Perplexing Politics

Warning: Political diatribe to follow.

My family has turned against me. I'm not talking about my husband and children, but my family of origin. My mother and brother have become...REPUBLICANS! I don't know when this occurred and I really have no explanation as to how this happened. 

A little back history. My brother and I grew up in a single parent household. My mom struggled financially and probably had to have some help paying for our educations and other expenses, but despite the struggles I'm sure she had, my mother did an excellent job because we turned out pretty well. We are employed, have nice homes, nice families that we can support, and we are generally pretty nice people. We never wanted for anything as kids and I'm sure she went without a few luxuries herself so my brother and I would never feel the struggle. We both had wonderful childhoods and I thank her for that. 

We grew up in a small, very blue collar town in Massachusetts. You know Massachusetts. The land of the Kennedys and of Camelot. Democrat central, but something has gone terribly wrong and I don't know how to fix it!

I can kind of understand where my mom is coming from. I think as people grow older they become more conservative. It just happens. 

But my brother? I don't get it.

He has young children. One of whom attends public high school. Like me, he is not independently wealthy and he and my sister-in-law work hard for the things they have. If someone was on the outside looking in he would fit the perfect profile of a typical Democrat. He takes pleasure in bombarding me with McCain/Palin propaganda. He's got McCain plastered all over his facebook profile. He throws McCain at me, his profile picture shows him holding a McCain lawn sign and he's constantly sending me "flair" with some McCain slogan written on it, which by the way, is a complete waste of time because that "flair" is going no where near my profile! 

I suppose he enjoys paying close to $4.00 a gallon for gas, and will enjoy paying around $600.00 more dollars for home heating oil this winter than he did last winter. 

I suppose when it's time for his first born to go to college in four years, he'll enjoy receiving the "no money for you" letters when applying for student loans and grants.

I suppose he enjoys the fact that our Republican administration is currently spending $410 MILLION dollars per day on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

That's a lot of dollars that could have been spent on say...education. That money could have provided 80 MILLION young Americans with scholarships to fund their college educations. 

I know I'm not going to change his mind just as he's not going to change mine. I guess we just have different priorities. 

My entire family either works in or attends public schools. Based on that fact alone, I just can't support the Republican ticket. There are many other reasons, but that is first and foremost. It's my job as a parent and it's my job as an advocate for young children. 

When it comes down to it, we all vote for the candidate we feel is the best to accomplish what is important to each one of us. The important thing is that we vote. Because Republican, Democrat or Independent, we are all Americans and  we have the right. 

Truce.