Help me! My son is turning into a Republican

[mapster]

Spoke to my daughter-in-law today and she told me that she thinks my son is turning into a Republican. Part of the problem is that the people he works with are the type to listen to right wing talk radio. They also seem to think they are wealthy instead of just middle class like the rest of us. The thing I want to deal with is this:

He heard on some right wing radio station that some Republicans are raising money so that the children of soldiers killed in Iraq can go to college. His comment to his wife was "Democrats don't do that". My reply, of course, is that Democrats wouldn't have sent those people over to get killed in the first place, but I need something more concrete. Anybody know of examples of this sort of thing that I can give him? I am so stunned by this that I can't think of an argument for him so am turning to my friends here for help. We will be having a talk with him about how the rich are just piling more of the tax burden on people like him and his friends so that will be covered.

Thanks guys.

[mcctatas]

1. As a mother, I believe the only thing to do is have him placed in an

intensive deprogramming center where he will be forced to do fact checking on everything that comes out of rush/hannity/hume/cavoto's (et. al.) mouths and listen to Toby Keith until he realizes the error of his ways...best of luck!

[snowbear]

2. Too bad he didn't listen to Big Ed on Friday.. ONLY Troops called in...

And they were so disgusted with what's going on right now ... but they were happy to have an outlet to release their frustrations.

Eddie doesn't normally screen calls, but for one day he wanted only troops to call in.

His show is on the Armed Forces Radio Network, so he received calls from ALL OVER THE PLACE.

It was incredible to hear them. Made you sad to realize how disgusting and unpatriotic Republicans really are.

[guidod]

17. Ah shit, really? I was helping my mother

all day friday while she's in the hospital, sorry I missed it. I would have loved to hear the troops talk.:-(

[sandnsea]

3. Just at DU

The Kerry forum raised money for the Fallen Hero fund. SoCalDem, IIRC, and others too I think, manage a list of names to send care packages to Iraq troops. We all participated in the Christmas phone card for the troops program. I'm sure others will chime in. This is just ridiculous. The difference is Democrats don't feel a need to boast because we consider helping others a normal part of living on the planet. Don't let your right hand know what your left is doing, if you want to throw some scripture around.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

9. Thank you!

I give about $2000 throughout the year to various charitable causes, and this is the first time I've even mentioned it in a long time. I do it because it feels good and I consider it an investment in a better world. I guess conservatives are so rarely generous that it's a big deal to them when they are.

[cpamomfromtexas]

32. Republicans only give money when their name is on the building

or splattered across something.

It takes me a very short time talking to someone to determine if they are a republican or not, they are always selfish.

[mrreowwr_kittty]

44. Or it's a college and they can make them take their dumb, drunk kid

Legacies are the best! :sarcasm:

[ktlyon]

37. Thank you, my wife and I donate every month to something

it is apart of our budget. We ask for no credit, we believe we must share and help where we can. We are not rich and we do not brag.

[knitter4democracy]

29. I know a lot of Dems who help the troops.

I knit helmet liners and socks, and I know many other liberal knitters and crocheters who do the same as well as glittens (mittens with the first finger knitted separately for trigger fingers) and slippers socks. I've sent care packages, as have so many others.

Many Dems have kids serving over there, too. That speaks volumes, I think.

[gratuitous]

4. And why aren't the children of soldiers taken care of?

Right now, the Republicans are looking to give Paris Hilton more money with the repeal of the estate tax while raising the interest rate on student loans. Democrats don't do that either, Sonny.

[Skittles]

5. you want I should kick his ass, mapster?

it will be a mercy ass-kicking

[mrreowwr_kittty]

6. "Some Republicans" are raising money

Who? Where? How much? How many? That's a pretty vague thing to base a political conversion on.

And tell him that Democrats don't cut college like programs, like Pell grants, that help MILLIONS of kids go to college. Conservatives love to point to efforts like the ones your SIL mentioned in order to justify their claim that all social problems can be handled by the church or charities. How many kids are going to go to college as a result of the Sean Hannity Or Whoever Fund? A few dozen? Big whoop dee doo. :eyes:

[Snaggletooth]

7. If you find a solution, let me know.

I have a brother and a sister in dire need of an intervention. No amount of facts seems capable of showing them the error of their ways.

Silly kids (except they aren't), don't you know trix are for scared little rabbits?

Snaggletooth the Crone

[mrreowwr_kittty]

13. We have to give them an out

I think a lot of them want to come over to the other side but the ego is a powerful force. No one likes to be wrong, especially when you were so convinced you were right and argued passionately for your case. There has got to be something that lets them save face. Unfortunately, I don't know what it is either. :shrug:

[cpamomfromtexas]

33. My Dad harasses anyone who voted for *

He has a photo of him framed in a toilet seat and throws darts at it.

He says if you can't take a joke you shouldn't have voted for him.

ha

[Love Bug]

40. Love your dad! lol!

[roguevalley]

8. research the death tax as related here and tell him none of the

dead kids parents are going to be getting a break with this even though the fat cats sent them to die over there. tell him wal mart thanks him for his support. (check out the information. its appalling and eye opening)

[Hippo_Tron]

10. The GOP cuts veterans' benefits, military benefits, college loans...

a soldier's salary is below the poverty line, and finally, the Republicans have sent those soldiers into war without body armor.

That would be my response.

[man4allcats]

11. Maybe you should pretend to be sympathetic.

If he thinks you are signing on, he may then reject the whole notion out of rebellion against you, his parent. The old reverse psychology approach as it were. Of course if that fails, I would recommend you have Skittles kick his ass - and I could help too if you like. ;-)

[Mythsaje]

12. Liberals have done everything they could for YEARS

to give EVERYONE the chance to go to school. And the Republicans have done everything they could to savage those opportunities.

One piddly gesture doesn't make up for decades of disinterest.

Not only that--it's a pretty empty gesture if their parents come home from the war all screwed up in the head and unable to get assistance from the very government that did it to them.

Your kid needs to come to DU and get a wake up call.

[Erika]

14. My republican friends are so sympathetic to kids going to Iraq

that they pay their kids college tuitions so they don't have to go. Republican sympathy is BS.

[mapster]

15. Wow! What a response!

Now, if I can only get him to read these posts. :) Maybe I will print this out (highlighting the post about kicking his ass) and show it to him. Unfortunately, he lives near Reno and we live in Boise (the capital of Bushlandia) so my influence is limited, at best. We will be visiting them in a couple of weeks so I now have some ammunition.

Thanks, everyone.

[snowbear]

16. I hate to say this Mapster..

But if he can seriously believe what you said... after everything that has gone wrong with this bogus war, and after every cut the Republicans have made to our troops, after every benefit that they've cut, after ignoring the problems our troops coming home are experiencing...

If he STILL believes Republicans are "his choice", I think he's already gone.

I mean -- seriously -- he lives in the U.S., right? He follows the news, right?

If rightwing wackjob chickenhawk radio asshats can transform him into a Rethug...

Wow.. just.. =WOW= ....



BTW.. does he ever look at this site?

I do.. EVERY SINGLE DAY. http://icasualties.org/oif/

[orleans]

18. Al Franken was talking about Operation Helmet on his show

a lot and was raising money for it. (so the kids who the repukes want to send to college because their parent is killed in iraq WON'T GET KILLED TO BEGIN WITH!)

from what i remember each pad kit is $100
i don't know if the guy who started this is a dem or not, but al franken was really pushing this on his show


Operation Helmet
Helmet Pad Kit Fact Sheet
What is Operation
Helmet?
Founded in 2003 by Dr. Robert H. Meaders whose grandson is an active duty
Marine in Iraq, Operation Helmet is a nonpartisan 501(c)(3) organization
dedicated to providing safer helmet pad upgrade kits to the troops in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
To date, more than 6,000 kits have been shipped to the troops in the field.
What is a Helmet
Pad Kit?
Many of today’s helmets – particularly those worn by the Marines – are
designed to protect them from gunfire and flying debris. They are effective,
but are uncomfortable and offer little or no protection from concussion-causing
blasts. The helmet pad upgrade kits make a good helmet significantly better.
Why are the
upgrade kits
needed?
The helmets currently in use by the Marines have only fair protection from blast
forces and fragment impacts from Improvised Explosive Devices (IED) and
other types of newly appreciated combat dangers.
A shock-absorbing pad suspension system is far superior in providing
helmet/cranium separation ('standoff') and protection from blast waves and
fragments.
How much is an
upgrade kit?
The shock-absorbing pad systems are available commercially for $75-$100
depending on the manufacturer.
100 percent of donations go to the purchase and shipment of pad kits to troops
in the field.
How does the
helmet pad kit
work?
The kit is installed without modifications to the helmet but changes the current
unstable suspension system to a shock-absorbing pad suspension system with a
stronger chin and nape strap.
The pad suspension system suspends the helmet on impact resistant highly
engineered pads to provide ‘standoff,’ comfort, and stability. The helmet does
not contact the skull directly, with the pads absorbing and spreading out the
impact from the blow.
This upgrade prevents or cushions the trooper's head from blast/fragment
impact, spreads contact over a wider area and can save lives and prevent
disability.
Available upgrade
kits
www.skydex.com
www.oregonaero.com
www.gentex.com
Contact
information
Operation Helmet
Robert Meaders
www.operation-helmet.org
To donate, email [e-mail]

[Mz Pip]

19. I can only speak on a local level

My heavily Democratic area has done much in the way of fundraising for the troops - care packages and other kinds of support.

But just because RW talk radio toots its horn about all they are doing for the troops doesn't mean Dems and Liberals aren't doing anything. The RW is nothing if not good at PR and spin. It is a business to them. The Dems do stuff but don't go out and toot their horn on Rush and Hannity for the sake of publicity. Not that RUSH OR HANNITY WOULD EVER PUBLICIZE ANYTHING DEMS GROUPS DID ANYWAY.


It's all about PR. Just because the Dems don't have the huge PR machine that that Pugs do doesn't mean t isn't happening.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[orleans]

20. (p.s. -- i know he's married, but maybe consider grounding him anyway)

or sitting down with him and tell him that is not the way you raised him

you know, some mommy tough love!

[bobbieinok]

21. IMO, constant bombardment by RW radio creates a new 'reality'

[rucky]

22. Helping the rich get richer may get you into the country club...

but you still have to pay the dues.

[Divine Discontent]

23. a tiny bit of help....

tell him where was Bush at in his mercy when thousands were drowning to death in New Orleans??? Al Gore and thousands of LIBERALS rushed down there. Gore spent $50000 to save very ill people that a Dr. who saved his kid asked Al to get out of there pronto -

and you can use numerous other instances of where are the Republicans? - like caring for the dying in hospitals (esp. military - they are more than willing to sacrifice them or have them permanently injured but then cut funding to the VA hospitals by billions), the poor who starve thanks to Bush's cuts of social programs -

and so -

there are numerous instances of Democrats helping out soldiers in need - my brother was over there and we helped his family out, and also, just because he hears hyper-talk right wing radio, is he going to base his beliefs on the words spoken by someone he doesn't even know, or the detailed stories that he should be reading online showing the grand lies by the Republicans and corruption...

I feel for you...

[Divine Discontent]

24. and about the war...

too many of the guys that go over there are too gung ho about kickin arab ass. it's so gonad-minded, so what are you to do? we invaded a country, how shameful, they did nothing to us until we got there and we found out that there were no WMD's, so we're in their country, imagine if China took us over like that - and we had soldiers breaking in the middle of night saying "Chot koy mai to pan!" (gibberish Chinese) and shooting their weapons or worse, shooting us!

Amazing arrogance on so many young men's hearts that reek of "nationalism" and not proper honor, like the honor we got as a country from World War II...

[Minnesota Libra]

25. What about the helmet liners Dems have been raising money for.............

......that the WH Idiot cut the funding for????? Don't know what they are called but they are helmet liners to help cut head injuries from IED's. Dems and neocons are raising money for these.

[justinaforjustice]

26. Hawaii Dems Working for Free University Tuition

When Governor Howard Dean was running for the Democratic Nomination for President in 2004, he proposed giving all college students free tuition for the first two years of college.

Both the Maui County Democratic Party and the Hawaii State Democratic Party voted in their May 2006 conventions to support free tuition through the university level. Many European countries provide free tuition to their students, there is no reason why the U.S. the richest country in the world, cannot do the same. We also voted to work for universal access to quality health care through a single-payer system, as is provided to the citizens of many other countries.

Where will the money come from to pay for these programs? Forty-two percent of every tax dollar goes to military spending. By reducing that to 21 per cent, we can fund education, health care, housing and all the services human beings need to live with dignity. The military and intelligence budgets add up to over 600 billions dollars a year, the war on Iraq is costing another 300 billion. We spend way more on "defense" (or should that be offense) than all our potential enemies combined. We need to create a federal budget that meets human needs, not the demands of profiteering defense contractors,drug companies and other Republican corporate donors. Bush and his Republican majority. just doubled the interest rate on student loans. The Democrats can abolish interest payments on student loans as well as much of the need for student loans if they have a majority in the House and the Senate.

[Ian David]

27. There has got to be some kind of re-education camp you can send him to

Some kind of "tough-love" to beat the conservatism out of him.

[elehhhhna]

28. Hate radio played a BIG part in the Rwanda massacres.

just saying.

[Jimdish25]

31. Sorry to say but...

You've failed as a parent. Well, maybe it's not totally over but where have you been? What sources of information has he been exposed to? Haven't you been debunking frauds like Limbaugh? Buy the kid a deck of Chicken-Hawk cards, Rolling Stone Magazine, anything!

If you can get him to watch just 1 movie, let it be Why We Fight. That made an impression on me. Just watch the guy who lost his son on 911 and the kind of pain, anger and guilt he went through. Many other 911 families went throught the same thing - we know.

I hope he's not lost to the dark side.

[lildreamer316]

35. That's a bit harsh.

"you've failed as a parent."?
The boy is his own person and is married (i.e. not in the house; over 18 years old) No one has that kind of control over their kid's minds at this point. You are sounding very judgemental here. Please reconsider--are you a parent yourself? Have you had the life experience to know what it's like to have to let some ppl learn for themselves? Doesn't sound like it.

[mapster]

41. Thanks for sticking up for me

lildreamer. There's only so much I can do as we are not exactly able to see him every day.

[MissB]

45. Yep.

[Sammy Pepys]

30. Eh, what are you gonna do?

He's married and has a job...sounds like he's an adult.

I thank my lucksy stars my conservative parents didn't hassle me about being a liberal. They let me find my own way.

[Totally Committed]

34. My son went into the service a Democrat,

served in the first Gulf War, and came home a Republican. My son-in-law was a Republican, served in the first Gulf war, and is now an anti-war Democrat. I give you this example to show you that outside influences can be very effective on a person's belief system, and peer pressure can also be a factor.

My son was not an officer, but a reservist who eas called up. He was surrounded by others like him and they were, as he told me, overwhelmingly Republican-leaning (and the radio they were allowed to hear had Rush and the other RW haters on it). My son-in-law was a major in the Air Force, and was trained at the Air Force Academy. He had intended to be a careerist, but after the war was so disillusioned and disgusted, retired, went into civilian life and became as anti-war as I've ever seen. It's all in how a person takes the influnces around him (or her) and applies it or allows it to effect him/her.

What I do with my son, is try and reason with him as gently and logically as I can. I challenge his every absurd statement and belief whenever he expresses himself that way, and I let him know that I love him in spite of what I believe is his absolute wrong-headedness. To his credit, he seems not to have fallen into the gay-hating, racist, or religious ferver of that Party, only what he sees as the need for smaller government and better financial and corporate atmosphere. I keep tryin gto point out to him that the Republicans are absolutely NOT for either of those two things any longer, and he seems to be seeing the light, slowly but surely. (He supported Wes Clark in the last primaries.)

Just let your son know you love him even though you absolutely disagree with what he believes... that's about all you can do.

Hope that helped!

TC

[NCarolinawoman]

36. Explain to your son the concept of "Chickenhawk".

The member-list can be found on many sites, including Big Ed's. Many talkshow hosts' names are also included on this list. Might be a good idea to actually print out this list; your son could bring it to work.
}(

Tell him that almost 70 Democrat Vets are running, compared to very few Repub Vets. Tell him about Jim Webb and his disgust with the Republican party in regards to this current war and the treatment of Vets and the military in general. (This is when Webb's position as Reagan's former Secretary of the Navy comes in handy). Of course, this last point won't mean anything if Webb loses the primary. Hope he wins.

[newportdadde]

38. He has two things against him, RW coworkers and RW radio.

Your son is not only under peer pressure but is also going get bombarded all day long with RW talking points. Speaking as someone who has two best friends, both RW, having a debate were you are outnumbered is not fun and results in you looking weak(ie thats how cable news does it).

Worse is the RW radio. Growing up in the 90s I did a lot of tractor driving on the farm. My only choices for radio on a tractor with no FM was either Dr. Laura or Rush. If you listen long enough even a nut like Rush can grind you down.

[mike923]

39. It's just politics....

don't make it into something more than it is.

[RedStateShame]

42. Beat your son. If that doesn't work,

beat him harder.

[karlrschneider]

43. LOL

"Beatings will continue until morale improves!"

:evilgrin:

[Radical Activist]

46. Democrats passed the GI Bill

that sent many veterans to college. You might also point out that Bush's budgets have shortchanged veterans. Democrats have always been the party pushing to make college education more affordable for everyone, while Republicans fight those efforts and figure out ways for banks to make more money off of student loans.