I love my Dad. Sometimes I hate my Dad.
Some background:
My stepdad is my hero. He married my mom when I was in high school. He is everything that I believe is good, and important, about Southwestern PA - his life is not flashy, but consists of hard work over a 40 year span at Westinghouse.
His story is not unlike a lot of folks around PA - he worked hard for a long time, his company promised a job for life, the company went south, he got bought out and layed off, and his pension fell through. I meet him right at the end of the good times, as he dated and married my mom (they were high school sweethearts). Shortly after they married, he dropped his motorcycle, breaking his ankle in the process - but the X-rays and tests that followed reported worse news - he had an aggressive, late blooming type of MS.
The years that followed were a slow decay of his physical skills, following on to today, where he has about 20% use of his left side. He's had multiple other physical issues as well, all putting my mom in a crunch - first starting with her three oldest getting through college (my brother and I paid our own way to help), to today where she, in her mid 60's, still works as a secretary, mainly so he can have health coverage.
As his health declined, he became more and more negative. It was understandable, since he was completely screwed by the health care system, his employer, and numerous others to many to count. At some point during my senior year of high school, he started looking for someone to blame. The republicans were there - just like that quote from The American President, they were "interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and telling you who's to blame for it."
So, his decent began, from Jim Quinn to Rush to Michael Savage, and from Colmes to Hannity. All his kids tried to stop it, my sister while I was in college, my brother while I lived in Texas, and myself upon coming home in 2005. He seemed a shell of his former self mentally, almost like they were sucking the intelligence straight out of him. Some of the classics:
"There is plenty of oil. Its literally oozing out of the ground in places"
"Global warming can't be happening because the Earth is getting cooler"
"Rick Santorum is a good man."
So, it was without surprise that with the coming election, Obama became a muslim with an invalid birth certificate and ties to Islamic extremism. I worked on him, but it wasn't going anywhere. We went to my parents house last night to celebrate my littlest's 2nd birthday. He turned the TV onto ABC, and there was some report about McCain's trip to Mississippi. I was half listening. Then it happened. Completely unprompted, he said:
"Boy, the reporter really wants you to think McCain is presidential, doesn't he?"
I immediately replied "Yup, almost everything you see on TV has a slant to it."
Him: "Fox News is the worst at that."
Me: "Yup. No doubt. Do you still watch it?"
Him: "Sometimes. It's just so over the top recently... I don't know."
Me (sensing the opening) "So, what do you think about McCain's VP pick?"
Him: "Well, she's got more executive experience than Obama."
Me: "Running a state smaller than a bunch of cities. And she's already in a scandal up there. Bet that didn't show up on Fox News."
I spend the next few minutes explaining the the trooper thing.
Him: "Well, she seems right on the issues."
Me: "Dad, she wasn't even the most qualified Republican. What about Pawlenty, or Hutchinson? or..."
Him: "I can't believe he didn't choose Romney."
Me: "Me neither. That pick just tells me that McCain thinks you're stupid."
Him: "Stupid?"
Me: "Sure. He thinks you're stupid. That hard working folks like you are sheep. That he can do anything he wants, because in the end you'll be so brain washed by the media he can do whatever he wants. That's why he made that pick, because he's cocky and doesn't care about you."
Him: "So, why DO you support Obama?"
Me: "It ain't know messiah thing, that's for damn sure. I'm supporting him cause I think his policies are right for my family. And also because I'm pretty sure that if McCain gets elected, he'll completely destroy the middle class."
Him: "Well, I don't like Obama. He's too foreign. But I'm really not liking McCain. That Palin pick was stupid. Ain't voting for that guy."
And with that, we got into a 20 minute discussion of policy issues. And I think, I think, I started to get my dad back.