewhere. She's friended Ron Paul on facebook!
How's it for you guys? Do we have any conservatives here from liberal families?
How are your politics different than your family's, and why?
Personally, my dad is a conservative out of self interest, which I can kind of understand. He's a consultant for mostly oil companies, and while I don't know exactly what he earns, we're at least upper middle class. As a result I think he buys into other Pub talking points like a package deal; he mocks the concept of global warming and opposes stem cell research, for example (he's a well-educated engineer, btw). He's also a fan of talk radio.
As for me, while I resist attaching myself to a party, I've always been liberal. While our family is 'secular' basically, I'm outright atheist/agnostic, so the fundie control of the GOP has always scared me. My work history is a series of shitty/insecure jobs, and having worked retail (which my dad's never done) I know exactly how expendable corporations can view their frontline workers. And generally, I'm glad for the social services the government can provide to the poorly-off.
Generally we avoid talking politics in my family.
Also, my sister (who's the kind of person who when asked "Where's Paris?" responds "It's that country near London, right?") has apparently started soaking up Libertarian, or at least economically conservative, viewpoints from somewhere. She's friended Ron Paul on facebook!
How's it for you guys? Do we have any conservatives here from liberal families?
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My brother in law is a democrat, he thinks Bush is the worst president we had and we should impeach him. I hate him too.
We had a long argument about the fact that he thought piercings and tattoos were unilaterally stupid and ridiculous, followed by him saying that polyamory is a totally valid and understandable lifestyle choice, and that most drugs should be legalized and taxed.
My dad is a lifelong conservative whose political development was affected very deeply by the Vietnam War even though he didn't fight in it. He sees the Iraq War as a repeat of history's mistakes, enough so that he abstained for voting for president in 2004 rather than voting for GW. We talk about politics fairly often, and I think there's a good chance I'll be able to convince him to vote Obama.
I also have a cousin who is a rabid O'Reilly watching, Coulter reading right wing crazy; despite this he is one of my closest friends and we can comfortably talk about politics without making each other angry.
My extended family is as varied as is humanly possible, from a staunchly conservative uncle who got fed up with the current path and will vote Obama, another conservative uncle who is still riding the McCain train, a professor aunt (happens to be a lesbian) who is writing Clinton in on her ballot no matter what), and a bunch of very liberal, theater-type pro Obama younger cousins who will be exercising their first presidential vote in his name, parents supporting or not.
Meanwhile, I am a registered independent who leans liberal 99% of the time, who was backing Clinton and now goes for Obama. I more or less followed in my family's footsteps, except for the whole party identity thing.
Let's play Mario Kart or something...
Monroe,
We just watched McCain's speech with Todd and Jessica. SO weird to
find myself more liberal than these young ones.
Jessica is being supportive of Todd, who is all "USA first" and shit.
Very disappointing but I am trying not to alienate my potential son-
in-law--gun-loving militaristic sweetheart that he is.
Love,
Mom
PS But I still like McCain better than Palin!
I love my mom.
I just sort of smile and nod during the random tirades these days. The only politics I find even vaguely interesting are the ones of the batshit insane variety. Thank you, Ron Paul.
The only way my views differ are on abortion (I don't think anyone in my family is for it). Thankfully nobody in my family thinks anybody is God's chosen candidate or hates gay people or anything, as that seems to be the norm in all of my other religious friends families.
I'd say I tend toward being more economically conservative, which means neither party really appeals to me. I'm disgusted by the behavior that I see in both parties, and think term limits on all positions would lend itself to getting rid of a lot of politicians that are acting solely in their best interest to remain electable.
I will say I'm more socially liberal. Whatever consenting adults do is their own business, and it shouldn't be regulated one way or the other (assuming that nobody is actually harmed). Making the process of buying Sudafed more onerous for me because some asshat might misuse it seems sort of backwards. I'm a pretty big fan of the whole Bill of Rights thing, and both parties seem to be against bits and pieces of it.
My Aunt and Uncle are liberal Democrats and economic populists. They supported Edwards and are hilariously the only Democrats in their neighborhood. They hate Bush with a passion.
I have a few relatives in California who are new age crystal wearing psychos and members of PETA. I have, on more than one occasion, offended them to the point of tears.
I consider myself independent and am a social liberal, a humanist feminist, a huge supporter of gay rights, an atheist, but still determining where I stand fiscally. I used to be fiscally conservative but have reconsidered in the face of reality and the empirical evidence against deregulation. I've been a supporter of Barack Obama ever since I saw his speech at the 2004 DNC (knew nothing of his policies, only that he left quite an impression) and was ecstatic when he declared, changing my party affiliation to Democrat just for the chance to vote for him.
My dad, however, has been growing more and more vocal and is frightfully ill informed. A friend of his is a brutal racist and fundamentalist and my dad has gained the annoying habit of agreeing with whatever this friend says.
Anyway, we have discussions where my dad will never answer any of my questions straight on and I'm really considering never talking politics with him ever again. :P The rest of my family continues to be politically apathetic, so I don't debate with them at all.
I remember the OJ trial did something strange to my Dad. I'd never known him to be racist before that, but after it he started talking a lot about the failures of the black culture, their stubborn, apparently intentional refusal to pull themselves up by their bootstraps and behave like civilized members of society, and so on. He wrote letters to our local paper about this, and made obscene gestures at the evening news. Thankfully he didn't have the internet.
More recently he officially converted to Catholicism, and became twenty times more religious. He also listens to a lot of right-wing radio. He doesn't look for political arguments with me but he always plays a kind of cheerleader for western civilization and culture, and if you push him he speaks frankly of a contempt for non-european religions, cultures, political ideas, etc. My Mom has started voting Republican out of religious duty over the abortion issue, despite the fact that she hates virtually everything else about their platform, especially when it comes to social programs and healthcare.
My extended family is all from the South, and I'd guess they're conservative, but I don't really know them well.
My mom voted for Ross Perot, both voted Dole, both voted Kerry, and both are voting Obama. They would have voted Biden, so they're excited to get him now.
My extended family is full of ostensibly self-interested conservatives who don't understand they aren't actually rich. Except for my cousins, who are for the most part incredibly well-educated liberals.
My Dad has embraced every generic american ideal and motto since I can remember. He claims to be republican and believes that democrats want to tax the middle-classes. I don't really sweat him so much on his ideals because, for the most part, he's politically unconcious. Despite holding a B.A. and Master's from relatively big schools (Pac-10), he couldn't tell you who the VP is, the governor of his state, nor any political topic of importance to anyone in america outside of watching local evening news. He's always sort of been this way because it was part of his assimilation to the US, having immigrating here as a boy -- illegally from Mexico. Pretty much most of my family has embraced America in this fashion while acculturating and solidifying their middle-class lifestyles. I grew up with their quoting beer commercials during NFL games, showing off their new trade in for whatever Mustang or Nissan was popular, and their comsumption of every pop-cultural trend to a "T".
Why I'm posting this:
My realization that my father's claim to being republican to be only at face value -- I doubt he really votes -- indicative of the republican party's ability to project the most popular image of America. A homogenized image filled with self-congratulation and fantasy towards its political efficacy and impact on America.
I don't like my extended family.
dot dot dot
what will our children say about us?
Well I really hope my brain doesn't atrophy to the point of believing ridiculous rumors when I'm that age.
My dad is very into alternative energy and I frequently find myself arguing the more moderate side of issues like bio-fuel. Socially he's more conservative, though he makes an effort.
My mom is a pretty strong feminist, and was a supporter of Clinton. Last time we spoke about it, before Clinton had been defeated, she had misgivings about Obama. I very much doubt that she would not vote for him in the general, but I would be equally surprised to find she was doing much to support his campaign.
They were both raised as Catholics, and converted over to Society of Friends(Quakers) shortly before I was born. I don't believe they baptized either of my older brothers, and know they were not taught Catholicism.
I'm more progressive than either of them on most things.
My oldest brother is fairly conservative, and pretty much adores Charle Crist. Since he's started working in south florida as a Fish and Wildlife officer, he has become a bit prejudice. Not horribly so. He supported the Iraq war initially, but has since changed his opinion on the subject. He may vote McCain, but the Palin nonsense and general tone of the campaign may well put him off. He cares a good a lot about the environment, believes somewhat in human augmented global warming, and doesn't trust large businesses all that much. Nor sure what is current views on off-shore drilling, but it could well push him away from McCain, and Crist, particularly because he is smart enough to know how little of a difference it would make at the pump or in the middle east.
On social issues he's fairly pragmatic and does not believe it's the government's place to tell what to do with or to their bodies. Pro-choice, pro-gay rights, pro-legalized recreational drugs(with Draconian laws for DUI), pro-gun(ok with waiting periods, in favor of background checks and registry).
My other brother, the middle, is fairly ignorant, but will probably vote democrat if bothers to vote at all. Pretty much because my parents did a good job of impressing upon us that Republicans are bad. His views on most issues tend to be dictated by whatever bumpersticker he last saw or what the talking head was saying on his way between UFC and Speed Channel. He'll be a NASCAR dad, eventually.
My Father used to be a Québec separatist but his conviction grew weaker and weaker with age and now he just dont believe in it anymore. Besides that he's a capitalist. He said he would vote for Obama if he was american.
My Mother is pretty apolotical tough if I had to guess, I'd say she leans liberal.
On my mother side they are pretty much all liberals, altough one of my cousins is NDP and another one is Conservative. No one is really extreme in their believes tough.
On my father side they are all staunch separatists.
My elder brother votes Green consistently, while my younger brother goes to the local Conservative club and is highly zealous. My younger sister is too young to have any political views whatsoever.
As for myself? Old Labour, of the Tony Benn persuasion. Can't stand what New Labour have done with the party.
I'm just going to assume that by US standards I can replace all those party names with "pinko liberals".
My father falls to the right, though how far is somewhat hard to tell (he tends to be fairly sarcastic).
For my brothers... one follows me in the social liberal fiscal conservative libertarian line (following our father) one falls to the left and one is hard to judge (but seems to follow the majority in many ways).
Needless to say there are "off limits" topics... and we all have to be careful when it comes to saying anything to 'right leaning' around Mom.
Those who cower from tyrants deserve their chains."
-unknown
Conservatives (Tories) are traditionally right-of centre, Labour left, but both parties have been moving to the centre significantly. "New Labour" refers to the party since Tony Blair, which represented the most significant shift away from the party's traditional socialist policies (most importantly, they dropped their commitment to nationalisation of public services). Smaller than those two, but with significant parliamentary representation, are the Liberal Democrats who are firmly to the middle.
By US standards, however, you'd be right in saying they're all further to the left than the Republicans.
Clause 4. I so miss it.
Doesn't even come close!
So: my birth dad was a dyed in the wool socialist - I asked my mum after he died (I was 13), she said he voted for "the man with the pipe" (Harold Wilson - Labour Prime Minister). My mum is a Daily Mail reading, believing Tory. My step dad thinks they're all rubbish, but would vote Tory Why, I have no idea. They are both retired, on State pensions, and have very little spare money.
I'm a card carrying member of the Labour Party, as is LP's daddy, and count several Councillors and MPs/Ministers as friends. I'm left of centre, love Tony Benn, heard him speak at Glasto this year. That man is awesome.
Oh, and the whole of LP's daddy's family are right wing Tory - we NEVER discuss politics - although his sister has been very proud of us when we've stood in local elections - unwinnable seats, but we have to provide the voters with a choice. Maybe in 2010 he'll have a winnable seat, and win.
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
He actually did vote for Clinton twice, but at some point he changed his affiliation to Republican and voted for Bush. And then voted for him again 4 years ago. I'd characterize him as fiscally conservative, and mostly indifferent about social issues.
His mother is, as I said, a lifelong Democrat, and will usually vote straight Democrat. Apparently that's not happening this year. She's apparently blatantly racist these days. My dad's brother and two sisters are apparently also Democrats, but I don't know where they stand on this year's race. One of my cousins on that side is a Republican and is apparently looking to run for president one day. It'd be interesting, if only to see people try to pronounce our last name.
My mom moved to the US from the Netherlands when she was 9. She didn't go to college and met my dad at work. I'm pretty sure she mostly follows along with my dad on most things. She's definitely more socially conservative, though. She's anti-abortion, but doesn't have any problems with homosexuality. A little bit of racism comes out every now and then.
My brother and I are definitely more on the liberal side. I'm not sure if he's party affiliated, but I am not. I don't talk politics with my parents. I don't think my dad is reasonable at all, so I think it would be pointless to discuss anything with him. Whenever I get home from work, they're listening to stuff like Hannity, Michael Savage, and one particularly annoying fellow named Mark Levin. Yet my dad will also listen to NPR, so it's not always bad when the radio is on.
My Backloggery
$
His world view would be aptly summed up with "I got mine, fuck em".
The rest of my family is much more level, ranging from pretty liberal to independent. And when I say independent I don't mean the idiots who know nothing and decide in the voting booth, I mean the people who actually pick their candidate based on policy stances.
Me, I drank the Kool-Aid. Nothing would be better imo than to adopt the *gasp* socialist social programs for health care, education etc that those "elitist" (and much more happy) northern Europeans have.
Me too. I honestly think we lost something vital the day Smith died. Kinnock, we could tell, was going populist, but even he didn't go as far as gutting the party's entire position just to gain power.
R U in Manc?
For paintings in progress, check out canvas and paints
"The power of the weirdness compels me."
What do you make of the current Labour infighting?
My father is a conservative to a point, but not religious at all, and not happy with the Republican party at all.
I used to be a very conservative Christian (I wanted to be a minister when I grew up). Now I most easily define myself as Libertarian (though there are about 5,342,988 variations of the term).
At the start of the Iraq invasion I made the unpleasant discovery that my family is kinda racist. My mother told me that Iraqis didn't really want Saddam gone, that living under the boot of a dictator was what made them happy, "just part of their culture." My sister flat out said that American lives were worth more than Iraqi lives. I don't recall any specific statements from my father, but I'm fairly sure he would've been happy if we just glassed the entire Middle East.
I am an atheist liberal Democrat.
It is impossible to have rational political discourse with anyone. Oh, it'll start out well, but once the racial slurs start flying, I just totally lose it and then it's over.
- The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (2017, colorized)
We don't discuss politics outside of the immediate family. Given that my mom's side are religious, very whitebread suburban types, and my dad's side are all fairly crazy people from rural Peoria, we assume it's for the best.