My Secret Anguish: Parents Who Vote Republican

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Not so secret any more.

I'm from Minnesota. Land of high taxes, good schools, America's most comprehensive health care and a certain sense of social justice. Not to mention shitloads of old duffers who can tell you more than you want to know about ice fishing and lutefisk.

It's a nice place to grow up. Why would anyone want to ruin it by voting for Republicans?

Horror stories about your parents' GOP/Tory leanings please...

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:11 (twenty-three years ago)

i knew this was going to be your thread suzy! dad a communist, mum a green. sorry!

― gareth (gareth), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:22 (twenty-three years ago)

Yeah mine did. Which is strange as they live in England.

― Steve.n. (sjkirk), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Grandparents were Dems. Am not going to go the route of Posh Granny who said 'if that broken-down B-list cowboy actor gets into the White House, screw the lot of you, I'm never voting again.'

Parents have both voted for the Evil Ones to be, as they say in Minnesota, 'diff-ernt'.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:43 (twenty-three years ago)

My Grandad and Uncle Fred used to have great political rows whenever they got together (mostly at weddings and funerals). Grandad is a reader of the Daily Mail and has been Labour all his life (a rare bird, I guess) and Uncle Fred was very, very Tory.

My two best mates are also very, very Tory, though in 1997 one of them voted for Goldsmith which = even worse in my book.

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

The non-Goldsmith best mate is also a Countryside Marcher!

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:48 (twenty-three years ago)

Madchenlucy is already owning this thread.

― suzy (suzy), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:51 (twenty-three years ago)

― Madchen (Madchen), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 14:54 (twenty-three years ago)

My father has crank, far-right political views. He thinks the Republicans are a bunch of sell-outs. Before his retirement, he wasn't this mental. How much of neo-fascism is do with sheer boredom?

My mother, however, seems finally to have gotten past her George Wallace-inspired obsession with welfare. She voted straight-ticket Democratic, for roughly "left" reasons, in a state with close gubernatorial and senatorial elections. I took her as a bellweather, and was proud. A shame the Republicans won the Senate seat.

― Benjamin, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:02 (twenty-three years ago)

Parents old-school Labour and always will be (though Mum once voted Liberal in a local election in the early 80s as she knew the Labour candidate and had some serious personal issues with the chap).

Pennsylvanian aunt, however (Mum's sister, GI bride, lived in US since '51), always a Dem until last time when the anti-abortion stance of Dubya swung her over to the dark side. Catholic, y'see.

― Michael Jones (MichaelJ), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:08 (twenty-three years ago)

My paternal grandfather was a communist. My other grandparents were very liberal, pro-union people. But my parents were Democrats who became Republicans because they were disgusted with the Democrats' corruption in Chicago. The thing is, I can't really argue with them. There's, like, one political party in Chicago.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:10 (twenty-three years ago)

My Dad voted Tory in the '79 election and then never again. Otherwise he's been liberal/lib dem all along AFAIK, as has my Mum. My Grandfather is a communist-turned-Thatcherite. My soon-to-be father-in-law is that most mournful of things, a wet, pro-European Tory.

― Tom (Groke), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:13 (twenty-three years ago)

My dad is a registered Republican, but he votes Green and says he follows the Bull Moose party platform. Mom's liberal. Sorry.

― Maria (Maria), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:15 (twenty-three years ago)

My stepmother is an alien.

― N. (nickdastoor), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:21 (twenty-three years ago)

My parents are probably centre right, my Uncle's party are the Irish equivalent of the Torys I suppose, though it's not really that simple I suppose. I don't feel ashamed really because (a)it has little bearing on what I do with my life (b)Ireland is a pretty conservative place anyway and everyone elses parents are something similar I guess.

― Ronan (Ronan), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:23 (twenty-three years ago)

Dad was generally GOP in things but has always voted his mind on who he thinks does best (thus his long time support for area Democrats Sam Farr and Leon Panetta, when they were in office). Nowadays he sometimes votes Green. My mom generally doesn't like politics but has done things like vote for Anderson for president in 1980.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:26 (twenty-three years ago)

my grandmother- old money,bored- is a social darwinist-self described social dawrinist, who belives taxes ae evil. yes, evil.

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 15:28 (twenty-three years ago)

my mom was in the young repubs during the 1960s. she continues to support the GOP to this day, i think mainly because of their antichoice stance (she's very catholic) -- any time i try and talk to her about the economics of the GOP she doesn't want to listen. my dad, however, has grown more and more disgusted with the GOP over the years (he was a young repub too -- it was the thing to do in queens i guess) and we spent the whole car ride back to my house this AM talking about ways the democrats could get their collective act together.

― maura (maura), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 16:38 (twenty-three years ago)

My brother. Apparently, Pat Buchannan was trying to hire him for his new magazine, but my brother wouldn't work for him because he wasn't Right enough.

This causes no end of shame to my Red Wedge Labour Party parents.

― kate, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 16:50 (twenty-three years ago)

HA my dad joined thee Conservative Party just a fortnight ago, beat that fer mentalism

― DG (D_To_The_G), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 18:14 (twenty-three years ago)

I don't know how my father voted this election. Mom can't vote in American elections, because she's still a British citizen. As for Dad, I'd peg him as a classic Reagan Democrat in many of his attitudes if not necessarily his voting habits (i.e., at least he didn't vote for Reagan). He voted for Perot both in '92 and '96, didn't like Clinton or Gore, and even though he didn't like Poppy Bush he still voted for Dubya last election. Though Dubya's beginning to piss him off mightily. All this from a guy who idolizes JFK and LBJ, despises Nixon, and who comes from a family full of FDR-style New Deal Democrats.

― Tad (llamasfur), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 18:23 (twenty-three years ago)

my mother has followed a political career in the conservative party.
even though i'm not proud of it (i've been voting radical left until i stopped voting anyone, deceived by all), i cope with it not talking about politics when i'm with her. fuck, she's my mum! it's not like i'll stop loving her!

― joan vich (joan vich), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 18:25 (twenty-three years ago)

My father was a hardline Republican. (I suspect that if he had been born 15-20 years later, he would have become a member of one of those loony far-far-far-right militia groups.) My mother is a lukewarm Republican; she explained last night that she wanted to be able to vote in Maryland's Republican primaries to make sure Connie Morella was on the ballot. (Morella is the first Republican I've ever been sad to see turned out of office -- she routinely opposed the party leadership on a lot of issues that stick in my craw, and as a member of the Congressional committee that oversees DC, treated the District with respect.)

― j.lu (j.lu), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 19:12 (twenty-three years ago)

I cannot discuss politics with my family, as much as I love them. When I told them a decade ago that I might vote for Clinton, my grandmother started having a temper tantrum, and broke down and cried. They are the most unobjective Republicans on the planet.

― donut bitch (donut), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 19:24 (twenty-three years ago)

My father is a Democrat and liberal to left on most issues (though there are exceptions). My brother is about the same, while my sister and her husband are classic representatives of the Christian Right. I'm a registered Democrat, though I consider myself more of a Green philosophically.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 6 November 2002 20:19 (twenty-three years ago)

My mom's probably too insane to vote, but my extended family have got to be the most loyal (are they called "blue-dog"?) democrats in Minnesota. All farmers (my uncles) and nurses (my aunts). My in-laws are more average: my wife's father is one of the tens of thousands of Minnesotan males who voted for Ventura for absolutely no reason other than they thought it would be "funny" to do so; not actually giving any kind of shit whatsoever who won.

― Dan I., Wednesday, 6 November 2002 21:17 (twenty-three years ago)

My mum was a tory voter. She used to lecture me about how if Labour got in we'd be taken over by Russia. Really vivid horror stories. This was in Scotland where nobody votes tory.

As a kid, I bought all this crap. Once when my babysitter said something bad about Maggie Thatcher, I informed her that she (the babysitter) was stupid and if everyone was as stupid as her we'd all be nuked. She asked where I was getting this rubbish from. "My mum", I said proudly. She didn't believe me, but when my mum got home from work they had a big stand up row. My mum's mental.

― Eyeball Kicks (Eyeball Kicks), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 21:49 (twenty-three years ago)

My father voted for Jerry Brown in a Colorado primary and I still love him for it. My mother is yet another non-voting alien: a Democrat with a serious socially conservative streak.

― nabisco (nabisco), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 22:43 (twenty-three years ago)

My family is kind of hilarious, because my father is an ardent leftie and my mom is a hardcore republican. Around election time most of their conversations were always about how the candidate the other one was voting for was a morally and ethically bankrupt moron. And of course any time Clinton was in the news with a scandal my mom would have to say something to the effect of "This is your fault, you're the one who voted for him!" -- as if the election was all down to his vote!

― Nicole (Nicole), Wednesday, 6 November 2002 23:09 (twenty-three years ago)

My mom has a major bonnet-bee about Clinton, she did actually say 'How could he do what he did in the White House? It's not his house, I pay for that.'

She voted for Ventura last time because the republican candidate was crap and she was punishing the dems inna personal vendetta stylee. I was all like "I'll alert the media, Claudia is punishing the system!"

― suzy (suzy), Thursday, 7 November 2002 00:30 (twenty-three years ago)

Both Republicans, but I am the Green Commie in this household.

― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 7 November 2002 00:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Plus I voted for Camejo!

― Leee (Leee), Thursday, 7 November 2002 03:57 (twenty-three years ago)

Both left-ies (Liberals in Canada), although Dad went on a brief and ill-advised "Dubya saved America post 9/11" jag which I ridiculed him for both then and now. Since then his only noticeable political opinion has been yelling out "I think Americans are uncultured swine!" in very public places. In America. Standing next to me. Bastard.

― Dave M. (rotten03), Thursday, 7 November 2002 06:19 (twenty-three years ago)

My mum voted for Thatcher in 1983 and has never, ever, lived it down. She feels terrible about it. It was apparently something to do with confusing the constiuency candidate with the local council - Wandsworth, as the Tory flagship borough, gets loads of attention lavished over it, so she thought that she was being selfish but smart voting tory. She was wrong. Hehehehe.

As I've already said in another thread, my best friend has serious political ambitions to become a tory MP. If he manages it, I wouldn't be in the slightest bit surprised if he wetn all the way. With Edwina Curiie (hehehehe).

― Mark C (Mark C), Thursday, 7 November 2002 14:49 (twenty-three years ago)

As if my parents aren't bad enough, my brother is a Libertarian and my sister supports the Natural Law party. And then she has the nerve to complain that my brother's politics are "wacky". The Natural Law party is all flying yogis and solving international conflicts with transcendental meditation and shit.

― Kerry (dymaxia), Thursday, 7 November 2002 16:01 (twenty-three years ago)

Isn't David Lynch a Natural Law party member?

― Tad (llamasfur), Thursday, 7 November 2002 16:04 (twenty-three years ago)

I thought Lynch was a Republican. Once quoted (by John Simon?) as complaining about "this country allows scum to walk on your lawn, but puts you in jail when you shoot 'em!"

― Marcello Carlin, Thursday, 7 November 2002 16:15 (twenty-three years ago)

And he only eats white bread and puts two tablespoons of sugar in his coffee.

― N. (nickdastoor), Thursday, 7 November 2002 16:25 (twenty-three years ago)

I always thought both of my parents were Republican as my father was town attorney for the Republican Party and they were both active in the local GOP. They're very Catholic, too, so I imagine the abortion issue had something to do with their stance. Pretty liberal on most other social issues, though, I think. After my father died, my sister told me that they only voted Republican locally, that they'd both voted for Clinton. I think all seven of the kids are Democrat, though, and that never seemed to bother them too much.

― Arthur (Arthur), Thursday, 7 November 2002 17:09 (twenty-three years ago)

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