A little story to uplift this board, my dad is a 70 year old retired Vietnam veteran. He really is a self-made man, grew up in abject poverty, the oldest of 11 children, pulled from middle school to go work to support the family, grew up in segregated America, joined the military when he turned 18 to get his GED, put himself through night school after getting out of the service by working manual labor, eventually became an architect with his own firm. Like, honestly, an inspiration to me. His upbringing made him pretty firmly in the republican group during the 90's and early 2000s.
Well, since retiring, and since I've gone on obamacare for the last several years, his mindset has begun to change. He's come around more to social programs, telling me how much he appreciates that Obamacare allows me to have health insurance.
This whole pandemic has basically blown the doors off of his ideology. Every time I talk to him now, it's a different issue he brings up with who needs funding, how terrible the system is, etc. I suspect he's been stewing on these feelings for a while, but the pandemic gives him freedom to voice it loudly without fear of group think.
Today, he dropped the bomb on me: he told me he wished Bernie Sanders would win the election because "we need social programs, and we need to eliminate the debt of the common man." Growing up with my dad, I can't say enough how shocking it was to hear him say that. I, in a teasing tone, accused him of sounding awfully "socialist" in that moment, and he said "so be it."
My dad votes in every election. We live in Texas, so perhaps moot, but for example, he abstained from voting the last presidential election. Not the best decision, of course, but he said he fully intends to vote this time, and for "anybody but trump."
Well, since retiring, and since I've gone on obamacare for the last several years, his mindset has begun to change. He's come around more to social programs, telling me how much he appreciates that Obamacare allows me to have health insurance.
This whole pandemic has basically blown the doors off of his ideology. Every time I talk to him now, it's a different issue he brings up with who needs funding, how terrible the system is, etc. I suspect he's been stewing on these feelings for a while, but the pandemic gives him freedom to voice it loudly without fear of group think.
Today, he dropped the bomb on me: he told me he wished Bernie Sanders would win the election because "we need social programs, and we need to eliminate the debt of the common man." Growing up with my dad, I can't say enough how shocking it was to hear him say that. I, in a teasing tone, accused him of sounding awfully "socialist" in that moment, and he said "so be it."
My dad votes in every election. We live in Texas, so perhaps moot, but for example, he abstained from voting the last presidential election. Not the best decision, of course, but he said he fully intends to vote this time, and for "anybody but trump."
