Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Liberal Gal Marries Conservative Guy

David had a vote for Nixon shirt in 1972 before he could vote. I had a bikini that year that had VOTE on the butt in red, white and blue. My parents voted for Humphry, David's for Nixon. We hadn't met yet. We had seven more years till I was fascinated by someone totally different from any one I had ever known.
In many ways, the young man I encountered on Labor Day weekend of 1979 looked the liberal part. Long hair, detached, not a church goer, even though he had come to live with his brother, a minister. He belonged to S.E.F.A.- Sex Education For All- in college and spent more time with that organization than his studies, which explains why he came to live with his brother. He thought abortions should be legal, but limited.
I,  just out of high school, still attended church, Sunday School and Bible study, which is how I met  Ray, first. I'm not sure what my ideas on abortion were at that very time. Shortly after that, I saw a few movies on the botched abortions before they were legalized and I thought they should be at least safe. Who'd think that Kermit Gosling's would exist forty years after that reasoning?
I thought government should help people, because I was taught the people were the government, right, "We the people?" The government did help my dad get two jobs, which reinforced my idea. I thought though a person had to earn these benefits. My dad was a great worker and a good person.
David's father worked for the borough, knowing more than his elected boss. He had a different opinion of working for the government. Both our mothers worked the voting polls, all day for twenty five dollars. Mom's went directly to Diane in college.
Slowly, we learned that we were similar in many ways from our fathers being the same age, serving in the Army Air Corp, working on the same planes, to being Masons. Family was first in both homes. Homes were always opened for district chorus members to missionaries to long lost relatives. Hospitality was more than a way of life.
The first election we learned together in 1980. I didn't like Reagan, at all. David didn't like him because of the way he stole votes in the primary or something like that. Jimmy Carter for re-election was a no brainer with his failed presidency, although, I think my parents still voted for him. David and I voted together for John Anderson, the last time I vote for a third party candidate.
We had fallen in love. David's intelligence thrilled me. He showed kindness and integrity also. I think how young we both were, yet I was so ready for marriage. We were both traditionalists.
I could hardly believe David when he said the big chemical company didn't pay taxes when we first lived in Connecticut. Of course, they paid taxes. No, he said, they pass the taxes to the consumer. He stated facts that made me think.
I held to my Democratic views through the 1984 and 1988 elections. I actually applauded Mondale for saying he would have to raise taxes. How can a government provide services without money? They say that lost his election. We voted on a mild November day, waiting in a long line outside a Norwich, Connecticut elementary school, both knowing we were voting opposite of each other. I guess David forgave Reagan for ruining the convention four years earlier.
1988 saw us living with my parents before we finalized our house. Needless to say, political discussions became lively, although, David always remained calm. He really never argued or called the opponents names.
In the summer of 1992, Ray talked to David about a radio show he had tuned in and listened. Soon, I heard Rush Limbaugh. At first I was suspect, but when David told me Ray recommended this talk show, I opened my ears. I didn't know about the blow hard voice, but as Rush advises it takes about six weeks to adjust to it. He made sense to me.  I learned things I wouldn't hear on the big three networks.
I began my home health career in August 1992, with a lot of radio time with the traveling. I learned about Bill Clinton. I felt sorry for a patient, a very Christian woman, who had no idea one of Bill's first acts would be for the gays in the military. She thought, it was the economy, stupid. Bill came across as a good ole country Christian boy to her and she, at least, was duped. I never argued politics with my patients, so I felt badly she learned the hard way.
So did the party change or did I? Probably, a little bit of both. At this point, I don't look to either party as what we need. Jesus is the One to whom I look. I don't think I could vote third party, though, again. I understand the reasoning, even believe a person should vote what he believes, but enough will not do that. As the line in Into the Woods, remarks I did not stray from the path, the path strayed from me.



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