How Democratic Parents Spawned Republican Offspring

[bleedingheart]

There is a couple I know, both of them life long Democrats. They lived through the depression as children and had grown up poor but in spite of the odds they are now well off and are enjoying a comfortable retirement.

Having grown up poor, they wanted to give their children what they had not had. So they raised their two children in a loving home, fed them well, clothed them and to some degree spoiled them.

They sent their one child on to college and the money was wasted and no degree was obtained, then off to trade school only to have the child graduate get a job and then get fired, then off to another trade school before the child finally settled in....all the while the parents were footing the bills.

Then this young man got married and went off to live in an apartment and then after a few years his wife got pregnant, but they didn't have enough money to buy a home. So the parents intervened, they bought a house for them, fixed it up so that the new baby would have a house to call his home.

Time passes and then the young man comes to his father for a loan to buy a boat, the father says "no"..the young man leaves a bit disappointed.

A bit more time passes and this time the young man's wife comes to ask if they can help out and pay the taxes on this home because they didn't put any money away, and the parents pay the taxes for fear that they will lose the house but they tell the young couple (now in their early 30's) to start putting their money away to pay them in the future.

Do you think they learned their lesson?

Nope.

Two more times they come to the parents, because they can't afford the $1500 or so per year of taxes on this home...but yet...they have taken many vacations and they have had their parents watch their children while they take their vacations.

So one day I meet this young man and he boasts about how he votes for Republicans because he doesn't believe in welfare.

Funny...isn't it.


edit: spelling

[liberal N proud]

1. I keep asking my parents what happened to my brothers

I grew up in a family that was very much Democrat.
My parents worked many campaigns either as volunteers or other capacities.
Yet some how my brothers all grew up and think republican, they all have their moronic reasons.
Guns, Military, welfare ....
I don't understand it.

[roguevalley]

25. my brothers too. My parents and my sister are dems to the core.

i also think that Viet Nam left a mark because neither of my brothers went even though one had a low number: two. (National Guard) I think they go 'macho' because they didn't pull their own weight when they had a chance. Dick heads. I could slap them.

[IdaBriggs]

2. Kicked and nominated! nt

[Rude Horner]

3. Can we give these folks a virtual

bitch slap in the hopes they open their eyes?

If this wasn't so disgusting, it would be funny. But all it does is piss me off.

[Agnomen]

4. I don't know if I would be able to resist

pointing out to this young man that it's only people who do not have parents subsidizing their life style who apply for public assistance.
So I'm curious - what did you say to him? (If anything).

[bleedingheart]

7. I said nothing out of respect for his parents

but his parents have lamented that they fear that when they are gone he will be bankrupt. I think they are right.

[zalinda]

10. The next time that the kid comes looking for tax money

tell the parents to pay it and let the house forfeit over to them. They can put it in the grandchild's name, maybe the parents will see the light then.

zalinda

[rbjensen]

20. My kids aren't there yet

but bankrupt is a consequence of actions, usually. (not always... sometimes other forces in intervene) and I think maybe the parents haven't done them any favors by bailing them out. I don't mean they should watch their grandchildren end up homeless, but sometimes in order to grow up you have to feel that you are your only last resort. I know that once my parents passed on I grew up a lot.

Remember that show Family Ties? Funny premise, but the Republican kid was uber responsible.

[Kerrytravelers]

5. It's funny because it's true.

My former sister-in-law is a full-blooded fundy nutcake. She is a die-hard rethug and hates anyone who is not. She doesn't beleive in social programs. When my husband's bother (her husband) died at 33 (the wife was 28 at the time) she sure was quick to apply for his social security to take care of the three kids... since she's a homeschooling mom who has never held a job outside the home a day in her life. SHe would deny others the help of the government when in a difficult situation and wants to completely obliderate social security for the rest of us (privitize everything, you know!) She also remarried within a few short months. She married someone with money this time.

Funny... isn't it.

[Pool Hall Ace]

19. Yep, reminds me of the Republicans who want to outlaw abortion

but when they confess they themselves had one, well . . . that was different. A private matter, if you will. :eyes:

[ramapo]

6. Typical

I worked with a anti-welfare, anti-tax Repub who was a salesman making big commissions. His college plan was hide as much money so his kids could get gov't money!

[DBoon]

8. So republicans are selfish, self-deluded, crooks?

this is news?

They have the political savvy of a two-year old toddler, "mine! mine! mine!"

[getmeouttahere]

9. I suppose I understand the parents worrying....

but I haven't an ounce of sympathy for these pathetic repukes! I hope they are bankrupt some day. It is their "enabling" by voting for BushCo and living a life that they can't afford that is destroying this country. I hope they lose it all.

[HillDem]

11. Kinda reminds you a little of Dubya

Remember he couldn't do shit with out daddy's influence and clout, and he failed at every business he was in.

[Nikki Stone 1]

12. And little Rush Limbaugh, whose parents supported him into his 30s so he

could have a career in radio instead of getting a real job.

[grace0418]

13. One of my biggest fears in life is that I will have a child who becomes

a Republican. I ask my husband "But what if we have an Alex P. Keaton?" and he laughs at me. But it can happen. Plenty of kids just want to be what their parents aren't.

I know the story outlined above isn't the same, because the well-meaning parents seemed to have coddled their son into being a Republican, which I hope to never do. But it scares me nonetheless.

I swear, my child can be anything he or she wants to be and I won't care with just a few exceptions: a criminal, a bigot, or a Republican (funny how that last one can actually encompass the first two).

[xmas74]

24. My parents are liberals (from their own mouths).

I rebelled big-time from their way of living (drugs, sleeping around, overall lifestyle). My brother was in the military. Neither of us turned into Republicans. I am more liberal than my brother and he is even more liberal than my parents.
Don't worry. Most liberal children, if raised liberal from birth, will turn out liberal.

[stevedeshazer]

14. Sounds just like my brother

World's biggest Republican asshole.

[rbjensen]

21. Going out on a limb here...

but in the emergency business I work with a lot of what you might call "good ole boys." Apple pie, GWBush, guns and country music. What's to love, huh? But you'd be wrong. These fellows would lay down their lives for me and for any of the people we serve, regardless of race, social status, etc. Very FEW of the folks we serve are similar to us in color or language. Not too long ago one of them drowned trying to bring somebody in from rushing high water. Only one is obnoxious about his beliefs and I just steer clear of political discussions with him. But in my line of work I can't afford to hate these people or I'd go nuts. They are simple people, and I don't mean stupid. When it comes to the fastest way to get at a fire or get somebody out of a twisted wreck they problem solve like a Phd. And most of them can strip our ambulance and put it back together if need be. I don't know where the gas cap is. I respect them. They just don't see gray, just black and white. Nuance is just some French word. And sometimes that is hard for me because I'd love to have discussions about ideas. But it isn't going to happen. Yet if I am going to respect diversity and honor cultures other than my own, and teach my kids the same thing... well, these guys count, too. No culture has a monopoly on evil and stupidity, even simple white folks who like country music.

Jumping off my soapbox...

but it's about love, you know?

[Cats Against Frist]

23. If it stopped there, it would be just fine

Much of my extended family are the "good ol' boys & gals" of which you're speaking. Most of them are even Democrats -- but butternut, or yellow dogs, Southern dems. A lot of them fell for the GW Horseshit "love it or leave it," but most of them are over it, now, and have reverted back to hating Republicans because they're rich and/or union busters. That said, they still can't quite parse urban culture, different religious belief systems, the very poor, "Hollywood Liberals," the sovereignty of other nations, or desegregation. Most of them are racist as fuck, and will make jokes about intellectuals, blacks, Jews, people who don't believe in Jaysus, etc.

They would, too, lay down their lives for their families -- or even a community member, or a stranger. And they're handy as hell -- farmers, mechanics, builders, electricians. It's hard for me to reconcile that with their attitudes. I figure that most of it is that they have to cling so tightly to the mythos of American Culture: exceptionalism, upward mobility, consumerism, nationalism and self-protection, as well as find a reason to get up in the morning to go work for a boss, or a society that really doesn't give a shit about working people -- that there's no room outside of it. Sometimes I try to imagine how I felt, when I was a kid -- before I took Nonwestern politics, or read "The Nation," or Chomsky, or Foucault, or Parenti, or Saul, and I can't quite remember what it was like -- but, maybe almost -- I sometimes feel the box around the edges of my consciousness, the microself and the microsphere. It may simply be that they cannot help it. Simple, not stupid. Ignorant, not stupid.

It's hard. And yes, it IS about love. It's hard to be about love, though, when they're sitting around the Euchre table, talking about boycotting the "Arab" (Indian), gas station, because they think the government gives them free money to open up convenience stores...

[Cleita]

15. Yep, my late husband's clinical nurse and her husband are

rabid Republicans. Everyone should work three jobs to make ends if they have to but not expect any entitlements or welfare ever. "Those people don't try hard enough and are lazy."

Yet, her salary comes mainly from Medicare payments and her husband is a fireman and you guessed it, a government employee. So here are two people who make a living from entitlements and public works who are against it. Go figure.

[bleedingheart]

16. republican Public School Teachers are a mystery to me

for the very same reasons.

[YOY]

28. "Everyone should work three jobs to make ends"

Congratulations, you are now a drone.

I like working, but I work to live and not live to work. What's wrong with not wanting to spend over 50 hours a week at work?

[jbnow]

17. Your story shows the hypocrisy but

the title made me think of something else.

I have been liberal as long as I have been anything. I was a single mom and my son had his own way of rebelling as he entered his teens.

I still tease him about my "darkest day". My 14 year old son, short hair and in a suit and tie, off to a rally carrying a "George Bush for President" sign back in Daddy bush's day.
"Where did I fail" I asked him. (But laughing.)

His best friend's parents were liberal activists and they adored him. They'd invite him to meals and gatherings and there would be a roomful of liberal adults and there was this kid staunchly defending Nixon and bush... It was almost cute. We knew he'd outgrow it.

Within a couple years he had hair down is back and was nagging me he was too old enough to go to Grateful Dead concerts.
He never returned to his conservative rebellion and now has a lovely wife who said the only grounds for divorce would be if he voted for a Republican.

[MadeinOhio]

18. Well the saddest, and worst part about this is......

It has affected people who are easily manipulated and come true. Like the crazed conservatives staging pep rallies at Camp Casey. If this is the face of the opposition, I wonder if education ever took flight in schools?

Most of these republicans are barely out of college and already planning to squander the government's money away for their liesure!!!

This is a total embarassment, and IMO, a large reason of why the republicans get away with so much thuggery. If we can't educate these types of younger voters there is a large chance election fraud will never be held accountable.

Its too bad that most colleges serve an educated electorate. The majority of youth in fact vote democratic or third party, despite what exit pollsters spin. But the rest are rejected or disregarded, this also in my view breeds Bush's hateful rhetoric and divisiveness. If the electorate does not know or is misinformed, they will throw away their security or future.

[Hamlette]

22. doesn't always happen, my son is a liberal and was "spoiled rotten"

only child, only grandchild, both parents lawyers, not rich (I'm in welfare law) but no needs and very few wants left unsatisfied.

I have no idea what I did "right". He's perfect (shameless mother).

But all of these stories support my theory of the difference between us and them. They think they are entitled to whatever they can get. We feel grateful for the many advantages we have had and feel a need to give back.

When they talk about welfare, tell them they could have a 20% reduction in taxes by getting rid of the debt and only a 2% reduction by getting rid of welfare. But, they will call you a liar (it is true, look it up). They don't want to be bothered by the facts.

[PittLib]

26. It goes both ways ...

my family is predominately Republican (both parents and a brother who honestly modelled himself after Alex P. Keaton) and I'm just about as liberal as they come. Luckily, they are socially liberal ... but their priorities aren't always in the right place. You met my mom, bleedingheart ... she's difficult, but not completely lost. Hey, she gave to Pennacchio and I about keeled over!

[theboz]

27. I was raised in a right-wing religious cult

I was raised to be a strong Republican who was preparing for a communist invasion of the U.S. in a group that had apparently stockpiled guns and believed that gay people deserved to die, but that we couldn't do it because it was illegal. I shit you not.

Fortunately, I began questioning things in my mid-teens, and after I was 18 I read Carl Sagan's, "The Demon Haunted World" and suddenly it all snapped into place. A few years later, I finally found the courage and means to escape, and I did so and haven't gone back since. After that, everything else fell into place and I ended up the proud liberal that I am today.