My Dad's political schizophrenia

[Cats Against Frist]

You know, in polls, where you have the true believers, the leaners and the "I don't knows." I've seen it talked about, however, that there's another category: people who will support the President, no matter what.

This is my dad. My dad is a conservative Democrat and a liberal Republican. This man voted for Jimmy Carter, both times, He didn't vote for Reagan the first time, but did the second time. He voted for Clinton both times, and he voted for shrub the first time, but didn't vote for him the second time. Even though shrub and his daddy broke the pattern, his usual pattern, before Carter, too, was to vote for the incumbent -- same with state and local elections.

I was amused to walk into his garage and see a Bush/Cheney political sign, a Kerry/Edwards political sign and a Ross Perot for President sign, all tacked up to his wall.

Does anyone else know someone like this? I think some people ask themselves "do these people exist?" And if they do, they usually think this person knows nothing about politics. My dad is fairly political -- but he just likes his milk gravy, his easy chair and the status quo. The odd thing, too, is that he never hates authority figures -- could be one of those "well, if you aren't doing something wrong, you don't have anything to worry about" kind of guys.

I find this odd, because he used to be a VERY active union coal miner, who participated in a few activities of sabatoge, when he was younger. As he says, though: "I'm 54 years OLD, what am I going to do?" He's changed. He loves the cops, all presidents, assumes corporations are doing what's right. He wants to believe in "noble man," or something.

Anyone know anyone, or have any insight into how people get like this?

[acmejack]

1. I know several people of the same age group that have done the same thing

I am the same age, we were all real radical, now almost all of us are inexplicably conservative. I cannot explain this, I am totally baffled. Now they have a lot of material things to protect is my only guess, greed can explain many things. Needless to say, we no longer have much in common and rarely talk-their choice, not mine.

[Cats Against Frist]

3. I don't know if he was ever radical,

and he's not really conservative. He likes the government, and likes to pay his taxes. He and my mother are both pretty racist, but they believe in helping children, at all costs. He's for the war, but not too happy with shrub. My mother, on the other hand, is racist, pro-life, pro-gay (particularly pro-gay adoption) and wouldn't vote for a Republican if she had a gun to her head. Neither one are particularly religious -- I've never seen the inside of a church, with my family, unless it was a wedding or a funeral. I think they'd make an interesting study in moderates.

And my dad was only really "radical," when it came to the union. He was very loyal to the union, and struck, and threw applejacks under company tires, and refuses to cross picket lines, and won't work a non-union job. But he still loves authority.

[Divernan]

2. He feels helpless so convinces himself anyone in charge won't hurt him.

Good men of your dad's generation were raised to take charge, to be strong and brave, and to stop bullies and protect the weak. He lived those ideals when he was an activist coal miner/union member. If he had to live every day with the inner knowledge that his world is now controlled by shits like Bush and the neocons, and that these shits are destroying the future of your dad's kids and grandkids, and that there is nothing he feels able to do to stop them - well it would just be too painful. So he's in denial of the reality and convinces himself that everyone in power is a good person with good intentions.

[Cats Against Frist]

4. I think that's part of it

sometimes it's like he almost cannot bear political discussion. He watches FOX news, though, which is a bad thing -- but he's not really super conservative, or anything. He is a good man -- has his drawbacks (anti-gay and racist), but he's also very compassionate toward children, likes paying his taxes to give people a hand, and he's fiercely loyal to my mom and my brother and I, and has always worked insane hours to provide for us. I do think some of it is a chosen cognitive dissonance, in order to not feel frustrated -- good assessment, thank you.

[Arugula Latte]

7. My dad was kind of like that.

One time I sent him an article on how the voting process was totally screwed up and he responded like: "Well, I always say, if we don't like something, we can vote it out." And I was left scratching my head thinking: "What the F@#$?! He entirely missed the point. How can you vote something out if your entire system is crooked?" ... He probably didn't even read the article, come to think of it.

[izzybeans]

5. Does he vote based on Charisma and not more rational criteria?

Such as I like his swagger, demeanor, manner, etc so I'll vote.

It seems to me that when you vote on arbitrary personality characteristics most of which are manufactured for the cameras then your voting patterns make no sense.

[fujiyama]

6. Reminds me a bit

of my friend's mom. She's a science teacher and doesn't care for fundies pushing creationism in schools.

I think she was a Nixon fan back in the day (and she viscerally dislikes the Kennedies), but supported Clinton, then Gore, but went for Bush this time. Her brother is a rich gay republican and one of her sons is also a repuke. This may have influenced her. My friend, who is a liberal, asked why she went with Bush and she spouted some crap about Kerry and abortion and Kerry not having worked a day in his life...or better yet, better to "stick with the devil we know".

Bizarre.