I suspect that there's a lot more to your parents than their political party. My parents are Republicans (though not big fans of Bush). I believe they're entitled to their beliefs and opinions, just as I am. My parents are also really good people - and believe it or not, those are not mutually exclusive categories. I suspect that you think Republican = bad person. You're stereotyping with a pretty broad brush there.

I have an aunt who LOVES George Bush. She has a photo of him on her fridge. She even thinks he's handsome. Not only is she a Republican, she's an evangelical Christian. But my aunt is one of the most generous, loving and truly kind people you will ever meet. I don't agree with her political or religious beliefs and she knows it, so we avoid discussing them. She doesn't judge me because I'm a secular Democrat.

Don't sell people short because they're a different political stripe, whether they're your parents or strangers. I think you'll find, if you look, that even Republicans have something to offer.

Bad Son,

Please get a grip. There is nothing wrong with your parents being Republicans. Republicans are (mostly and horribly) wrong on many issues, but they're not monsters. You say that they raised you well, sent you to college, etc. Why not love them for being good parents and set your political views aside?

You sound like a spoiled brat who needs to recognize that your parents' politics has nothing to do with how you should treat/interact with them. They are your parents - regardless of their politics. Be grateful that they are alive and that you can still share time with them.

Get out more - meet people. Believe it or not you can be best buddies with people and NOT agree with their politics or religion. It's called maturity.

I'm assuming the LW is around 20 years old and has just taken the first history class he ever liked, or at least the first one ever taught by a passionate professor. If he's any older than that, his attitude's pretty inexcusable.

LW, you'll grow out of it. Just don't burn any bridges while you're being young and stupid.

You don't love your parents? Whatever. Many parents are completely unworthy of love, though many of those who are most unworthy behave as if they are owed it out of some kind of universal obligation. They're not. They should have to earn your respect and affection same as anyone else.

So don't love them. It's not the end of the world, even though they will probably behave like it is. What kind of degenerate monster doesn't love his parents, after all? some may say. Don't fall into the trap of contesting that rhetorical ploy. They're just people, and you don't like them because they don't share values which are very important to you. That's good enough.

Consider that the reason you don't love them is not that they are Bush-loving Republicans, but that their core values as human beings are fundamentally different from your own. Then stop thinking of them as parents and start thinking of them as simply people you don't like for reasons that are valid and important to you. This is not to say you should mistreat them (you shouldn't, same as you shouldn't mistreat anyone), but you don't have any obligation to be friends with them just because you got your DNA from them.

And finally, don't allow yourself to feel guilty because your parents did things parents are supposed to do: supported you. If you've reached a point when you no longer want to have a relationship with them, then integrity would demand that you no longer accept support from them, but the past is past, and the obligation is parent to child. Look after your own kids, and don't sweat your folks.

I, too, am a liberal Democrat in a Republican family. My mother is a Republican and a conservative Christian. Two of my sisters are conservative Christians. They all voted for Bush twice (but I think they've become a little disenchanted with him.) But you know what? We love each other and we'll always be there for each other, no matter what. They accept me as I am, and I accept them.

I think you're not giving your parents enough credit here. They are your family, and I'm sure you have a lot of shared experiences with them. If you ended up in the hospital, would they be there for you? I expect they would.

Long ago I realized that I would never have chosen my family as friends, but nevertheless I valued the shared experiences and love we had. That's enough. Yes, and as other writers have pointed out, just because someone is a Republican or voted for Bush doesn't make them a bad person. People can differ in their opinions as long as in the end they respect each other.

I sympathize. I'm the liberal daughter of uber-conservative parents. I see exactly how they came to be who they are--Cary's thought experiment is something I've been over and over in my mind. For me, it's not "how is it possible to be a Republican and a good person?"--although I see that as a legitimate question in today's world. My problem is that they are fundamentalist Christians. I see the pain that fundamentalist Christians cause in the world, just like the LW sees the pain that Republicans have caused in the world.

To those who are condemning the LW out of the gate as naive at best and an ungrateful wretch at worst, consider what it means to passionately believe something. I passionately believe that fundamentalist Christians are a step below Nazis. I've witnessed too much racism, too much homophobia, too much misogyny to believe anything else. Fundamentalist Christians *hurt* people.

And Republicans hurt people. The war in Iraq is morally wrong, and anyone who supports it is morally wrong. This is as clear to me as knowing that I have 10 fingers. I haven't (yet) personally been directly hurt by the war. It's not *my* city that they're bombing into dirt. It's not my brother killed by a suicide bomber or a land mine or a US missile. But for anyone who reads, anyone who knows *anything* about what's going on outside our borders--it is impossible to shrug and say "that's my belief, this is their belief, c'est la vie." No! No no no, a thousand times no.

So I understand. I would say that I love my parents. I care deeply about and for them, and I spend time with them regularly. I listen to them, and I talk to them, and it's not usually about politics or religion. I'm a Christian, and that's good enough for them--they don't need to know that I'm the brand of Christian who doesn't believe in hell and reads the Bible enough to know that it talks more about government responsibility to take care of poverty than it does about abortion and homosexuality put together. At the same time, I believe that there's a willful ignorance they maintain in order to support Bush, believe that the war in Iraq is necessary to defend us against the terrorists of 9/11, and condemn every gay person to hell. And I'm sorry, that rather makes a mockery of Christmas dinner.