Growing up in the 60's and 70's, I had no clue what my parents thought nor did I have any clue what their friends thought about politics. Back then, at least in California, it was not something grownups talked about at the cocktail parties they all threw for each other. All of them had grown up in the depression, lived through WW2, most served in Korea and every single one of them were so happy that life was far better than anything they had imagined as kids. When elections came around, I never heard them talk about Democrats or Republicans. There was a sense of being an American first and foremost. They were all proud of what America had done as a nation. WW2 was a statement of collective pride. Improving the nation via dams, roads, bridges, schools, ports, airports, libraries, monuments, national parks, you name it, we were all proud of having a nation that used our collective energy to make something special for everyone. We saw movies in school about national parks, Smokie the Bear, beavers in a valley, salmon spawning in a river, forests so incredible it warranted a visit to believe they even existed. Vietnam changed it, so did the Civil Rights Act. Like it or not, most white Americans were racist by our standards. The 60's made it all front and center. We finally came to grips with our demons. It got easier during the 70's. I actually thought anyone with long hair was a hippie. Boy was I wrong. Then we came to Reagan. Reagan made us fall into camps. Them and us. Them was hippies, liberals and communists. Us was white America. This is how we got here folks. It started as a ploy to get elected and then morphed into a freaking nightmare. This nightmare is what divides us. We are all in this together folks. Ignore the calls to divide us, we are all just folks trying to live a good life together. Do not submit to hate and partisanship. America is all of us whether you like it or not.
For years, my father acted like he worshiped at the altar of Richard Nixon...just to rile me up. He was excellent at it, too. I bought it hook, line and sinker...even going so far as to buy him a Nixon bio for his birthday one year. I'd still believe it, had my mother not told me the truth in the late-1980s (Dad always voted Democrat, except Carter in 1980). I refused to believe it for a long time, but he eventually showed his hand. My dad...what a prankster!
