One of the most annoying things about having a mixed marriage is that in a hotly contested election, like say the Martha Coakley vs. Scott Brown for the Massachusetts Senate seat, we get twice the phone calls. As a registered Democrat, I’ve received calls from Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, and of course, Martha Coakley. As a registered Republican, Adam’s heard from a different crowd. I love checking the messages and being able to say, “Sweetie, it’s for you. It’s the pro-lifers.” He’s heard from the pro-lifers, Scott Brown, and the Catholics.
Adam ran out early this morning to cast his vote. Since the voting is at Doodles’s school, I offered that I could go early so Doodles and Pie could come with me to “cancel out Daddy’s vote.” Which led to a discussion of what is a Democrat and what is a Republican.
Have you ever tried to explain a topic like that and remain unbiased and neutral? I don’t think it can be done. I started out with some reasonable basics. “Well, the Republicans believe that government should be smaller, with people taking more responsibility for things. The Democrats believe the government should do more for people.” Which of course is just generic enough to not explain anything. Adam came home from voting as I was trying to explain. “You know how we have a nice home and–even if you don’t like the food I offer you, we have plenty of food to eat? Well, if we couldn’t afford food, we could get something called food stamps, which are given to people by the government so no one has to go hungry. Food stamps are like coupons that people without enough money can exchange for food. But someone has to pay for that. So we pay taxes. We pay on taxes on our house, on the money we make, on the things we buy. And those taxes pay for things like food stamps. The Democrats believe we should pay more taxes to help more people. And the Republicans…” And this is where I flounder. Do I say, “let people starve” or “think only rich people should eat”?
I start again. “So, the Democrats like to help people…” Adam bursts out laughing. This isn’t really the unbiased explanation I’m going for. I laugh, too, and tell Adam, “Screw this!”
So as we’re getting on our winter clothes to head for the school to vote, I simply say to Doodles, “If Harry Potter were an American citizen, he’d be a Democrat.”
End of conversation. Take that Scott Brown.
We have pretty similar political views in our house, so we don't worry about presenting unbiased views (my political scientist partner says something like "Ds and Rs have different ideas about how to make the country run. We like the D ideas better b/c we think, for example, that they will help more kids get to go to the doctor.") How does Adam explain why he's a Republican? MIght be easier for you both to explain why you believe what you do.