Class of '73 and the Great Political Divide

I don't remember much at the time.  I've been a highly political person, pretty much since birth, but I don't have a whole lot of political memories of my classmates, except for the student council and class president campaigns I was involved in.

There was a student poll done when I was just in fourth grade, for the 1964 election.  Lyndon Johnson won in a landslide.

There was some talk about the Vietnam War, but it was mostly about whether or not there'd still be a draft when we came of age (there was, but they weren't really drafting anybody).

If my school peers  expressed an opinion on the '68 election, I missed it.  My own loyalties shifted around, from Eugene McCarthy to Bobby Kennedy to Richard Nixon (for one or two weeks, when I was still angry about the Democratic Convention) to finally Hubert Humphrey (it took me that long to figure out Humphrey's civil rights record and support of liberal causes).

I joined a group in high school that was opposed to Richard Nixon, led by the Eckes brothers, George and Mike.  There were others in the group, but I have forgotten who they were.

The biggest hint of our divide may have come with the riots centered around Detroit in 1968.  The fear was palpable, all around us, as we many were terrified of rumors that they were coming to get us!  Rumors were everywhere.  I had no idea the attitudes were so intense.  I remember a discussion in a classroom where some very logically (at least logically to them) tried to explain why racial prejudice was justified.  I knew the situation was more complicated then they projected (police and authority good, blacks bad), but it was hard to articulate.  Reading the book Nixonland by Rick Perelstein (published in 2008) helped confirm my feelings that much of what happened was caused by over-reaction (on all sides).  It makes me fear for what may soon happen in Ferguson.

It is also important to note than we lived in an area that had one of the healthiest per capita incomes in the United States.  Income equality was about as good as it gets in a capitalist society.  This was due in large part to unions and a healthy auto industry.  Of course, all that changed in subsequent years.

My class went away (from my sight) for a very long time.  Then, thanks to Facebook and the efforts of Benita Vierke Collins, they have come back in recent years.  Many of them are people I really weren't close to, but I befriend them anyways.  Sometimes it's just nice to have people want to be your friends.

Fascinatingly, they have divided behind political lines.  Some are relatively middle of the road, but most are strong advocates for the left or the right.  I'm surprised at the group who agrees with my positions, or posts liberal stuff of their own.  I'm just as surprised at the large group that is very conservative, tinged with Tea Party madness.

It has gotten to the point with my political posts, whether stuff from The Strait Line, comments, or re-postings of different memes, that the only conservative commentary I get are from those right wingers in my class.  My local friends, of which there are many more that are conservative than liberal, have fallen virtually completely silent.  I don't know why.  I don;t know if they just got tired of arguing with me, or since they have real-life interactions with me, they see me as more than a political advocate and just choose to ignore that side of me, or if they just view that stuff like you would a toddler playing with his vegetables - you just smile and try to ignore it, hoping the child grows out of it. I do get likes and some commentary from local liberal friends (yes, we are scattered but we do exist!), but nothing much from local conservatives.  They are such a large group down here (Pierce County voted 85% for Republicans in the last election here), that they may feel like I'm just an aberration and have closed their eyes to the political side of me.

Some of the commentary I get from my school peers is quite intense and nasty.  I have been called a liberal (yes, for some it is a curse word), communist, socialist, naive, stupid, foolish, not in the 'real' world, and the worst thing - a bigot.  Some of the commentary shows libertarian influences, but most is from the authoritarian, Conservative Christian right.  Some of it is borderline racist, particularly when talking about the President they so irrationally hate.  Some of it is actually insightful, and helps me see the other side and their point of view better.

And I do think that is one of the things that is missing for me locally.  They are so sure in their opinions, so rarely challenged, that they don't even want to talk about politics.

So are my Michigan classmates messy and challenging sometimes?  Yes.  Do I want to 'unfriend' or 'block' them sometimes?  Oh, yes.  But the give and take?  The discussion from all sides?  Oh, I do appreciate that.  I really do.

Last election, despite the talk that Georgia was slowly becoming a purple state, the Republicans won everything.  And I do mean EVERYTHING.  Everything except those districts that had been gerrymandered for minorities, or to concentrate the few liberal enclaves in the state.  Michigan has been tilting more Republican statewide, but there is still diversity in the state.  The Democratic Senate candidate, Gary Peters, won election to the Senate, while astonishingly, Republican Governor Rick Snyder won re-election.  The Democratic candidate almost always wins the Presidential race.  I miss that sense of diversity.  I really do.

I do miss hearing from some of my old friends.  Evans Bentley, my best friend from high school.  Cindy Nestell, whom we very close to each other for awhile.  Randy and Barb Bloomfield, the kids next door. I suppose if I were more aggressive, I could track them down, but that is not in my nature.  Heck, I may finally get in contact with them, and find out they LOVE Rushy Limbaugh!  But I think I could handle it.

So, O class of '73 and all your noisy political discussion?  I only have two things to say to you - thank you, and keep it up!