As we near the end of the presidential primary season, Andy Hall reflects on the sport of politics in his family.
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The primary season is coming to an end after many Facebook unfriendings and fear of an apocalypse. I will miss it, despite being burned out.
In my family, politics is a hybrid spectator and participatory sport; we all jump in and present our view and convince the other that our reasoning is accurate. This could be because three of us are writers and teachers and two of us are lawyers. We watch Rachel, and Chris Matthews, and we watched Colbert and Stewart and now Trevor. We want Olbermann back! We are liberals, but compared to the Bernie crowd, we are right-wing republicans.
In my family, politics is a hybrid spectator and participatory sport; we all jump in and present our view and convince the other that our reasoning is accurate.
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I include my uncle as he is our token registered Republican. My middle brother also identifies with the GOP; both are fans of Ron Paul and Rand Paul. My uncle just wants low taxes, no wars, and to keep the government out of our bedrooms. He voted for Obama the last two elections because the GOP candidates appeared to be too socially conservative.
My decision to vote for Hillary in the Nevada caucuses met with derision from Facebook friends and even some family members who made me feel like Hitler for not supporting Sanders. I listened to arguments on all sides, but my brother the lawyer had the best rationale: He’d be terribly depressed If Hillary lost. After New Hampshire, I decided I could not bear to see him cry.
I almost became a Green Party member as a consultant for a friend who was deeply involved in the Green Party but that didn’t work out. I admire the key points of their platform and like the policy proposal of universal student loan forgiveness. They even go beyond the proposals of Sanders and the rest of the mainstream candidates. Jill Stein still has the potential to win my vote.
I flirted with the Libertarians when I was 18 but a friend of mine suggested that social programs were the only thing that this country ever did that was right. Another friend of mine said that Libertarians were just greedy republicans who wanted to smoke pot.
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Caucus day in Nevada was hot, 80 degrees. Our caucus site was a nearby high school. After getting my mom registered and changing my registration from independent back to Democrat, I went into my room and sat at the teacher’s desk; I had taught a literature course in this school for dual credit 10 years prior. My brother, not legally a Nevadan yet, could not participate in the caucus.
As the first vote started, I noticed that our side of the room was older, more diverse, and the Bernie side was almost all young and white. The two sides started yelling at each other. I was convinced that Bernie would win in a landslide if my room was any indication as Bernie had won 32/23. But we got home and found out that Hillary won with heavy support from Blacks. The millennials were vocal but did not have enough of a turnout to turn the tide, as they did for Obama in 2008.
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Jonathan Haidt–who wrote the Righteous Mind and has given some highly entertaining TedTalks–points out that we need to stand back from the drama of politics and see that everyone thinks they are right and has good reasons or disposition for their beliefs. Inherent in this approach is the idea that most everyone means well and wants what is best for everyone. We all just have different maps for how to get there.
Politics can have a strange effect on us. My grandfather Alex was born dirt poor in New York. He went back to his family’s native Hungary to train to be a rabbi but later declared himself an atheist. He returned and put himself through college in New York before going to law school. He eventually ran a business that was rather successful.
I think we are not ultimately divided by politics or religion or sports teams; these are merely illusions. What divides us is fear.
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He started off supporting socialist Eugene debs in the 1920s, then became a New Deal Democrat in the 1930s and then a McCarthyite Republican by the 1950s before driving off a cliff after his business failed. My mom came to terms with his suicide, but my dad insisted that he was just a New Yorker who didn’t know how to drive.
Many of the folks on my dad’s side of the family are Republicans who live in Texas, but there is a healthy dose of liberal Democrats, as well. I think we are not ultimately divided by politics or religion or sports teams; these are merely illusions. What divides us is fear.
I don’t begrudge anyone’s vote or lack thereof, but I do know we are only on this Earth for a short time. We need to love each other. That love can be expressed by helping the homeless, hugging the lonely, feeding the hungry and reading my poetry and essays. That love could be expressed in letting my dad’s clippers win the NBA title, and getting my brother a job with a science fiction law firm that allows him to smoke his pipe, gives free Starbucks and gourmet meals and Bruce Springsteen concerts. My mother wants a cruise to Greece, while we’re dreaming. And me, I need a smart, independent, liberated woman who will put up with a stubborn but insecure, needy but solitary dude. We are a complex species, aren’t we?
Regardless of who you are voting for, make sure you vote with love.
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Photo credit: Flickr/DonkeyHotey