My dad is ..... or was a lifelong Republican. I'll get back to that and Trump in a second.
I like to think his change is somewhat related to me. For many years I've been politely harping on him his views align better with my fellow Democrats. In fact, on almost every issue he is a Democrat. He is pro-choice. Supports Unions. Thinks the LGBT community should be allowed to live their lives the way they wish and gosh, even marry. Immigrants are a net positive in a big way, not a negative.
And maybe closest to my heart he thinks we should stop making war and droning people. That from a guy that worked many decades at high levels within the DOD and taught at the Army War College.
I say "politely harping" because my father is the most intelligent person I've ever met. Telling him he was voting wrong would not have worked. Been counterproductive to say the least. He wouldn't have gotten mad, he never gets mad, he would have just tuned out any talk about politics. I would find that troubling because for my entire life we have always talked about anything, and agree to be polite and at times agree to disagree.
He never once forced his views down my throat. In fact, he openly wanted me to engage the world and form my own views. How two Republican parents raised a raging liberal. I should note my lifelong Republican mother came to our side in 2004, because in fact she did think there was a "war on women," by Republicans.
I pride myself on only a few things. One is I don't shove my views down the throat of others. I might spend too much time here, but I use it as an outlet. I can say things here that I know my parents and some of my friends, most of my clients, would totally not agree with. I am not that guy that forwards emails or links to articles. I want to, but I don't.
It worked with my mother and now this has worked with my father.
The change in him the past six months or so, since Trump came on the stage, is staggering!
I was usually the person that would bring up politics or news of the day. Most of the time he'd rather talk about the St. Louis Cardinals, LSU football, the weather, or where he and my mom are going on their next trip. This has flipped 100%. Now he is the one bringing up politics and Trump.
The change is such that it has given me the opportunity to tell him something I've wanted to say for so many years. That I know he isn't a racist or this or that, but to a very large extent what Trump is saying is what the core of the Republican party has thought for as long as I've been alive. A lot of Republicans are mad at Trump not because they don't hold the same views, but he is saying them out loud and not just using "dog whistles."
If there is a point to the above background it is this. He is a 70+ year old really rich white dude, that the one place he differs from liberals is he thinks he should pay less, not more taxes.
That the Republican party lost my mom two elections ago and now my father to me is telling. Next to maybe the religious right and anti-abortion crowd they are supposed to be the core of the Republican party.
I’ve said over and over in the comments here I don’t think my parents are special. That I have no idea the numbers, but there must be a ton of people in this country that feel the same way. And if the comments here when I mention this are any indication at all, I am not off the mark.
This to me is a gamer changer for our party!
We already know younger people tend to vote for Democrats. That our nation is becoming more diverse and less "white," who also tend to vote in huge majorities for Democrats.
Now they are losing rich, old, white people. Wow.
Best as I can tell from polls about 22% of the population is far, far right. The core of the Republican party. Lets me be blunt. These folks are generally speaking racists, bigots, think that science is some liberal scheme, that the world is only like a few thousand years old, the best sex education is no sex education, and lady folks should be barefoot and pregnant.
I get from the great election/District front page posts here we can’t win any number of gerrymandered districts. Hard to get the House back. But statewide and national elections, if our party just remains remotely sane, we ought to almost sweep them outside of a handful of states.
So lets start working on our parents and family members. I’ve always thought my parents keep voting Republican more out of habit than belief in their views. Pointing out Trump is a racist and a lunatic isn’t hard. Heck you might not even have to point that out.
Because if we can get white, older people, again a core of the Republican party, to vote our way, I just don’t see how a Republican can win a state-wide or national election in the coming years!