This past Monday, I enjoyed a rather head-exploding visit with my parents as my sister and I had dinner with them. My husband had to work so could not come with me, so he made me promise not to argue about politics with my parents (as it has ended rather badly in the past).
To give a brief background, my dad is a very good person, but there has always been a streak of blue-collar, first-generation American prejudice (à la Do the Right Thing) that has run through his New England-based extended family. Which is why he not only votes Republican and believes everything Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity, and the rest of Faux "News" tells him, but also is one of the 33% who still ardently supports Bush and thinks his gainfully-employed, stable, married, homeowning daughter (me) is a radical left-wing lunatic.
Thus, it was to my amazement that he made the remarks he did at dinner pre-July 4th. Follow me at the flip to see why my head almost exploded.
Amazingly enough, my dad's armchair political punditry was pretty tame Monday night; but my sister and mother's armchair Christianity was in full vent mode. My sister and mom both think it's "horrible" for the Supreme Court to restrict the public display of crosses, for people to call Christmas trees "holiday trees," and for fans of
The DaVinci Code to "use" said work of fiction to reaffirm their doubts in Christianity.
Their kind of borderline theocratic talk gets my blood boiling probably more than any political bone to pick I have with any conservative. However, at the request of my husband, I kept my lips reasonably sealed and my arguments DLC-slash-Alan Colmes-style lame. E.g. my lukewarm responses ranged from, "well, the Supreme Court and the rest of the government have more important things to worry about rather than whether someone can display a cross in public." and "Well, if these doubting Thomases need a stupid work of fiction to validate (or invalidate) their Christianity, then their faith probably wasn't that strong enough to begin with..." Yawn.
However, the most brain-exploding moment came from my dad--even though, as I mentioned, his FOX-worthy ranting was reasonably civil--I mean aside from the usual griping about what a whacko Cindy Sheehan is (okay, I'll give him that she has been grandstanding a wee too much lately, especially on things that don't even relate to the illegal occupation that claimed her son); and how those stupid illegal immigrants wasted U.S. tax dollars by protesting. When I made some positive remarks about wanting to connect with some Democrats in their neighborhood to plan a fundraising event, he replied with this showstopper:
"You know, I know you must think I'm some kind of Democrat-hater, but I actually consider myself a Kennedy Democrat. Not a Ted Kennedy Democrat, but a John F. Kennedy Democrat."
I was so flabbergasted by his remark that I frankly didn't even know what to say. My mom mentioned that she was a little tired of talking about politics (although it was my dad who was doing most of the talking, truth be told), so we changed the subject as we sat down to eat.
In retrospect, I really wished I'd followed up on my dad's remark. I think I would've asked him, in his mind, what sets JFK above all the other Democrats, including his brother Ted (whom my dad despises above all Democrats--CHAPPAQUIDDICK!!!)? Why does he consider himself a "JFK Democrat" when he so ardently supports the Bush/Cheney cabal...who are in my mind the antithesis of "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country?"
Not being a scholar of history (and, to my own shame, very knowledgable of my own dad's experiences in the Days of Camelot--my dad was only 14 when JFK was assassinated), I can't answer these questions. President Kennedy never struck me as an imperialistic president, nor did he strike me as being a neo-con or even a "classical" conservative.
Maybe my dad shares with Zell Miller the old ideals of the Democratic Party in pre-Roe V. Wade and pre-Stonewall America: without the complex (and to them, troubling) issues of same-sex marriage/adoption and abortion, hey, maybe them Democrats really weren't all that scary to Republicans.
Maybe my dad (erroneously, in my opinion)draws similarities with the Cold War and the Bay of Pigs issues that Kennedy faced back in his day with the "war on terrah" and the Middle East issues that Shrubya faces today. Was Kennedy that much of a "democratic" expansionist (or purport himself to be, as the Bushite clan is trumpeting now)?
Or maybe people like my dad interpret "ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country" as a small-government/pull-yourself-up-from-your-bootstraps manifesto of personal responsibility and call to military service, rather than the collective "we're all in this together" that liberals such as myself interpret this Kennedy quote.
I will have to ask my dad about what he said in the near future, before I forget what I wanted to ask him when hindsight was 20/20 and not 20/400 when memory fades and the minutiae of everyday life takes over. Because right now, I am drawing a blank at why FOX fans in the 33% (like my dad) consider themselves to be "JFK Democrats." And if so, where did we go wrong in their eyes?