My political upbringing

Mom and Dad as I like to remember them

Despite being almost nine years younger than anyone else in my extended family, I did pay attention to the discussions.  The first news story I remember, in the sense that I was aware of it and understood that it was important, was Watergate.  Naturally I didn't fully comprehend it.  After all, I was only about seven.  But I knew it was important because my parents acted like it was important. They also didn't allow kids making light of it either.  I know that for a fact.

But the part that got me was listening to them in that old kitchen we had at the time.  While the story gained steam, I recall them both saying they hoped and prayed it was all hot air.  They hoped Nixon was not connected to anything and nothing would result in him getting in trouble.  Because, as they said, they feared it would be bad for the country.  But here's the punchline - they were both Democrats.  

I don't know if my dad's family voted Democrat or not, since the brothers went their own ways all over the country.  But my mom's family, who largely stayed around Akron, was deep into the Democratic Party.  That's why later my parents both voted for Jimmy Carter in 1976 - the year of our country's big Bicentennial.  By then I was going on ten, and a little more aware of things.  One reason they chose Carter was the hope that it would stem the party's push toward extremism and what they saw as dangerous developments to the left of center.  

Both my mom and my dad had stood for things we would associate with 'liberal' in the pop culture sense.  For example, while serving in the army at Fort Knox and later Fort Hood, my parents had their eyes opened where racial segregation was concerned.  Especially Mom, who was sort the 'naive and sheltered' young girl of the day.  My dad, who knew his way around town and then some, was nonetheless also taken by the clear and naked legal discrimination he saw.  Now my mom might have been naïve, but she also inherited her dad's mouth, and was not afraid to let her opinions  be known.  At one point while in Texas, my dad stepped in and asked her to stop railing against what she saw, because many of the women she was confronting were the wives of his company's officers. Still, she got so upset about what she saw that on one Christmas, her family drafted up a fake application for the NAACP and gave it to her.

Nonetheless, in 1976 they saw many movements they had supported going in the wrong direction.  Directions they believed would be  harmful to the country they were raising their kids in. So they voted for Carter, hoping that the Evangelical would reign things in.  By the end, however, they were anything but fans of Carter.  Even though dad had seniority on the railroad by then (back when seniority in a job meant something), and the economic hits weren't impacting us, they were upset because they were hurting the country as a whole.  They were still weaned on the idea that we care about our fellow Americans.  And they concluded Carter wasn't the one to fix the problems that were impacting them.

So in 1980, both my mom and my dad became part of the legendary Reagan Democrats.  Jumping ship, they voted for Reagan, much to the chagrin of my mom's sisters and brother (her second brother had passed by then).  That led to some pretty intense discussions let me tell you. But here is the funny thing. It wasn't as partisan as you'd think.

The fact is, they all seemed to like Reagan.  Apparently he had visited the area once many years earlier, when they were all younger.  It was to visit the Akron Soap Box Derby, which used to be a big thing in its day.  I guess a couple of my aunts met him, and talked about how nice and down to earth he seemed.  They also went on about him being handsome. They just wouldn't vote for him because he was a Republican.  As they said, they didn't want their dad turning over in his grave. 

But even funnier was my mom and dad. Especially my dad.  A union man all the way, for the next eight years he frequently jumped up and down and yelled at the TV because of what Reagan had done.  Not all things.  There were things he openly supported, especially taking a hard line against the Soviets and other countries he felt had been pushing us around.  He also appreciated Reagan making patriotism cool again and pushing back at the 'Patriotism is for losers' movement pop culture had been peddling for years by that point.  But in other cases, he would become very upset at things Reagan did (we won't even mention his feelings about Elizabeth Dole).  Even though, unlike my mom's family, he voted for Reagan - twice!

So that was my experience with politics.  Democrat parents hoping the Republican president they voted against wasn't guilty because it might hurt the country.  Democrat parents actively supporting social causes but realizing such causes can turn down dangerous paths.  Democrat parents who weren't personally harmed by a floundering economy under a Democrat administration, but were concerned that it was hurting Americans as a whole.  So much so that those Democrats voted for a Republican in the 1980s.  And though my mom's family would never vote for Reagan, they generally liked him personally.  While my parents, especially my dad, who did vote for him twice, frequently became upset when he felt Reagan was in the wrong.  

If nothing else, you can see why I have little use for naked partisanship, or slavish devotion to this or that social movement, or defending one side to the exclusion of any other sanity.  I try my best to step back and see what is going on for what it is. Like Trump. I never had had much use for him, and there are things, especially this second term, which are worthy of criticism to be sure.  But neither will I go Never-Trumper derangement and wish for my plane to crash just because he's the pilot. Or fool myself into forgetting that many on the Left who call Trump Hitler had no problem partying with him, golfing with him, hanging out with him, and of course asking for money - at least before he put an "R" in front of his name.