Politics were not regularly discussed when I was growing up. At least I don't remember it. It is obvious to me, however, that my parents were staunch Republicans. My earliest recollection of any kind of a discussion about politics was in 1960 when Kennedy was running against Nixon. I still remember being in the living room and hearing my father's raised voice as he was talking to someone in the kitchen. I don't recall the specifics, but I do remember reference to Kennedy's 1) religion (Catholic vs Dad's Lutheran upbringing), 2)his nationality (Irish vs Dad's German-Polish ancestry) 3) his family money buying his way into politics and, 4) worst of all, his reputation and disloyalty to his wife. I don't particularly recall Dad's endorsement of Nixon, but I DO remember his vehement opposition to Kennedy.
I doubt that Dad cared one way or another when Kennedy was assassinated, except from the standpoint that it put Johnson into office, who was apparently EVEN WORSE!
I doubt that my dad was very pleased when five years later I showed my first interest in the presidential election and Bobby Kennedy was my candidate. Racial inequality and the Viet Nam war were the hot topics in the country and Bobby made sense to me. I liked the things he said, I was probably a bit sympathetic to him since his brother had been assassinated and I may or may not have had a little crush on his second son... After his assassination in June of that year, my obsession with him continued, but my interest in politics dwindled.
When the Watergate scandal broke and President Nixon resigned, I pretty much gave up on politics all together, deciding that they were all a bunch of criminals; it was just that some got caught while others didn't. That's pretty much still my philosophy about politicians....
I remember being an advocate of the right for 18-year-olds to vote since they could be sent to war and I registered to vote as soon as the law passed and I turned 18. I've been a registered voter ever since. That doesn't mean, however, that I've always voted.
In 1976, I was in college, three hours from home and Gerald Ford (who had inherited the presidency from Nixon) was running against Jimmy Carter (who I really didn't like). Going back to my philosophy that they're all a bunch of crooks anyway, I decided I was not going to go home to vote or apply for an absentee ballot. As the election drew near, Randy (my fiance at the time) asked me if I had done an absentee ballot. I told him no and got a lecture about how it was my civic responsibility to vote, even though he wasn't even registered!!! When I told him it was too late to get an absentee ballot at that point, he told me I needed to go home on election day. Nope. Wasn't gonna do that! Dad was gone. Al was living at home with his witch of a second wife and I had no desire to run into her just to vote for a presidential candidate I didn't even like! We debated this fact all the way to election day when Randy showed up at the Zeta house and DROVE ME all the way to Aurora to cast my ballot. I was so irritated that when he asked me which candidate I was going to vote for, I told him that since I didn't like Ford or Carter, I guessed I'd just vote for the communist candidate. That earned me another lecture! When we pulled up at the neighborhood polling place, he asked me once again who I was voting for. My response was that I had already told him. As I slammed the car door, I heard him yell to me that I couldn't do that!!! When I came back out, he asked me once again who I had voted for. I smiled at him and replied that a person's vote is their personal privilege and I didn't need to tell ANYONE who I voted for. To this day, I've never told him or another soul.
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