On economic issues, there’s not a whole lot of difference. Social issues are a whole different animal. My mother is a real Bible-thumper. She’s a “love the sinner, hate the sin” person. Her sentiments on caring for others are as genuine as can be, but we are so far apart on issues like gay rights and abortion that we don’t even try to discuss such issues. It’s not worth the strife. After two strokes in the past 18 months, any extra stress could be really dangerous for her.
Hell, she still won’t admit to herself that I’m an atheist. Misguided as she is, I don’t want to see her life end any sooner than necessary. Being that she is approaching her mid-70s, it’s something I can let pass. My silly-ass brother on the other hand – I don’t have any problem mixing it up a bit with him.
Dad is more conservative religion-wise. After my parents’ divorce, he more or less asked for my approval before dating someone, then quickly got remarried because he needed to “do the right thing.” He was upset about not being able to be remarried by a Catholic priest and was somewhat bothered that none of his three grandchildren were baptized. Otherwise he’s a pretty liberal Democrat politically and socially.
Mom on the other hand has lived with her partner for close to 20 years now without remarrying. She left the Catholic church and became a Unitarian Universalist. She’s even more active than me in what are often considered liberal social causes. Though, not so much as my sister who once quit her full-time job to work on a Democratic Presidential campaign.
All in all I’m about as liberal as both parents, but to different degrees on specific issues.
Both parents were conservative Republicans, but even they had their diffs.
During the 1964 Goldwater/Johnson election, they argued for days about who to vote for. Ended up Dad voted for Johnson and Mom for Goldwater, effectively cancelling one another out - a fact which still amuses me to this day. They were less amused with each other, however.
And, yes, I remain a conservative Republican - rare as hen’s teeth on this board, I know - but some of my preferences in the last 20 years since their deaths would likely shock both parents: legalization of abortion and pot, gay marriage rights, never voting a straight Republican ticket in the off years - and gasp! actually voting for a democratic governor a time or two!!!
The Divemaster, however, is WAY WAY far to the right of me and edging into wingnut territory to the point I sometimes have to ask him to throttle it back a little.
Nonetheless, I remain firmly in the ‘yes’ corner for fiscal conservatism, stem cell research, no gun control, immigration control, and ‘somebody get that idiot out of the White House before he fully ruins what’s left of this country…’
More liberal, generally speaking, but it’s a bit more complicated than that. They spend their evenings watching Fox News, but if you actually get into a conversation with them, they’ve got lots of views that are really more libertarian (like me) or downright liberal (my mom is for UHC).
My folks were both educators (he was a principal, she was a teacher) and proud union members. I grew up hearing them talk about how incompetent teachers couldn’t be fired, forced bi-lingual education that was creating students who didn’t understand English and so couldn’t assimilate. I couldn’t understand how they could support a system that was so messed up.
On other matters:
Guns – they were strongly anti-gun in any way, shape or form (not only couldn’t I have a toy gun, I couldn’t watch Speed Racer because they thought it was too violent). I joined the Army at 18
Abortion – They supported in all cases. As a teen I thought it was not quite OK but then after my wife had her first miscarriage in the second trimester and I actually saw what could legally be aborted I became more pro-life except in rape or saving mother’s life.
Defense – They were anti-military.
Gay rights – This was a tough one for my dad. He never seemed to really support it until he found out his baby brother was gay. Then he begrudgingly supported him. Probably not to the point of marriage but sort of a “do what you want” attitude. I never really cared who was gay or not and wished them all the best. I knew a few gay soldiers, both men and women, when I served and wished they could have served openly.
Immigration – My parents kept complaining about illegal aliens (sorry, undocumented migrants) who didn’t speak the language and were getting services for free but they didn’t express any opinions on it. I always thought it was wrong.
Affirmative action – I heard my dad talk about African Americans or Hispanic people getting promoted ahead of him because of quotas needing to be filled even though he had more education, more years in service and more commendations and better evaluations. This turned me against promotions based on anything but qualifications.
Worth noting that on a board which skews one way (liberal, in this case) you would expect that in aggregate the parents (or children, other relatives, friends, coworkers etc.) would lean to the other direction (relative to board members), due to Regression to the Mean.
More liberal than my mother (never talk to my father so no idea). Or maybe just more active. She trends towards left on social issues and I don’t think she has a formed opinion on macro-fiscal issues aside from “don’t hurt me with it”. But she’d never think “I need to vote in this primary election” much less “I’ll volunteer to door-knock for my candidate” which is the sort of thing I do.
I am Canadian, where even our rightest wing parties are still pretty leftist by American standards. My mom is probably Liberal/green but she keeps her mouth shut about politics. My dad generally votes Conservative, but realistically he is more of a “Red Tory”. I vote New Democratic Party, but politically am left of the party.
Yes, I am left of my Dad, but he is left of what Americans term Conservative, and honestly he is left of the present day Conservative Party of Canada, but he won’t admit it.
They were less amused with each other, however.
- but some of my preferences in the last 20 years since their deaths would likely shock both parents: legalization of abortion and pot, gay marriage rights, never voting a straight Republican ticket in the off years - and gasp! actually voting for a democratic governor a time or two!!!
