Attacks By Loved Ones For Being Liberal?

[Citizen Daryl]

I've just written on my blog tonight about a particularly difficult exchange between my once tolerant and respectful mother - an exchange that has brought me to the realization that she is no longer the woman I grew up with and confided in during my entire life. We used to be able to have rational discussions, and we could discuss the issues in a loving manner. Now she tells me that she's "so sorry to know that you have fallen for all the crap that is flying. I figured you for a free thinker, but you are just spouting political propaganda, and Dad would box your ears if he could hear you."

That's right, she's even invoking my dead father and putting words in his mouth in an attempt to shame me for disagreeing with her. This sickens me.

Is anyone else having experiences like this - family members who were once decent and fair-minded now becoming divisive and insulting?

[REP]

1. This Has Been Posted Six Times Under Three Different Headers

but with the same exact text.

[Robin Hood]

3. error

[Citizen Daryl]

7. Yes, the message board was malfunctioning last night.

I kept getting error messages when I tried to post it, and didn't realize that the posts had gone through. When I tried to edit them, I got error messages that prohibited me from being able to edit the messages and the headers and identify them as dupes.

I'm sorry.

[Moonbeam_Starlight]

2. Oh hell yeah

my mother in law raised my husband to be a big ol' liberal. Which he is. 36 years old, former Army and very very liberal.

She, meanwhile, has changed course. I had to get her to stop sending me hateful right wing diatribes via email. They were AWFUL. I had a hard time accepting she was so vile and hateful inside as to actually agree with that crap.

He doesn't know what happened to her. The woman who raised her kids around the concepts of love and tolerance for all......she was even a Vietnam protester and now look at her.

Fortunately she lives 1500 miles away. His dad's the same way but has always leaned conservative so it isn't as much of a shocker as her.

They agree to not discuss socio-political issues at all.

[Charlie Brown]

4. I get a lot of flack

My uncle became blindly loyal to Rush Limbaugh and other talk radio pundits in the mid-90s. He and my dad claim they were against the draft in the Vietnam era, yet I've heard both of them describe those who went to Canada as cowardly, etc. I had a particularly heated exchange with my uncle yesterday about the supposed warning President Putin gave to the U. S. after 9/11. He kept interrupting me again and again to repeat his (very subjective) claim. I couldn't get a word in edgewise, and he finally cited Limbaugh as credible evidence that his argument was correct. He then questioned my intelligence for thinking otherwise (as if that has anything to do with politics). It was very much like being a guest on the O'Reilly Factor. I told him that I wouldn't be bullied into retracting my beliefs, at which point he denied that he was being aggressive. He continued yelling at me for sometime about how his views were the one and only truth. I kind of feel sorry for him, as he only supports the Right for tax cuts. Money has corrupted him. It's the root of all evil (there's at least one thing from the Bible that I agree with).

[Bush was AWOL]

5. No, my dad would not talk to me if I turned into a Republican

He, my grandpa, and pretty much my entire family are hardcore democrats and are the type of people to raise hell and talk shit to anyone they think are Republicans (I'm exaggerating a bit, but he has been known to engage in this type of event). If I even speak somewhat pessimistic around him about Kerry, he loses it. Forgiving Bush or any republican for anything is totally unacceptable in his opinion. It is actually very comical. LOL

The funny thing about the whole situation is they get the Bush tax cuts and still feel this way. He donates his tax cuts to Democrats and Charities. He refuses to keep a dime. It really is entertaining to hear him bitch.

[AntiCoup2K4]

6. Someone must of gotten tired of the "I love Hillary" facade ...

...and found a new game?

[Citizen Daryl]

8. I mean, it's not that she disagrees. I'm not that shallow.

It's the level of contempt I get from her. This woman was a lifelong Democrat and a voter registrar. I don't want to say that she's been "brainwashed" because that would put me on her level.

It's just horrible that we've come to this level of divisiveness as a nation.

And again, I'm sorry about the multi-posts. Believe me, I felt really stupid when I realized that the posts went through despite the error messages I received. I tried to edit them and identify them as dupes, but the system gave me error messages there as well, and wouldn't give me an edit window to change them.