My father is first generation Italian-American, born in Pennsylvania in the 1920’s. He is a Republican, relates to people like Tom Ridge (our Congressman before he became Governor), but doesn’t trust “phony” politicians. Just to state this early, I am an independent and I think Obama and the Democratic Congress have done a phenomenal job. My Dad does not. Where do I begin? How about this: “I just don’t think he was ready. He can’t pass a microphone without thinking that he has to speak into it”. Of course I have to beg to change the channel from Fox News to anything else when I visit. It is his house, and I have to admit. Besides, Fox News keeps him a grumpy old man and I hear they live longer. (Maybe because grumpy old men at least give a shit.) My father is a City Council Member of my home town of about 6500 people, 7500 including the local college. The town is broke, and my father is a “small government” Republican (does that go without saying?). He bitches about the Main Street upgrading, the soccer field, the water plant, and the Mayor (who really is corrupt – too many conflicts of interest with developers and contractors, to say the least).
“What have Obama and Pelosi done?” he asks. I would like to memorize a list in chronological order, starting with the Lilly Ledbetter Act, saving us from the Second Great Depression, helping to insure more people, about a dozen other things, and finishing off with Financial Reform. Somehow I just managed to stutter out a few of these, incredulously, and then I went off on the 10 trillion dollars that Bush and the Republican Congress handed us and reminded my Dad that Bush took one hell of a lot of vacation days. He seemed to miss that memo from Condoleeza Rice, then National Security Advisor, who warned that terrorists could hijack airplanes and crash them into buildings. I mean, I can barely imagine what Republicans would say about Obama if he f-ed up that bad.
I would like to find some common denominators to bridge my Dad’s thinking with mine. I do think that opinions can change, even in stubborn old men. Robert Byrd is an example. My Dad says that Italians were discriminated against in our home town. Blacks and Jews, too. When I grew up I knew only one of 2 black families in town and no Jews that I know of. My Dad thinks that the Tea Party is a bunch of phonies. I didn’t ask him if he thought the Tea Partiers were over-represented by racists. I sure do. I think they are ultra-conservative, religious extremists. I try very hard not to call names or to unfairly portray an entire group with a few extreme examples. But the Republican Party , and the Tea Party they will officially become, is not a party for Tom Ridge, Arlen Specter or for my father. I hope my father comes to realize this.
