Has your family influenced your personal politics?

[Stella]

I'm Canadian and grew up in a very Liberal focused family so always voted for the Liberal party because I assumed that it was the best thing to do but now that I am getting more involved and learning about politics I am starting to lean more left than liberal and actually really like the Green Party and their goals for the country. I feel like I wasted so many years that I could have been voting for the Green Party on voting for the party that my family prefers. Whenever we begin having political conversations my family always dismisses what I say because I support the Green Party and not the Liberals. Has anyone else had this experience?  If so, how did you navigate it?

[Faith]

I recently read an article explaining that lifelong voting habits are formed in childhood and adolescence, and that those issues of routine and habit may be important in determining voter behavior and therefore election results. So, yeah - what you experienced is quite common. 

I still pretty much vote the way my family has voted.

[Chavezs]

For me, my family had the opposite influence on my politics. I grew up in a conservative household in Dallas, Texas who sees the world through the patriarchy and white supremacy (to be blunt). Luckily, I never voted Republican. 😊 I have increasingly become more progressive as I age and learn. The more I read, the more I see injustices in our system and that has pushed me further to the left. My challenge has been to unlearn so much from my childhood. 

[KamilleJ]

Wow! @Chavezs - I couldn't agree more. My family influenced me to be the exact opposite of what they represent politically and reaffirmed my commitment to uphold and defend liberal and progressive values. I am thankful though for the education I had to experience in having challenging conversations with those who I don't see eye-to-eye with. Not only did it equip me the confidence to tackle difficult situations head-on, but it also encouraged me to interrogate and better understand my own positions.

[john24]

Wow! That must have been difficult having such differing views from your other family members. Kudos to you for educating yourself on these injustices and taking the taking the responsibility of learning and unlearning into your own hands. Has it ever been difficult to converse with your parents about your politics? I'm currently struggling to see eye-to-eye with a lot of political things that my kids are saying but would appreciate hearing your perspective, hopefully I can gain a better understanding.

[Faith]

@Chavezs did the US 2016 elections cause greater political division with your family and friends? While I've always enjoyed a good political debate with colleagues and friends, it became more difficult following the 2016 elections to be able to express my "liberal" views. In fact, I had to agree not to talk politics to one friend in particular in order to preserve our relationship. 

Interested to hear your experience. 

[Chavezs]

Thanks for the replies! It's so cool to have a community to talk about this stuff. @KamilleJ I couldn't agree more about how it prepared me. 

@john24 This year, I've been trying to listen more and come to the conversation with my family on their level so that I can help change their mind. I don't mean to promote my Substack, but I actually wrote about this very topic last week. It's about motivational interviewing and it's great for talking with voters or your friends or family. 

@Faith I am lucky that most of my family are Never Trumpers, but 2020 was actually the more difficult election because it was trying to convince my family that a Republican vote will impact me as a lesbian and other minority no matter what their intentions are. It was tough. I had to pick my battles and hold my tongue at times. I usually try to find the issue they care most about and then lean into that. 

[Stella]

@Chavezs I agree, its actually super cool to get all of these great responses that I can actually apply to my situation! Also, I just checked out your motivational interviewing graphic and its so good!! I remember in the intro video they said you can post your own articles here too - it would be cool if you posted an article about motivational interviewing in the resources section or something and linked to your website for more info that way more people can read about motivational interviewing because I had never heard about that before your post. I feel the same way btw about having to pick my battles but I'm very opinionated so it can be tough not to get into arguments with my parents tbh.

[john24]

@Chavezs , thank you for this resource. I'm actually going to speak with my daughters this evening and try to better understand their perspective with this new lens. I have become a lot more liberal over the years as well but their beliefs are far more progressive than those that I grew up with. I suppose I have a lot of unlearning and re-learning to do as well but it looks like this is a good place to start. I genuinely  appreciate your post and advice. Thank you. 

[Chavezs]

@john24 I'm so glad you found my article helpful! That's exactly what I was hoping for when I wrote it. I hope your conversation with your daughters goes well! 

[Zoe]

one HUNDRED percent. i grew up in st vincent, in the caribbean and my parents are super pro-Black. my dad is a Rastafarian and my mom is super into reading narratives written by slaves. so i had no choice but to be radicalised lol