Let’s Get Bland
by ChrisDecember 23rd, 2005 11:41 am
I found this article in Salon, by Wil Wheaton (the actor I think), describing the gradual change in his parents, from liberals into right wing pod people, prodded along by the rise of right wing talk radio, interesting. Wheaton is a few years older than me, though I suspect his parents are about a decade younger. I gather that they were probably baby boomers, while my parents were both born before the Second World War. What I found interesting about the article is my experience with my own parents has been quite the opposite of Wheaton’s.
When I was growing up, my parents were both registered Republicans, of the mainstream variety, who mostly voted that way. Both have now changed their party affiliation, and I would describe my father, at least, as a more vocal liberal than myself. He actively works for gay rights and equality, among other things, and was quite firmly anti-war from the start. Granted, the views of people who grew up in Republican households, in what was then a very Republican Philadelphia, when my parents were growing up, are probably mostly out of line with what that party has become.
My wife’s experience has been different as well, or at least I think it has. I should probably call her and ask, but I don’t want to interject fact into an otherwise pointless post. Anyway, I’d venture to guess that her parents’ political viewpoints have remained pretty much unchanged for the last three decades or so, while the two parties have drifted right (or whatever the hell you call this mess). I imagine they seem more liberal today than they did in 1975, though I doubt much, in terms of their outlook, has really changed.
I’ll stop now, because this is probably among the blandest gazes I’ve had at my navel in ages. Stale lint. Bleh.
(Via Susie)
