I used to have a really strong bond with my family and in many ways still do. But we've grown older, moved to different places, have our own families, children. Things change and I know we werent going to live as one big happy family under one roof forever. We've lost some dear members of the family recently as we all continue to age and grow steadily apart.
Politics was never a a big part of my family. It was not a political family. In fact, I never remember politics being discussed in my home, ever. It just wasn't, for no particular reason. But these days....well, my family political skeletons have finally broken out of the closet and are feasting on Republican talking points. Help!
I don't know when this happened, exactly. Or maybe I never noticed it until I became politically active. My father, a proud Vietnam vet, has, according to my dearly departed mother, always voted Republican. He talks to me more about football and movies than politics, but once in a while he'll hit me with some Fox news talking point. I know he loves reading the NY Post and does watch Fox News, but he's not militant about it. He's more into primetime dramatic TV shows. He's not a news junkie by any stretch. But he does have this fantasy that Republicans are "strong on defense" and "good for the military." He's always thought this. He told me that's why he was leaning towards McCain and said that Palin is a "refreshing voice." Yet, no matter how many articles and facts (a dirty word for Republicans, I realize) I send him proving that the exact opposite is true, he still believes Republicans=strong military and defense. That is his main reason. He's 71, could care less about the social stuff (he's an atheist), but believes what he believes. Just yesterday he started randomly texting me, wondering if I "saw the news" about how high our debt was!! Which made me think he got the days Fox News talking point directly from...
My older sister. She feeds him most of the right wing nonsense and these days he has been eating it up. Which I think is tragic. My father is smart man. Educated, he was a pilot, raised a large and loving family, taught me the importance of reading and writing- he himself has read everything. But these days, his tired mind can't seem to fend off my sister's rabid and persistent right wing vitriol that she feeds him, multiple times throughout the day. She never used to be political either. Again, I don't think, in the first 20-30 years of my life, we ever talked politics once. The few times she briefly brought anything up was to tell me she was voting Democratic (she voted for Gore and Kerry, I think) because of her strong position on a woman's right to choose. That was her issue. Plus she hated Bush and would bash him all the time and used to complain about all the Republicans that worked in her office. Then a funny thing happened. She moved to Florida. She started dating a Fox news obsessed guy and a black man was running for POTUS. That did it. Her political views flipped seemingly overnight. She went from being basically an a-political person who voted Dem, to a rabid, frothing at the mouth right winger. It happened so fast, my head is still spinning! Obviously this guy she's dating has brainwashed her with all his likely non-stop right wing propaganda plus, to be honest, she never liked black people. Or immigrants. Or gays. She would, on occasion, go on about how lazy blacks are living off welfare and should be getting a job instead. She has also railed against immigrants coming to this country and living "the high life" for free! Oh, the outrage!
Once a black POTUS was nominated, I think she turned an ugly corner. That was it for her. Suddenly all the anti-women bills and positions that Republicans support mean nothing to her. The last few elections have been ugly. I tried to reason with her but she lives in the no-facts zone now. You know how that goes. She forwards me all the crazy, right wing conspiracies and I send her facts with links disputing everything she believes. Doesn't matter. Makes no difference. Just yesterday she sends me this text at 830 in the morning.
"how do u like paying yr prez 4 dollar a gallon gas!"
I'm sure many of you have to deal with this nonsense. I tried to text her a bit about the complexities of our energy policy and what really is responsible and how it was 5 bucks a gallon under Bush, but nothing penetrates the "bubble." Sigh.
So, my dear fellow Kossacks, how do you deal with your right wing family? I love them and don't want to alienate them for being hateful and stupid. And I always push back with facts and knowledge but it's like trying to reason with a zombie. Nothing works. Do I just ignore them or what? What do you do?
As far as my family goes, I am not looking forward to the next seven months!