Posted on 11/20/2012 1:10:36 PM PST by albie
My 89 year old Mother in law (a conservative) is spending Thanksgiving with me and my family. My wife has requested that her looney left wing grandchildren be allowed to visit with "Granny" on Saturday. They voted Obama and are in their 20's and are actually very nice people. However, I've made it clear that I can not tolerate Obama voters in my house. Nice or not, family or otherwise. I'm still on the fence because I do love my Mother in law. What do you think? Also, are there others with similar problems?
I think you have “nice” and “pleasant” mixed up. No one who voted for Obama is nice. They might be pleasant, but no way are they nice.
She may not live to see another Thanksgiving. Have the kids over and show them what “class” is.
I’m with you. I consider obama voters to be either idiots or traitors and I refuse to have any truck with either. They are not welcome in my house.
You are correct in taking a position that you have seen their true colors, and they are not consistent with your values.
I've eliminated contact with several "friends", due to their lack of moral principle, religious tolerance, sex deviate sympathy, and general "Entitlement" menatlity.
A_perfect_lady has it right - demonstrate class, let them visit her. However, you have the right to forcibly expel them from your home if they get snotty about the election.
Give them a coupon for a Chinese restaurant nearby.
If they start bringing up the election, stop them and say “we’re not discussing politics today. If they persist, politely ask them to leave. Good Luck and enjoy the day!
your tolerance of their immaturity and kindness will do more to convince them of the rightness of your cause. Shunning them will have the opposite effect
20 year olds are all about fashion and group dynamics, so many stupidly mouth the Obama cliches without thinking. They may grow up yet.
A lot of them are BOTH.
I agree, NO ONE who voted for ‘O’ is a nice person.
Voting for a guy who wants to pick my pocket and deny me any recourse in the law ain’t NICE!
It really IS immoral to think that someone ELSE ought to subsidize YOUR lifestyle.
Yea, as if, ‘I want a new Cadillact and maybe the dealer will send the bill to my neighbor’... duhhhhh that won’t work.
Most of my relatives are also Liberal and uneducated past HS, for what that is worth. The ‘educated’ ones are Conservative ... go figure! Ha!
We all have similar problems.
But remember, once upon a time, it was considered extremely rude for guests to discuss either religion or politics. Remind them gently that you don’t agree on certain things, but you all love each other and everybody’s there just to be together, eat good food, and have a good time.
My own son is a very pro-union absolute jerk who specializes in taunting me, his sisters and a couple of other other conservatives in the family. Since he doesn’t live near us, he does it electronically. But one time, after a particularly bad blow up during one of his visits, I made it clear that we really don’t need to talk about these things, but about the things we have in common (in my case, fishing, music, etc.). He’s been pretty good on his visits since then.
So it’s your house and you can lay down the ground rules pleasantly and politely at the start. They may not abide by the rules, but that’s about all you can do. And if a fight breaks out, it makes them and not you look like the people who ruined Thanksgiving.
I have elderly neighbors who I always bring food to from my garden.
They put out an Obama sign this year and I will never bring them food again.
Serve THEM tofu turkey. Cold.
I agree. Obama and his voters are my mortal enemy. They will shorten my life with Obama Care, they will reduce my ability to care for my family with their liberal policies, they are destroying my childrens’ dreams and futures. They are mortal enemies. I will not tolerate them, be polite around them, nor accomodate them in any way. Nor should anyone who understands the truth of what Obama’s election means, and everyone older than 18 should understand that.
Not in my house, period.
Make a list of all the bad things you can think of that will be actually happening in Obama’s second term. Then if they wise off, you can bring up one or two of them.
My BIL Invited their neighbors over (sister’s friends albeit she was friends with everyone, RIP) whom my sister described as Obama-worshippers. They have pictures of him everywhere in the house - guess the demographic.
I have more but I’ll refrain for now.
Otherwise I’d say you might want to ease up on the anal reaction. It’s not time yet.
Maybe you can gently educate them what conservatism is. There was a caller last night on Steve Maltzberg fill-in show. She was a former ditzy liberal but her boyfriend helped her see the light and now she’s happy to be an enlightened conservative in learning. Chances are those kids dont really know why they are liberals. Drop them a few seeds and see what goes.
They are family. Talk about family and other things. Do not talk politics. My in-laws are Obama suporters I go there all the time, I do not talk politics.
Have them over but wear a sidearm to the table and while saying grace thank God that you haven’t had to shoot a mouthy socialist YET today.
I have elderly neighbors who I always bring food to from my garden.
They put out an Obama sign this year and I will never bring them food again.
And tell them to enjoy it, because the low to medium price restaurant is preciesly the kind of business that Obama Care will destroy.
It’s your house, you make the rules.
I see no reason why even a divided family can’t get along if they avoid political subjects.
My boss believes all conservatives are either ignorant, stupid or evil. I have put a real crimp into his world view because he can’t really pin any of the three on me.
So he’s pretty much given up talking about politics around me. Though I must admit I pull my punches a lot because I don’t like to humiliate him. He’s really a very kind and well-intentioned person. Just misled.
You will notice that I am much more charitable in my views of his beliefs than he is of mine.
We say we treasure familiy values as partly an expression of love of God.
One day, Obama will be long gone, and we’ll all still have our families.
Let the bitter — and transient — go, and welcome them with all hospitality and grace, and let Time decide the issue. As others have said, demonstrate Class and basic human love and acceptance of the sinner himself — ignoring his sin.
Has not the Lord promised us as much to each of us on the wider scale? To forget the sin, while retaining the sinner.
“Obama and his voters are my mortal enemy”.
I agree with yours the most. It’s the fact that the woman is 89 that makes me want to give in.
“Not in my house, period.”
I’m with you! My sister-in-law and her jackass Columbia grad, elitist, NYC liberal, douchebag husband are no longer welcome. They are the enemy! F them!! Go to Obama’s house for Thanksgiving!
The problem is we Conservatives do have class, unfortunately, when your are fighting an enemy who has neither class nor morals, class loses every time.
Sad, but true.
Solution = “Thanksgiving in the backyard?”
I agree. Dogmatic types only repelled me when I was that age. A person with a gentle smile who could calmly disagree with me always left a lasting impression.
Your house, your rules.
“Humor them and yourself with this.”
...LOL!!
Set up two tables with with assigned seating. You make the seating assignments at the dinner tables. Use name cards. Have two TV’s with different games on in different rooms. Grandma should be the center of attention. Ask her to tell stories about the good old days. The Reagan family managed to get through family Thanksgiving dinners, so can you.
BS, evil feeds on and consumes weakness.
Wake up.
Oh, heck yeah. I've got the same sort of issues in my own family. In my case, I'm the sole conservative Republican in the family, so I'm pretty much radioactive at family gatherings.
Doesn't bother me, though, as I'm in Texas and the rest of my extended family are in California. I've only gotten back there to see them once in the last seven years. Oddly enough, things stayed peaceful for the most part. Maybe they missed me enough to back off on the usual gang bang political attacks. Dunno.
Tell you what, though, the country is more divided now than at any time since the Civil War. My G-G-G grandfather served with the Confederacy, while his brother served with the Union. It nearly broke their father's heart.
I see families splitting just as badly today, and the divisions seem to be deepening. I don't know what the next four years holds for us, but I wouldn't be the least bit surprised to see several states secede.
It's fun to bring on that puzzled stare, isn't it? LOL...
Well of course it’s easy for me to “make my decision” for you - not knowing the people involved. I have no way to know the nuances of your relationship with the 89 year old. There is something to honoring the family matriarch or patriarch, but there is also something to recognizing the seriousness of the battle we are in too.
I am glad you started the thread, and no condemnation from me on what you do. I am in a position to hold the line on this, and I will. We will be attending the 99th birthday of my wifes grandmother in Florida in a couple weeks. Most of the folks there are anti-Obama, but not all. Everyone will know where I stand and why. Then again, I’m not the host.
You believe Obamites are the problem we face or you don’t.
You cater, coddle and make excuses to accommodate them, or you don’t.
Accommodation got us to this point. Choose accordingly.
Remember, you can lose the battle but still win the war.
Have you ever explained to them why that is? You should.
It’s also fun because he has never been exposed to the arguments of the other side.
I, OTOH, have spent 50 years learning what the other side believes and why. I can slice and dice his arguments whenever I choose, but I’m a nice guy so mostly I don’t. :)
If refusing to have them in your house would accomplish anything useful, then it might be OK. But they are your wife’s family, and therefore yours. I’d agree with those who say, invite them, but warn them not to talk about politics. It’s time for a family holiday, not a political debate.
I don’t know how much hope there is in getting dolts like that to change their minds, but it won’t help to drive them away or break family ties.
If they refuse to cooperate and behave decently after being warned or rebuked, then, regretably, that’s another matter.
Saturday? Take grandma to Vegas.
In my opinion the classy thing to do is accept them and,if the urge strikes you (it's *your* home,after all),attempt to enlighten them...calmly and lucidly.
Actually, the Reagan clan is deeply divided and has been for a long time.
That part remains to be seen, but I fully concur with the rest of your post.
Sometimes you must make sacrifices and do things that you don’t really like to do to keep peace in the family. This is probably one of them for you.
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