The family creed
(recycled)
My coastal relatives believe they are atheists, but that's not really true. Leftism is actually the family religion, along with getting good grades in school and getting into the right college. They are smart people, truly. And nice. So how can they parrot "Bush lied"? Typical exchange:
Beloved relative I: Capitalism is inherently corrupt.
BR II: (Pained look) But what is there that's better?
BR I: Communism!
BR II: But--I mean, look at Russia...it didn't work for them, surely?
BR I: It's never been tried.
BR II: ? (Silence, look of disbelief)
This sort of thing is what I had to contend with, when the discussion turned to politics. In the hopes that other topics would be explored, I walked as through a minefield.
Some tenets of the creed:
Drug companies are greedy and bad. Big corporations are greedy and bad. Anyone with more money than me is greedy and bad, and probably stole the money anyway.
The un-health-insured are many, all of them sick with potentially fatal diseases, and are being turned away daily from the life-saving treatment they need by hard-hearted capitalists, mainly George Bush. Many of them are little children, by the way.
More money is needed for public transportation, whether anyone wants it or not.
The environment is in imminent danger. We might wake up tomorrow to find we have been globally warmed to death. Or frozen by nuclear winter. Bad either way.
If the environment doesn't get us, the pollutants currently being poured into the rivers out of sheer spite by evil manufacturers will poison us all.
The Christian right has taken over the country. Our civil rights have been trampled. Anyone who speaks his mind will probably disappear into a secret prison, never to be heard from again.
Bush should be impeached, censured, or at least sent to his room until he learns to behave.
The Iraqis were happier under good old Saddam Hussein.
10 comments:
I have a friend who became Orthodox (religiously) and conservative (politically). His family was upset by the latter but not the former. Religion wasn't important to them. Politics was!
My family (Commie side) doesn't approve of other. They think my brother who is observant is batshit crazy.
Miriam, have you read my "healthcare in MA as model for national" exchange with a Democrat woman on LJ yesterday? Oops, it was in Russian, so you probably couldn't. But these were her exact words!
Do they have a party memo distributed, or something?
I haven't read anything in Russian lately. Or ever. I do envy you your facility with two languages.
People suffering from Bush Derangement Syndrome should be pitied, not mocked. It induces a mild form of retardation, you know?
There is nothing to envy. I can't express myself adequately in either language lately, judging by conversations I had.
Well, tat--if you dropped me off in a foreign country I doubt I'd have much to say for myself for a few years.
In my case - 15 years. And after that time you find yourself in a spot where you forgot the idioms of your native language and haven't learnt the ones of the adopted one.
This creed pains me no end. I cannot, for the life of me, understand how otherwise intelligent people can be so short sighted. It's like the story of the daughter of liberals who wanted to be President when she grew up, and when asked what would be the first thing she would do as President, remarked, "I would buy houses for all the homeless people." When told that she doesn't have to wait to be President to do that, she can earn 5 bucks by cleaning up the dog poop in my back yard and give it to the homeless guy down at the Safeway today. The little girl thinks about this for a minute and says, "Well, why doesn't the homeless guy just come to your house and do the work and YOU pay him?" Hello future conservative! Think, people! What you subsidize you get more of.
" Flirt lightly with him and that he probably will not think much of it, besides the belief that he is having a great time bantering along with you and becoming to know you. You have to keep a constant monitor on regardless of whether she is into you or not. There is nothing good in co-dependency, that makes that you play a role of the father or perhaps an elder brother.
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