My Dad’s Political Journey
He fell down the Trump rabbit hole. š
Discovering the Change
When I arrived at my folksā house early one morning to hang out with my mom (who has dementia) so my dad could spend all day at an outdoor event with his friends and relatives, I saw the sign in the front yard. There was no denying it: It was right there in blue and white.
A Surprising Shift
Iāve read stories of adult children watching their elderly parents go from moderate Democrat to MAGA Republican via Fox News and peer pressure. I never thought it would happen to my dad. He was too smart for that. He voted for Bernie Sanders in the Michigan primary in 2016, and Bernie won Michigan. But my hometown is now big MAGA country, as evidenced by all the political signage. So maybe it was inevitable?
Limited Information Sources
My folks have internet at their house, but I donāt think my dad uses it often, and probably not to read any news. The hometown newspaper had been converted into a media group and combined with three other area city newspapers years ago. That combined paper is only printed three days a week, and they do not have a subscription. They donāt listen to the radio, so the only political information entering their small world on a regular basis is what my dad is watching on Fox, hearing from my brother and the guys they hang out with, and what they might be exposed to with their friends or out in public.
Confusing Decisions
My dad is a proud Vietnam veteran and was a 30+ year union member. These are the biggest reasons why this decision of his didnāt make any sense to me.
I asked him about it. I said, āDad, the guy called military veterans āsuckers and losers.ā The veterans’ groups refuse to endorse him for that reason.ā
My fatherās response: āThere are a lot of rumors going around.ā š³
I said, āDad ā thatās what he actually said to his own Chief of Staff. Itās not a rumor, itās well-documented.ā
His response: āWell, there are a lot of people out there trying to make him look bad.ā
I couldnāt help it, I said, āHe doesnāt exactly need any help in that regard, heās doing a good job of that all by himself. They still havenāt figured out what he did with the Top Secret documents he stole.ā It was probably a good thing that that was the end of that conversation.
Family Influences
My dad spends a lot of time with my brother (a former moderate Democrat) who transitioned to MAGA Republican in recent years, largely due to his spouseās influence, I suspect. Iām starting to wonder if maybe one of the reasons that my nephew and his wife moved to the East coast was to get away from that? Iām pretty sure they are liberal Democrats.
Signs of the Times
As if I needed more evidence to confirm the hold that MAGA Republicans have in my hometown: When mom & I were at a yard sale that day, I saw an old man proudly wearing his red MAGA hat, but he also had a t-shirt on that had a picture of Trump on it with the words ā34 Felony Convictionsā above it and āMy Presidentā underneath it. I couldnāt envision a stronger statement to others that he prefers a fascist dictator to lead our country over a democratically-elected President. This man was likely old enough that his mother or father could have lived through the Holocaust. Decades after the Holocaust, historians wondered how Germans made it possible for someone like Hitler to rise to power. I no longer wonder, as I am seeing it with my own eyes, in real time.
Concerns for the Future
If I didnāt care so much about this country and want it to move in a healthy, prosperous direction for ALL of us, I almost wish Trump would get re-elected, just to show all of these people who support him how truly awful he would be for us, our nationās future, and our standing in the global community. Iām also fairly certain that VERY few of the MAGA Republicans from my hometown have read Project2025 so they have no clue how very much worse all of our lives would be under this plan. After the recent Listeria outbreak from the Boarās Head plant, who thinks eliminating food regulations is a good thing? Do you really want to take your life in your hands like that every time you buy food from the supermarket? I donāt.
The Role of Government Regulations
I think part of the problem is that the protective functions of our government have been in place for so long and have done their jobs so well that they have become largely invisible to the average person. We take for granted that our money is secure because of the guarantee of the FDIC. Government regulations exist mainly to protect consumers from the predatory practices of corporations. Corporations are profit-driven, government is not. We count on government regulations to make sure we get the amount of gas at the pump that we paid for, we count on government regulations to force companies to keep their pollution in check so we arenāt breathing soot every time we go outdoors, we count on government regulations to protect us from being taken advantage of in countless other ways, because corporations, by and large, are not self-policing. Even still, government regulations over the past 40 years have become more and more lax, as more and more corporatists have been hired into government oversight jobs as āregulators.ā
The Threat to Democracy
Itās astonishing to me how many well-educated and otherwise intelligent people cannot see the obvious threat to our democracy that this particular candidate poses. (Does no one remember January 6th?) These are the same well-educated and otherwise intelligent people that donāt ābelieve inā global climate change. Itās not really a matter of believing in it or not, itās a matter of accepting or refusing to accept the scientific data. If you donāt accept it, then you are saying that you donāt accept as fact the mountains of scientific evidence that proves that global climate change IS happening, it IS human-caused, and unless we take some immediate and drastic steps, as a planet, things are going to get very much worse for everyone; maybe not for us, specifically, but for our children and grandchildren.
