Your parents' politics and you

I don't think I've ever heard my mother utter a political opinion.

My grandmother (mom's mom) had this solution for Iraq - "why don't we just send Bush over instead of a bunch of American boys." God bless Grandma.

My mother, probably in response, doesn't like talking politics (they've been divorced since I was 13 or so, but old habits and so on), and since she's the local tax collector she tends to vote according to what seems the most fiscally practical to her, for state and local elections.

Obviously I was a tie-dye-wearing, Free-Peltier-shouting, impeach-Bush-Sr-demanding, petition-waving, Hampshire-College-attending so-and-so for my teen years. Then I got over it, and started deciding what I thought about individual issues instead of overriding philosophies, and am probably too relativist for my own good.

at my paternal grandfather's funeral, i was surprised to find out that at one point when he was young he had been a socialist (from when he worked in the western PA coal mines i imagine). that changed after WWII after the russians had taken over poland -- at which point he just became a regular Democrat.

my mother isn't an american citizen, so she doesn't vote. and in any event, her politics are all over the place (liberal on some issues, conservative on others). but i know that she doesn't like dubya at all.

so i really wasnt affected by my parents political choices

I'm not a seperatiste, but I like the PQ's social policies and I would have a thing for the NDP, if it wasn't for my holding a huge personal grudge against Adam Giambrone, the president of the party.

My mom has always been very liberal and to her, the word "Republican" is a nasty, evil, vicious word. She cannot stand President Bush -- in fact, she hates any Republican politician out there. I tried getting her to listen to Rush Limbaugh one time and she had me turn off the radio after three minutes of it.

So clearly I do not get my political position from my parents. ;)

The problem is that my parents are very much centrists - they don't question what's going on in areas of assumed power, therefore, and tend to view any sort of polarizing or would-be "winged"/extreme issue with skepticism. Therefore, they tend to favor the status quo in a certain sense; although both seem to be very pro-civil rights and all that, I don't think that they actually can deal well with the social and political realities and ramifications that are attendant upon it.

I think, when it comes down to it, my father really would be better suited as a liberatarian, except that he thinks that there is some shame in voting for a third party. However, he seems to have no way to cope with the idea of nationalized health care - although this is almost certainly because he is a doctor and happens to enjoy the system as it is more than he certainly would under national health. Understandable, but he (and since he's the breadwinner, my mother) can't seem to even understand why people shouldn't fork over thousands upon thousands of dollars for the slightest of medical care. He just doesn't get it at all.

They're both rabidly anti-Bush, but not for the reasons I'd like for them to be; you know, things like the Patriot Act and war with Iraq - I think that they're more against him because he's bad for the economy. That's all fine and well, but given the magnitude of the other two, I find that far less disturbing.

Me? I'm very liberal, but also very skeptical of political parties themselves. I tend to agree with the view that anything with the organizational and financial clout to actually have large-scale political power in a national as populous, vast, and wealthy as the United States is probably at best well compromised and at worst totally corrupt (Clinton vs. Bush). I used to be totally into politics and passionately a Democrat party toady, but I agree now that they've completely lost their own passion in the quest for votes, whereas at least you can't say that about the Republicans, however disgusting I find their politics. I still follow a lot of political stuff, but more from a distance, and I'm far more interested in the stuff I read in Zmag than anything hitting the Washington Post, generally.

Thank god I'm going to leave the country shortly, though. I have no plans to return, fate willing.

Well maybe you're right, but I don't see that it necessarily follows. Maybe you were negatively affected.

I tried getting her to listen to Rush Limbaugh one time and she had me turn off the radio after three minutes of it.

This sounds like terrific family moment.

Me: collective anarchist distrustful of governments, dogmatics, and anyone who actively seeks political power. FWIW, I voted Green in the last three elections.

Me: Totally disillusioned by the political process, have consequentially never been legally able to vote in the country where I lived. Former ravaging leftie turning slowly libertarian.

My brother rebelled by becoming a "righter than right" Republican. He's been heavily involved in local politics, though I don't think he's legally able to vote, either.

I really should do something about this weird political limbo...

AAARGH. Mother considers self 'Independent' but has voted for Republicans since 1968, except she voted for Perot in '92. Once explained that the main reason Vietnam was opposed in the late '60s is because voting age was 21 until 1970, therefore those being sent, in the main, did not have voting rights over those sending them. She complains that chicken farmers got Clinton financed, and booze companies did the same for Carter. I'm like WTF?!? So it's OK and legit for OIL COMPANIES to finance candidates? She also complains about Welfare recipients but hasn't explored the concept of 'corporate welfare'. My sister votes however my mom tells her to, which is kind of gross and pathetic.

Weirdly, my mother is all for universal free health care. The only thing she hates more than shiftless lazy fuckers on Welfare are the insurance and pharmaceuticals industries.

Dad also votes Republican but at least is too stupid to argue about it (or about as politically astute as my sister). He's one of those 4Fs who never went to Vietnam hence is gung-ho whenever U!S!A! has to go into 'peacekeeping' mode. Last time I saw him he substituted Somalian jokes for political discourse (huge influx of Somalians into Twin Cities in last five years makes uneducated people like him who have to compete for jobs in service/retail sector a bit insecure; if they're not 'stealing' his shitty job opportunities they're all chiselling Welfare. Like it's their fault that he's a spoilt only child who pissed away any opportunities eg. college he's ever been given access to). I have ZERO respect for my dad even before I start looking at his politics.

I really hate that lower middle class vibe of 'underprivileged Group X has more than me, and worked for none of it!' because it's bullshit. If my folks were British they'd have been icky C2 Thatcherites.

My grandparents on my Dad's side were HARDCORE Dems, they liked the party and TO party with Kennedy and Humphrey; my granny's first vote was cast for FDR. She famously said if that broken-down, washed-up cowboy actor and McCarthy stoolie Reagan became president, she'd stop voting because the American public were evidently too stupid to be redeemed. Actually, all my grandparents cast their first votes for FDR, although my grandfather on my mum's side talked Bilderburg/Illuminati/12ft Lizard mumbojumbo YEARS before anyone and was voting for Repbublicans by the time he died.

I've always voted Democrat in US presidential elections

Considering I move an average of every 6 months, this effectively disenfranchises me.

Was I misinformed?

I'm sure HSA has had the OFFICIAL paper through from Camden but prob hasn't sent it over yet. He should put your name down. Then when/if you move, you'll just register again at the new address.

I gave up on the Republicans in 1990 after seeing first-hand how the theocrats were trying to lynch the party into something unbearable.

I abhor the Democratic Party's obsession with statism and would be skeptical of any candidate from that party as a result.

I somewhat reluctantly vote Libertarian across the board now. Every election I have an argument with my parents, even though they are very moderate Republicans (pro-choice, anti-death penalty, etc.), that I am throwing away my votes. I don't really care.

I feel I am no longer able to vote Labour for so many reasons, but my political sympathies still lie with the basic ideals of that party, and I'm *sure* this is largely down to my upbringing. I don't know anyone of my age who votes Tory and doesn't come from a Tory-voting family. I don't think you can say the same thing for Labour/LibDems.

My mum is a champagne socialist and my dad is a pragmatic, cynical, essentially liberal non-voter (he's lived in the UK for night on 40 years but is still an Italian citizen). He's happy that way, and his interest in Italian politics does NOT extend to actually supporting any of the corrupt, pointless or evil parties in the parliament.

Of course my Mum's brother was the leader of the main opposition party here during the last election and so regardless of policy I think my Mum would vote for them. Same goes for my Dad at this stage I suspect. They are centre right, I had said there was no way I'd vote for them anymore, given my Uncle resigned a while back, but I personally know the most likely candidate in my constituency and I'd vote for him sooner than anyone else.

There isn't really a liberal option in Ireland. Even our Green Party are conservative.

I don't think I inherited my parents political views really, I am fairly sure I disagree with them on alot of issues but then I think it's well documented that voting behaviour in Ireland is particularly influenced by traditions like mine, I don't think policy comes into it so much.

One thing I am glad I have learned, though I hope I'd have realised anyway, is that politics is a fairly rough career. This isn't quite answering the question though.

N. - I think two party systems are rarer than you think. A lot of continental countries are multi-party systems where there is a non-ideological element to some of the differentiation between the parties. Even the UK has a surprisingly diffuse party system in terms of votes cast, it's just that your undemocratic electoral system makes things look more like a two horse race.

My own politics were shaped by the Vietnam War, the Great Society and Nixon. I am a social liberal who understands the need for social welfare programs. I have seen my country transform itself into a proto-fascist state with a reckless disregard for any principle that interferes with the profits of the Fortune 500. Having seen Nixon in office, I distrust national leaders. I am more radical than my parents, but they, too, have become a tad more radicalized over the years. They just have a hard time believing what has happened to the ideals they grew up with and the regrowth of Social Darwinism in our time.

Having seen all this, plus the accelerating rape of the natural world during my lifetime, I am a member of the (currently ineffective) local Green Party -- both as a protest against the cooption of the Democratic Party and as a gesture in the direction of future hope for a people's party. However, as I am rarely presented with candidates from my own tiny party, I vote Democrat more often than not. Just like my parents.

Likewise third-party rhetoric in the States often accuses the Democrats and Republicans of being too similar -- which plays to the same "your choices are X and Y" mentality.

Their other child, the firstborn, is mostly apolitical but right-leaning.

I think a lot of my political opinions have been formed by reacting against my Dad's views.

I really doubt I could be married to anyone with extreme political views. I don't see how anyone can.