[Behind the Blue Wall]

Congratulations in you made it all the way through! It comes across a bit more acrimonious than it really is because I omitted the niceties in the interest of brevity.

[raybbr]

There is a very serious thing happening to the American view of the civil society, government and the role of the elites in it in present-day society—the refusal to help shoulder adequately the burden of the state.

Racial politics aside, your father-in-law is a Communist. His belief is that the state has primacy in all things. He is lost.

[raybbr]

Looking in from the outside, one might think I am over reacting, but as an African...

Did he serve in the U.S. military? That he identifies himself as something other than an American tells me he, as well as his messiah obama, hate America and what it stands for.

I pray you can resolve your relationship with him.

Is there some requirement that you actually have a relationship with him? Is there an inheritance on the line? Is your wife threatening to leave over this?

[alexander_busek]

If Obama has disappointed you so much, at the very least one should look at it as a choice between the lesser of two evils (not that I think Obama is evil).

Rest assured, I most certainly do look at all political contests as between the "lessor of two evils", [...]

You shouldn't have corrected your father-in-law; "lesser of two evils" is the proper spelling in this context. The "-er" ending indicates that it is a comparative.

The word "lessor" has the meaning: Someone who lets property under a lease, e.g., a landlord. The counterpart would be "lessee" (i.e., someone to whom a lease is granted). A "lessor" of two evils would then be someone who lets evils under a lease.

Regards,

[maddog55]

My brother is a die hard liberal. I disowned him after my daughter joined the Army and he stated she’d be going to Iraq and coming home in a body bag. I used two words “F—k You” and it’s been 7+ years with no contact.

Daughter never did go to Iraq, she went to Korea and Germany, got married to a great Army guy and we now have two awesome grand kids. His loss

[CriticalJ]

I’ll admit that I say a lot of negative things about Obama while I’m in front of my children. However, I do not let them speak negatively of him. I have told them that until they can explain why they don’t like him (aside from dad despising him), they shouldn’t talk about him negatively. When they ask, i explain my beliefs. I want them to be able to think and not be some drone trained to spit out political rhetoric.

[SueRae]

bookmark for later reading. Your last letter was well worth reading, I’m sure this one will be, too.

[Ted Grant]

This is a waste of time. Just keep on doing what you do.

[ican'tbelieveit]

I think this is a great way for you and your FIL to debate. SO many times our emotions take over. I know it happens to me here, on FR, when I sometimes fire off a rapid response to someone. But it is less emotionless than if I were saying it in person.

And taking the time to deconstruct the arguments and build a solid response is calming and can give you time to go back and rethink phrases that may be coming off as angry. And depending on your mileage, maybe you can chip away at some of the mess you are encountering. At the same time you are increasing your own conservative knowledge.

And from my own point of view, I am do distressed at both the black and hispanic (and now possibly the asian) ethnic groups in this country, as well as Jewish people. They have become a political slave class. For blacks particularly, to move from being physical, labor slaves, to a political slave breaks my heart.

Good job, and if you can keep it up and want to continue sharing with us, it will be an interesting “diary” so to speak. And set up a ping list for interested followers.

[muir_redwoods]

Let me summarize; your father is an ass.

[Steamburg]

It all boils down to one sentence. “Who get’s to choose the old commie’s nursing home?”

P.S. With your blue background, your dad should be reminded that he will become a posthumous Republican for a very long time.

[Arrowhead1952]

...the very bad hand he has received from the misdeeds and mismanagement of the last administration and the current limitations and insults such a Black President must endure even in the face of the urgent problems of his particular community.

I wanted to stop reading right there, but scanned the rest for more BS. Then I came to this part:

... it is very clear to me that if Obama was White, and his father was born in, say Belgium, there almost certainly wouldn’t be a birther movement hounding his every move.

If 0 bummer had been white, he would probably have never been elected to the IL State Senate, much less the US Senate. With his record of voting "Present", he'd have been laughed out of the race. Remember when BJ Clinton told someone "A few years ago, this guy would be serving us coffee"?

[Georgia Girl 2]

Unless the guy is planning to leave you a lot of money or you work directly for him why didn’t you just tell him to “eff off”? It would have been short, sweet and allowed you a lot of extra time to do something else like drink a beer.

[supremedoctrine]

You’re giving these people way too much credit for being
“reachable”, and wasting far too much breath, and risking carpal tunnel syndrome, by having to in effect “start at the beginning” with them. For 25 plus years, I’ve fruitlessly taken the same tack with bitter-end Liberal relatives, and have come to the sad conclusion that my arguments START at a point their arguments never GET TO. It’s as simple as that.
They don’t have the intellectual curiosity,or the impulse to
try to get to the objective truth about things, that you do:
they’re willing to happily stay in the warmth of their Liberal echo-chamber.
Having said that, your mammoth post (the longest personal post I ever remember seeing on FR)serves it purpose, probably, as a comprehensive statement of the point you’ve gotten to, and a good way of getting down “on paper” where you stand in the ongoing political debate. So——kudos!
But, jeez, don’t say it might come across as “acrimonious”!
These people deserve not just acrimony, but mockery, delivered on a daily basis, the way they give it to us.
BTT

[Lancey Howard]

This guy has made a few YouTube videos. He’s pretty passionate:
I suggest you sit down w/ your father-in-law and watch this one together.

http://youtube.googleapis.com/v/F0sk4yGaEk8&hl=en_US&fs=1&;

[x]

Congratulations in you made it all the way through!

Yes, I've gotten very good at quickly turning the wheel of my mouse without bothering to read anything.

Your father-in-law can't disown you, and if he's so petty as to let politics get in the way of family, that's his loss.

[danielmryan]

As someone who's a Canadian and with Irish heritage, I found your father-in-law's remarks fascinating. They're reminiscent of old Irish-Catholic arguments to keep Irish Catholics "votin' the right way."

I don't have any family legend to go on, but I imagine they went something like these:

• "Think of the bright-eyed Irish children when they see a fellow Irish Catholic in the office. Would you deny them their confidence?"
• "Why would you make the Irish boys so sad, which they will be if they see yet another Brit lording it over them?"
• "The trouble with you is, you're too trusting. The Brits you see in the Episcopal Church are the same Brits that caused the Great Potato Famine."
• "'Corrupt?' Let me assure you that the Prods will cheat you faster than you can say 'where's my wallet?' When you consider how the Brits and Prods cheat decent men every day, a few little fiddles look like nothing. We're way more sinned against than sinning."
• "See this sign? It says 'Dogs And Irishmen Not Permitted.' Unless you vote the right way, you're voting for me, us and you to be treated like dogs."
• "Granted, he's not a saint. But the Prods always have a hidden agenda. When they say 'reform', they mean getting rid of your fellow Irishmen and throwing them into the flop house. Nothing more."
• (etc.)

Do you see the psychological pressure being applied here? The mix of sentimentality and the appeal to group loyalty? If you ever wondered why a bunch of decent people would stick with a political machine, the above list should open your eyes. It was far more than micro-bribery that did the trick.

What many don't understand about machines is, they rise and fall on emotional support. Those pressure tactics, repeated by decent people as they seem decent, reinforce the emotional bond and provide a major psychological deterrent to breaking out.

Your father-in-law's attempt to dissuade you is noticeably revealing. It reveals the mind-set of a decent man who's emotionally tied to a kind of political machine. If you're of the mind, you could ask him to get his friends to "talk sense" into you too. You'll see similar pressure tactics - and some you didn't even know existed.