politics are weird

[schmerica]

My friends list reaction to the DNC is freaking me a little. I mean, not you people yourself, more -- apparently there are still kneejerk reactions I didn't even know I had, which disturbs me.

The thing is, you know, I grew up in a household that spoke about Democrats the same ways my flist speaks about Republicans. (Like, seriously. There are some posts I've read that I could copy and paste into early childhood memories of my dad. Which gets into completely seperate issues I have about personal-and-non-personal stuff and what it means to be a decent person, but that's a whole nother issue.)

Anyway, last election I was a sophomore in high school, so I was still living at home, and even though my politics were *already* way different than my family's (I identified as a feminist, for god's sakes! That alone could brand me a crazy radical, let alone some of the stuff I think now), there was still, I guess, that atmosphere.

I mean. I didn't know people *liked* Bill Clinton! (My parents both voted against him -- not necessarily for anybody else, but *against him*, the way so many people are going to do for W in the fall.)

None of this should be a surprise to me -- I've spent most of time, online and real life, among left-leaning people since I went off to college -- but it still just hits me anew sometimes and I have to go back and sort through my deprogramming.

I'm not sure if this entry entirely makes sense outside my head, but ah well.

Comments

[ellenore.livejournal.com]

My parents are the exact same way. I still kinda get pissed off if someone implies that all Republicans are hopeless morons, even if I strongly disagree with most Republican ideas.

[hobbledehoy.livejournal.com]

i was always so shocked in elementary school about your republicanism. . . just.didn't.understand.

had no overall understanding of politics at that time either. but didn't.understand.

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

Hee. Little elementary school me didn't understand why *everybody* wasn't Republican!

[hobbledehoy.livejournal.com]

(grin) oh, wee erica. why were we debating abortion in fifth grade? i still remember my complete bafflement over that conversation.

at my family's easter celebration, cubbie and i overheard them discussing why parent-permissed beating in schools was a good thing - because the school full of children whose parents had allowed the beatings would be full of the "good kids" who wouldn't need to be beaten anyway. and. . . what the fuck? i spoke up that i wouldn't allow my parents to sign that permission slip (because i always made sure to know what was going on permissionwise) and they just brushed me off. but the conversation stopped there.

that falls under the wtf?!^^ category.

[dsudis.livejournal.com]

In my (Catholic) elementary school, we held a mock vote in 1988, for the Bush-Dukakis election, and Bush won 12-1. We all promptly figured out that the lone Dem in the class was the girl who lived across the street from me - her dad was in a union of some sort, and she said her parents were Democrats and therefore so was she. We all thought this was bizarre and that she was possibly in need of saving.

Oh, how times change.

[hobbledehoy.livejournal.com]

(smile) i remember sitting in music class and being informed that clinton had won his first election and being sooo happy. but again, not understanding why.

[tikiaceae.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

I can remember my mum's expression exactly when I first told her about my opinion on gay rights...

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

I totally get what you're saying. Not because my family were Republicans (they've always voted Democrat...and had me out on the street campaigning when I was four *g*), but because my world - LJ and academia and New York and my relatives are *all* predominately left wing Dems...and then I see polls that show the millions of people who support Bush (or other Republicans who don't inspire the same knee jerk loathing in me) and I go "Man, what isolated corner of America do I live in that I keep forgetting that my views are not the only views?

[pearl-o.livejournal.com]

See, you know, I get *that*, too! Because, you know, LJ and academia and blah blah blah is the other half of my world -- so I forget till I'm at home that hey, there are people who don't pray for the president's death! It's rather strange.

[fox1013.livejournal.com]

Who would wish for the president's death, when Cheney would take over?


...Perhaps that is not the point you were going for.

No, seriously, *snugs*

[bethbethbeth.livejournal.com]

That's exactly what I was going to say!

Um...no. I was going to say that I *don't* pray for Bush's death. I just pray for him to decide he'd rather work at a Burger King as the late night fries maker. *g*

[swamp-dragon.livejournal.com]

Not possible. To work at Burger King you at least need to have the brainpower of a concussed hamster, and Bush isn't that smart.

[cimadness.livejournal.com]

So we just need multiple deaths! A modern and politcally selective black death in DC! *g*

[vickita.livejournal.com]

*g* My daddy is an old, yella-dog Democrat, like his daddy before him, in the manner of the old-fashioned, rural southern Democrats. He thinks that the Republicans are the Rich Man's party, out to get whatever they can off of the backs of the little guys. He voted for Clinton. He voted for Gore. He'll vote for Kerry.

I come by it honest-like. ;-D

We've been calling each other back and forth the last couple of nights to talk about what's been going on during the speeches. We both thought Obama rocked, and our boys Jimmy and Bill did good on Monday.

::pats our boys on the back::

[anotheryourself.livejournal.com]

is it something like you wonder how much these people who represent your deprogrammed views are still programmed so much themselves??

i've been in a sort of similar place lately, if that's where you are... just along the lines of, "i used to think everyone had a handle on the truth, and that we were all sort of right... and now it hits me that we're also all sort of wrong... and damn smug about the whole thing!"

... my parents are/were liberal, but very apolitical. politics was the dirty word in my home.

[holyschist.livejournal.com]

I grew up in a pretty left-leaning environment, but sort of -- moderate intellectual left, rather than knee-jerk hippie left, to stereotype a bit. Most of the Republicans I knew were fiscal conservatives rather than social conservatives, with the exception of the Fundie friends who told me repeatedly I was going to hell for not subscribing to the Way (they wouldn't even call themselves Christian). So -- I suppose it's not as extreme for me, but yeah.

Although I did rather like Clinton. In retrospect, I like him even more, largely because he didn't constantly witter about God while ignoring the actual tenants of his supposed faith....