Letters to the Editor
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You are not alone!
My parents campaigned to serve as precinct delegates for George McGovern in the heart of Michigan's George Wallace country (Macomb County, the birthplace of the Reagan Democrat). They gave money and time to Focus:Hope and the ACLU. My dad was part of the second March on Washington. Then, from the time I left for college in September 1980 to Thanksgiving the same year, there was a huge metamorphosis, during which my dad began spouting RNC talking points 24/7. Today their home is filled with a steady stream of verbal garbage from Rush, Tony Snow and all the other FNC ass clowns.
Can't speak for others but, in my parents' case, I think their converrsion actually ties to subconscious racism. SE Michigan was a hotbed of racial tension in the late 70's and early 1980s (and race relations haven't improved much since then). My parents had been active in the civil rights campaign and I think they expected an outpouring of gratititude for their "sacrifice" every time they encountered a black person. They were also resentful that, by their way of thinking, too many blacks were drug addicts and criminals (and responsible for "a change in the neighborhood" when a black family bought a house on our street) after "all that had been done for them." Talk radio was there to validate - and exploit - their disappointment.
Today, my mom and dad live in an affluent Florida retiremment community where everyone gets their news from the same conservative sources, turns out for W rallies and makes donations to Jeb from their government-insured pensions and social security checks. When we visit, I fight the urge to expose my parents' liberal past. Instead, I take comfort in the fact that, at least during my impressionable years, they set a decent moral example.
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This is "news"?
Blaming a TV show for daddy disagreeing with you? Please. Listen carefully. I know growing up is hard and that every child has that moment when he has to see his parents as individuals and not as extensions of his childish needs...but, it happens to all of us. And unfortunately, projecting your disappointment on Big Bad All Powerful Bill O'Reilly won't make things better, it will only prolong your already over-extended stay in junior fantasy land. Good luck to you...and by the way, this type of BS is why I stopped subscribing to Salon after five years of loyalty.
(And liberals wonder why no one respects them)
(Finally, why don't you do a story on the recent UCLA study that concluded there is a clear bias in the media towards the left -- if you're so concerned about the influence of television on your household?)
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Nice Article
I feel you Wil.
It's tough having Republicans in the family.
At least my family has managed to move beyond the anger and suspicion. We just mess with each other now...I had a "Another Democrat for Bush" bumper sticker placed on my car. It was answered with a generous donation in that person's name to the ACLU, which was answered with an Ann Coulter poster (she's hot, in an Eva Braun kinda way), which was very recently answered with a copy of Al Franken's latest...ad infinitum; I would suppose.
The point is, we've all come to the understanding that you can't change a person's beliefs no matter how stupid and counter to their own interests they appear to be.
Really great piece. Happy Holidays!
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I know the feeling
My mother and I can't even have a civil discussion on any political topic anymore. My sister and I are no longer speaking. The tension the immense polarization from the extremely-partisan has caused is in the process of splitting apart families, including my own extended family. I'm now avoiding family get-togethers because no one can discuss politics anymore. We all 'explode' politics now. A simple conversation turns to yelling in minutes. The polite discourse has disappeared and in its place something that combines The Jerry Springer Show with the Rush Limbaugh show, and this is in a room full of educated, middle-class people.
It breaks my heart what the partisans have done not just to my family, but to Christmas itself. I no longer have any Christmas spirit whatsoever after hearing day after day how there is this fake 'war on Christmas'. I've lost all taste for the holiday and being with family who want to do nothing but argue with me on political topics. When the partisans have long gone I'm afraid these old wounds will remain. I just hope some day we can all talk to each other again. The partisans are destroying conversation in this country.
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don't ever give up hope
My father has always voted republican, my mother democrat. My sisters and I - all three of whom grew up to become unapologetic liberals - got both sides of every issue fed to us at the dinner table. Of course I can't seem to keep my yap shut and on one memorable occasion in 2003 I left my parents' condo before dinner was served after my (otherwise sweet, loving and model) dad screamed at me to vacate the premises.
Then a miracle happened. After the 2004 election my dad sent an e-mail to all of us telling us that he had voted for Kerry after all and why.
I still would not describe my dad as a liberal in any sense of the word, but something finally broke through to him. If my dad can change at age 74, maybe yours can too, Wil.
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How smart can he be?
Whenever I read these first-person accounts about people's loved ones and their transformations from mild-mannered liberals into foaming-at-the-mouth conservatives, the writer invariably says, about the subject, "But here's the kicker: he's so smart." Really, how smart can someone be who believes all that right wing drivel? How much common sense do these people have? None. I don't care if the person in question cured cancer, if you can't wade through the bullshit of talk radio, you are dumber than a box of rocks. What happened to the old adage: Don't believe everything you hear?
And for the record, the older I get, the more liberal I get. My 75-year-old mother hates the Republicans, and when my father was alive, he hated them more and more with each passing year.