I have 6 younger siblings and Mom and some 21 grown nephews and nieces; I also have cousins and other relatives. I don't really discuss my blogs with friends or work colleagues; in fact, I avoid any discussions of politics at work and rarely discuss politics with friends or family. When I started this blog I did email notices of early posts but since then I have sometimes linked a specialty post they might find interesting, e.g., descriptions of past work experiences, but I doubt this happens more than a handful of cases a year. I've sometimes expressed an opinion say on a Presidential election, but generally speaking I've rarely gotten any argument or feedback; more or less, they know my position and/or about the blog.
But the point is, I've barely been averaging in the high single-digits in daily pageviews, and even when I promote certain specialty posts on Twitter (with over 60 followers), I'm lucky to add a dozen or two additional pageviews. And nothing keeps my ego in check like when I indirectly hear from readers. For example, one nephew says he occasionally looks at my posts--because he likes the political cartoons I embed. In another case, I think I featured a series of Cole Porter tunes some time back in my music video feature which impressed one Porter fan enough to contact me on Facebook.
I had worked for a major defense contractor in Arizona. I had a work colleague who was a bit of an asshole, solemnly warning me he knew I had a blog; I'm not sure why he thought it was an issue (I never discuss privileged work details in my blogs; as a libertarian, I honor my contractual commitments), but it was clear that he felt he had leverage over me. Dude, I'm not impressed that you put my name into an Internet search engine; I'm sure government investigators in the past have done it. I found his motivation in doing a search on me rather disturbing, but I welcome readers, whatever their motivation. But my former employers have never discussed my blogs.
I would say I don't know the politics, at least in detail, for most of my nuclear family, except my Mom. One of my sisters, at least in the past, was in a Republican wives' club (it was incidentally mentioned in an email). My middle brother is probably a moderate Republican; he's been known to send me a link to a NYT article, which conservatives or libertarians almost never do. The second-born (I'm first), an RN, was a very conservative anti-communist growing up.
Probably the biggest political kerfuffle in the family (which I may have mentioned once or twice in past posts) was when my second godchild/niece graduated from high school; for work or budget reasons, I really haven't attended many graduations or weddings except for my own siblings. I did make an exception for my godchild (my RN sister's second daughter). My sister's family had moved just outside the Air Force Academy; I think my brother-in-law retired from the Air Force out there, and the couple both worked civil service. So my niece had attended a local public high school, and the graduation was held on the grounds of AFA. One of the graduating students delivered an address which consisted wholly of her testimony to Jesus Christ.
I thought this was grossly inappropriate. This had happened in a position where I was transitioning from a more conservative to libertarian perspective. I believe there should be an independence between church and state; for one thing, I think it serves the moral standing of the church in responding to political considerations vs. being co-opted as part of the system. And I'm not an absolutist; I don't believe in censorship of various religious expressions, e.g., brief prayers, crosses on public land, etc.; it had more to do with the nature and scope of expression. I didn't have an issue with the young lady giving that address at a different time and place. And I certainly would not have a problem with that expression at a private school ceremony. But I felt and still feel one should not promote religion for a government-funded function, at a government facility.
My sister, parents and all vigorously disagreed with me, using a disingenuous defense of free expression. I pointed out they (as fellow Christians/Catholics) would not have been as receptive if the young woman had been Muslim, Hindu or Buddhist.
At some point, the family debate spread into the discussion of school prayer, which I similarly oppose (not to mention the pledge of allegiance, which I have come to believe is inappropriate in a country celebrating individual rights). At that, my youngest brother took exception, saying he couldn't believe I took such a position. I think that's the only time he's ever commented on politics to me personally his whole life. (During my recent trip to Texas, he casually joked that he knew I didn't care for his "boss", i.e., Trump; he, like our late Dad, retired from the USAF as an NCO; he currently works civil service.) My two other sisters have never discussed politics to the best of my knowledge, other than one briefly said something to the effect nobody likes everything about Trump.
For the most part, I haven't heard the politics of my 21 nephews and nieces. Three of my nephews have privately told me they lean libertarian but don't agree with all my views. One of them I thought for sure was a progressive when he obnoxiously fought me on government healthcare on Facebook to the point of harassment. I'm not sure if he's a left-libertarian or simply sees exceptions like government healthcare as release valves necessary to thwart the risk of revolution in a capitalist system. But he told me he joined me in voting for Gary Johnson, but had in prior elections also voted LP. So clearly I had not influenced him. I know he had cheered on my early Facebook rants against Trump, but when he went on the healthcare kick, I assumed he was simply another progressive who didn't like Trump. The other two labeled themselves as 'fiscally conservative, socially liberal' ; I dislike this trite soundbite some consider the definition of libertarianism. I take the 'socially liberal' portion to reflect tolerance of abortion and gay causes like gay "marriage". I think my positions are fairly consistent with a libertarian perspective, even if not mainstream. I see abortion as fundamentally inconsistent with the unalienable right to live and the non-aggression principle. I don't think the government should be involved with the institution of marriage. In addition, I don't think the central government should micromanage traditional state regulation.
I have blogged in the past on my middle brother's 2 children, who are unabashed progressives (at least at last check). I really found out shortly after I started this blog in the summer of 2008, after Obama had captured the Dem nomination. The older sibling (my niece) sent an email (wrong address) to my Mom, cc'ing me in the process; I have no clue why I got referenced unless she had become aware of my blog--I was not sending out rants to the family. She was attacking McCain for his support of embryonic stem cell research; it really wasn't clear what her motive was, because the Democrats had promoted embryonic stem cell research like snake oil in prior elections as well. Maybe her intent was to suggest McCain, as a pro-lifer, as being hypocritical. I slapped back a response, and she responded with copy/pastes from progressive websites. As some point, she started cc'ing her mother and younger brother, presumably for moral support. My sister-in-law was decidedly not a liberal; for instance, she has hated Hillary Clinton from the 1990's. But she and I have never really gotten along, and she played the role of Momma Bear protecting her cubs. My nephew at the tail end of the exchange mocked me, noting the siblings were going to vote for Obama, no matter what I said, nah-nah-nah-nah-nah. Seriously, dude? Grow up. They lived in Kansas, anyway, which would never go for Obama in a million years. This was an unsolicited fight started by your big sister.
I knew McCain was going to lose by then, anyway. It was a change election year, Bush had one of the lowest approval ratings in history--and McCain won the nomination, stressing his support for Bush, Obama had 10 times the money, and the economic collapse fed into the Democrats' support for the social welfare net. Not to mention McCain had fucked up badly, selecting Palin (negating his experience advantage over Obama) and suspending his campaign during the economic crisis. Not to mention gaffes, like admitting he needed to be educated on the economy. A basic reason I had supported McCain was I bought into his reputation as a maverick and a bipartisan leader; his campaign degenerated into repeated political spin, and then Senate Majority Leader Reid publicly rebuked him during TARP negotiations, saying "Go away, we don't need you..." (Reid knew McCain wanted another bipartisan notch on his belt and wanted no part of it.) I watched all this nonsense from the sidelines with horror; I didn't really blog about it at the time, because I knew Obama would be an even worse disaster, and I really didn't want to give Obama ammunition to use against McCain.
So maybe news of the kerfuffle spread to the cousins, who didn't want to confront an argumentative uncle; who knows? Certainly my own siblings know that I love to argue, just like my Mom. But the fact is that while I was the favorite uncle while the kids were growing up, giving them gifts and mailing multiple cards over the years, I rarely visited the families during the teenage years or attended special events like graduations or weddings. Even when the nieces and nephews responded to emails, it was almost always at my initiative. Even though I had been a professor for 5 years, not one of them ever solicited my advice about college or anything.
So maybe I am the proverbial "crazy old uncle" to my nephews and nieces, with unpopular political views and who is quick to argue.
Where do I inherit my love to argue? Probably my mother's side of the family. I remember when I visited my late maternal grandfather/godfather over the Christmas holidays I turned 18. (My Dad and family were living at an AFB in Germany at the time.) One day he suddenly launched into an anti-abortion rant directed at me. Now actually he was preaching to the choir; I was passionately pro-life before Roe v Wade, before I even knew the Catholic Church's position on abortion. But I was like, "Dude, I don't even have a girlfriend!" My late uncle/priest notoriously didn't argue (because he didn't like to repeat himself and felt that arguments weren't productive), although I managed to get him riled up on a small number of occasions. Oddly enough, at his funeral mass, a high-ranking cleric mentioned that my uncle was known to enjoy arguments with his progressive friends. Now Grandfather (I never knew my paternal grandfather, who died before Dad graduated high school) was a mom-and-pop grocer in Fall River, a fairly rare Republican (by the time I visited him). I knew my uncle was passionately anti-Communist. My Mom (and Dad) really didn't discuss politics that much while I grew up; I think they liked the fact Jack Kennedy was a (not very faithful, i.e., extramarital affairs) Catholic. Dad was probably a conservative Democrat who voted for GOP Presidents. I remember I wasn't eligible to vote in the 1972 election but had recommended a third-party pro-life candidate. Mom wrote something to the effect she looked for the candidate on the ballot, but he wasn't there so she ended up voting for Nixon. Several years later, I casually mentioned that, and she went crazy, insisting she never discusses who she votes for with anybody.
Mom has become far more open about her political opinions over the past few years. In a manner of speaking, she is probably the only Republican in our family tree with Massachusetts roots, including her favorite cousin, who I'm also close with and who's pretty much a proud Democrat. For the most part, she's a social conservative. She is particularly upset by controversies like removing crosses from public cemeteries or the words "under God" from the pledge of allegiance. I think I got forwarded every email she ever got on relevant themes. Not to mention every email hoax under the sun; I ended up on multiple occasions telling her how to access Snopes and check email claims--all to no avail.
More recently (during the Trump era) she started sending me other rubbish, including every immigration-restrictionist email out there, various other initiatives like making English the official language of the US, etc. I think she does it to provoke a reaction. She's also done things like send me a copy of a Paul Krugman column. (My late Dad's best friend Oscar is a traditional yellow-dog Democrat who among other things hates the Bushes with a passion. So he'll forward things like a Krugman column. I'm like, "Mom, have you read my blog? Have you ever known me to agree with Krugman on anything?" She would say something like, "I thought it was interesting.")
She knows I'm opposed to Trump. I don't think she has a Twitter account, but I regularly republish my political tweets. It's not so much she's pro-Trump, but she is anti-Democrat, especially their Planned Parenthood constituency. In her eyes, a Clinton White House would have been an abomination. I point out I also voted against Clinton. This infuriates her: according to her, I deserve none of the credit for defeating Hillary; it was people like her who did the dirty work of putting Trump into office.
My emails and calls to her generally don't mention politics at all. I generally talk about her latest great-grandkids, my diet or recent doctor visits, my middle brother building a retirement home in Texas, etc. So out of nowhere during her last call, she starts a Trumpkin rant, as if I'm secretly plotting to return Democrats to the White House, the end of the world as far as she's concerned. I'm in hell because I don't want to be rude and interrupt or hang up on her, but she's not going to change my mind about Trump. I text the siblings after the call; not much sympathy, with a couple of siblings pointing out Mom loves to argue. I guess I'm my mother's son.
