You posted this in the Briefing Room thread on October 13:
| Quote: |
| But the main reason that I stopped by tonight is because I need Towanda's help! Towanda... I had a conversation with my daughter the other night on the phone. She's going to school at ASU and was whining about her classes being cancelled tonight and being unable to even get around the area she lives in... about a mile from the Gammage Auditorium. Anyway... I mentioned something about Michael Moore being in town too and how much of a cluster **** the whole town was going to be and she made a comment about wishing she could go see Moore!  ... Well... that kicked off a marathon phone call that surely used up my monthly allotment of minutes!  She actually LIKED Moore's movie!!  .... Well as you can imagine, I disabused her of quite a few... shall we call them "misconceptions"?  .... and she did seem to listen... but was still not convinced that President Bush is the man we want to continue to lead our country. The GOOD thing is that she thinks Kerry is a twit!  ... but I'm still very worried about her. So... Towanda... you have a liberal daughter... WHAT DO I DO?!?!?!? .... please help me ... before it's too late... and she votes for a ficus! |
Oh man.
What a question!
Best case scenario: Our daughters turn out to be activist committed dedicated conservatives following in their parents footsteps.
In my case…and in many others… it didn’t happen. (Maybe in your case either...too soon to tell..)
The bad news is we cannot change things.
The good news: it is not the end of the world.
My daughter was raised in a politically active environment. Even as a tiny girl, she was taken(dragged?) to political rallies, political debates, city council meetings, etc. She rode around in the car when Mr. Tow was putting political signs in people’s yards in Leon Valley, Texas, and she tagged along when we carried campaign literature door-to-door. She played in the same room in our house while political strategy meetings were taking place. No kid could have gotten a better education in conservative politics.
And when she grew up, she became an activist committed dedicated ….. Democrat. A Howard Dean Democrat no less.
Now she goes to political rallies and debates and meetings. She goes door to door with political literature and getting people registered to vote. She even took it a step farther than I ever did, and has become the Democratic precinct chairperson in her neighborhood.
Yes, we have some screaming fights that would wake all the dead Democrats in Texas. Neither of us will back down even a single inch, and our husbands look at us like we are completely insane. We go out to a restaurant together, she with her Kerry/Edwards pin on, and me with my Bush/Cheney one and people look at us funny. She is just as strong in what she believes as I am.
And I am SO PROUD of her.
Why?
Because she could have turned out to be even worse than being an opposition political activist…she could have become one of those people who don’t give a damn, who pay no attention to politics, who don’t even register or vote, who don’t know or care who is running…or for what.
I firmly believe that there is something worse than being a liberal Democrat….and that is being someone who doesn’t care about politics at all.
I have had acquaintances who just don’t care. They never become my friends because I don’t have any respect for someone who places no importance in the political process in this country, and who abandons what I consider their responsibility as a citizen of the United States.
But my daughter! She is like the mirror image of me. She may be 100% wrong in my eyes….but SHE CARES. She cares very strongly. I LOVE that about her.
Will she ever change and become a conservative, as people have tried to reassure me that she will? Extremely doubtful.
Do I think she is all wrong in what she believes? Yes. But do I respect her right in this country of freedom to believe in another philosophy than I do? YES.So I am afraid I have no advice about how to deal with a daughter who is leaning towards the left.
But Sasha, I do congratulate and honor you as a mother…..for you have enabled your daughter to become her own person….to formulate her own beliefs….to have the courage to believe a different way about politics than her parents do.
It is so hard to let our little ones leave the nest and fly on their own and not preach to them about what they MUST believe….or not belittle what they choose for themselves. I fail at letting go a lot, but I am trying.
But to raise your daughter to become someone who thinks for herself….well, to me, that the BEST OUTCOME we can hope for. (Other than having them register as Republicans, of course.
)Here is my only advice…..keep the lines of communication open, rejoice in the strong-minded woman your daughter has become, and don’t let it affect the loving relationship you have with her.
There are more important things in this world than politics…and a mother-daughter relationship is one of them. Now my daughter is a mother, and my wish for her is that she nurtures Victoria and gives her wings to fly on her own someday.
Sasha, you and I are both blessed!
Love,
Sharon
P.S. My daughter loved Fahrenheit 911, too. Kids.
Go figure……
