Today's the day, Pubski. The day my Republican mother and I sit down and have a talk about politics. My family are incredibly close. Mom and Dad have been happily married for over 50 years, my sister is seriously cool, and all of us choose to spend as much time together as possible. I have an amazing family. Except. My mother has always been a Republican. Not a Trumpican or a Bushite, but she believes in an old school Goldwater type of republicanism that was disappearing around the time I was born. Long before the R's got all religious and hung up about what people do in their bedrooms. I'm a left-wing, left-coast, socially liberal, fiscally conservative guy, who has never identified with any political party because both of them have moronic beliefs. Republicans hate women and minorities, and Democrats think government intervention is a good way to solve problems. Mom, on the other hand, ran the Chamber of Commerce for the Western United States for 14 years. The only thing more completely nutball right-wing than the CoC is probably the Heritage Foundation. The CoC believes that every single penny spent on anything other than making more profits for the company, is an offense against god and man, and that regulation is stifling business. (But then they all have country houses they go to on the weekends to get away from the "city air." Go figure.) Anyway. I have not spoken to either of my parents since the election. I just can't. I blame them for Trump, because they have been Republican Apologists for as long as I have been alive. They have stayed silent every time the Republicans have done something morally corrupt, and failed to grab the rudder of the Republican ship when it was adrift and floating toward the shallow waters of idiocy. Their passive acceptance as the Republican Party slipped further and further into a frothing rabid foam of hate and prejudice, is why a repugnant human like Trump was able to be a viable candidate, instead of a laughingstock. So tonight, my mother and I are going to sit down over BBQ and talk. She has a lot to fucking answer for, and I don't think she's got the chops to pull it off. If she can't, this is probably the straw that breaks the camel's back, and flips the switch on my move overseas. So, no big deal, or anything. UPDATE: So dinner went well with my mom. She didn't fill in the little circle next to the name "Trump". She's a small-c conservative, social liberal, who thinks the Democratic Party is run by a bunch of power-mad psychopaths who maintain their power by constantly feeding their constituencies a stream of "oh you poor, downtrodden, marginalized people" BS that reinforces these people's belief that their problems are not their problems, they are problems with the state/system/whatever. And I can't say I disagree with her. Although in my mind, Democrats are simply too enamored of the government and government programs, and think the solution to most problems is more government and more regulations. So yeah. Mom and I are good. We argued HARD about stuff, but found enough common ground that Thanksgiving isn't gonna be weird. Although I did give her the ultimatum that when Roe v Wade gets overturned, she owes me a motherfucking apology for letting "her party" go so wrong over the last 30 years.
Allow me to be needlessly poetic, as I'm having trouble thinking clearly lately. I think what a lot of us easily lose sight of is that this country is one massive Ship of Theseus. Pieces, large and small, get swapped out constantly, often without our knowing it. The ship she knows is different than the ship you know. The ship you both know is so different than the ship I know. Yet each of us, being it's passengers, claim to know it so intimately. Because we do. That intimate knowledge creates a deep sense of ownership in some and a sense of imprisonment in others, both perspectives on a ship that arguably has infinite perspectives create a lot of confusion within ourselves as individuals and among us as a country. To complicate things more, no one person really has any control over this massive ship. We only have control over very tiny pieces, pieces that are nebulous and in constant flux. The oceans are unpredictable. The winds are unpredictable. So what can you depend on? Your family. Your friends. Your neighbors. Do you love your mother? If so, keep her close. She might have the roap you need in case you fall overboard.failed to grab the rudder of the . . . ship
I'm with you. My father voted for Trump. In the last few months it sorta breaks my heart to say this but I lost a lot of respect for him just...as a person. Not because he voted for Trump, but for the way in which he went about it. I got months of paranoid, angry, obnoxious, reality-challenged, gleeful ranting. I felt like I was talking to a misbehaving child from another planet. It's fucking sad. I finally answered his texts this weekend...he wanted to do lunch and I said ok. He called the past couple days in a row and I just stared at the phone and didn't pick up. Such a weird feeling...just no part of me wanted to pick up. Like Bartleby by the Scrivener, I preferred not to. Good luck with your ma.I have not spoken to either of my parents since the election. I just can't.
My uncle texted and invited me to use his spare ticket to the MSU-OSU football game this weekend. Normally I'd be on board in a second, but I lied and said I was busy to specifically avoid talking Trump with him and my other two equally racist uncles. Can't deal with them quite yet.
Had an interesting conversation with an evangelical today. More along the lines of "Fuck Trump" but less profanity and more "Jesus give our nation strength." There is an opening there for guys like us who see the incoming train wreck. Howard Dean for DNC, yo. Mom will always be Mom. Remember that going in.