So my sister came out as a Republican [View all]

[jes06c]

I've been following this site for a while but never felt the need to join until this week. Our family met for lunch on last Sunday, and I was "treated" to hearing my younger sister come out as a Republican.

Our parents have always been far right conservatives. My sister began to rebel against their politics in the early to mid 2000s. During this period Hillary Clinton was her role model, much to my parents' disgust. I can still remember her disappointment in 2002 and 2004, and her joy in the 2006 elections. I was thrilled because I finally had an ally against my family's right wing bullshit at family gatherings.

Things started to change around 2008. She started out an enthusiastic Clinton supporter in the primary, but never really warmed to Obama in the general. She reluctantly voted for him, although she was very seriously considering staying home or even voting for McCain out of spite.

She retained this weird, low key hostility toward Obama, frequently taking shots at him early in his presidency. Around this time, also to our family's horror, she came out as an atheist. Our parents were devastated. I tried to talk sense into them, and explained that having an atheist in the family was no big deal. I made sure to support her in her lack of faith. She was appreciative, and for a while all seemed well.

Things really went south about three years ago, when she became an Islamophobe. First she's posting on Facebook advocating for a ban on facial veils because it's oppressive to women. Then she opposed the mosque at ground zero because, well, something to do with "creeping Sharia law" (trust me, even when she explained it to me in person, it still made no sense). Now she was attacking Obama relentlessly over the Iran deal. She turned against Hillary Clinton over this as well. She bought into the Muslim extremist/terrorist/Islamo-fascist boogeyman so thoroughly that it overrode everything else. And she kept complaining about the "regressive left" (whatever the hell that means).

My alarm bells were really going off last election, as she became obsessed with two right wing talking points. The first was her support for only granting asylum to Christian Syrians (later she got on board with the full Muslim ban). the second was advocating for a Muslim registry. Also, according to her the city of London and the state of Michigan were now under Sharia law. Who knew? And she wasn't just trying to be provocative on Facebook. Before we went on vacation to London last October, she told me that I was being stupid for travelling to London. Her reasoning? Some Pakistani was going to throw acid in my wife or daughter's face. yes, she really thought this would happen. Miraculously, we all managed to survive London acid-free.

Still, it was still a bit of a surprise to hear her come out as a full blown right winger. Here's the kicker, she's been dating an ultraconservative evangelical Republican (total jackass by the way, but that's another post). For years she's been a die hard, in your face, atheist, and her boyfriend was pleased to inform our family that now she's going to his megachurch and attending classes with him. She was quick to clarify that she's still an atheist, but she appreciates how they're not blinded by the PC police and are brave enough to combat Islam...and to be honest I started tuning out at that point. Thankfully lunch was over by then, and I had to leave to pick my wife up from her friend's baby shower.

It's been a few days but I still can't get over how twisted her political beliefs have become. I think part of the reason it bothers me so much is that just ten years ago she was an enthusiastic, young Democrat, the face of the Party's future. what a shame that over the course of ten years she's gone down such a dark path.