I have a sad story which has been a long time developing, and just got sadder three weekends ago. My Dad and I are uber liberal, my mom roosevelt liberal, my older sister plain conservative, my younger sister vaguely liberal. My older brother, I should add, significantly older brother has gone off the deep end.
While not being a card carrying Libertarian, I used this term to define him. And I was okay with it. The Libertarian does not belive in an entitlement society. Nor does an old-school Republican. I don't agree with either party, but I accept their opinion as a principle. A Libertarian will go crazy if you try to restrict his freedom though. He is virulently Anti-Bush. And that was all what mattered.
Sadly, though, a former army, coast guard and national guardist, he's lived a tough life, and has in the last few years become estranged from much of society. About his only input into the rational world is TV and radio. HE's a smart man. He filters through it. But in the end he's still naive enough to believe that what is reported on TV or radio MUST be true. Even if skewed. He does not believe, for example, that FOX News has repeatedly lied and misreported. I know it to be true. It's been written about, blogged about, even admitted by the network.
His economic policy comes from a very nineteenth century view, something closer to Mercantilism than Capitalism. He believes the world is a pie, and there's only so much to go around. It's a sad belief because it necessarily means that some people will have to go hungry.
A few weeks ago, over just the same sort of weekend that Mrs. Brisket had, I found out something terrible. My older brother has become a racist. The subject of course was immagration. And he, like so many, wants to "deport the little brown fucks." I just sat there in stunned silence. "Costing the American economy millions, costing the American economy jobs," etc. He's a big man, and a forceful personality, none of us, I'm sad to report could disuade him.
We have an old family. Though his is pure, and mine mixed (different mothers) we're both Mayflower stock. And when I quoted "give us your tired, your hungry, your poor," he exploded at the dinner table with a viscious, "shut the fuck up." He wants to close the golden door, and close it forever. He wants English, and only English in our schools, on our streets, in our advertisements, and services. He even dared to say that Mexicans were over running the country. When I quoted him Census statistics citing that 80 percent of the population is white he stuttered in stunned disbelief. Even that 11 million which has become so famous, won't make a dent in that figure beyond a few percentage points.
It's sad to lose a brother this way. When I think how I used to look up to him, when my own father wasn't much of a role model--to hear this unenlightened, 'barbarian-speak' out of his own mouth. To hear him say things like, "I don't care what you liberal fucks think!" It's a sign of disenfranchisement. He honestly believes that he's totally alone. That no one, especially the government, has ever helped him, nor ever would. The most interesting thing about him though is his generosity. It was he who taught me the maxim, "give without any thought of getting back." And even now, he's still generous to a fault.
And it can't be denied the Christian right always provides a ton of funds to charities and such. More than us satanist lefties? I don't know. But they can't be faulted for that. The question is--why would they rather give their own money to a cause, a cause most often vast distances away, then see their own money go to work in their own community and in their own country? That's what taxes are for!
He wants me to come and visit him soon. But I don't think I could stand it. An entire weekend of verbal assault, viperous and vindictave--no, it would be too upsetting. What has happened to him?
But I suppose the old truism still holds, as the author Nikolai Gogol once wrote "People are ready to embrace all of mankind as a brother, but will not embrace their brother."