My Deplorable in-laws this morning: not the reaction I expected!

[Still In Wisconsin]

My wife's parents, now in their mid 70's are classic Deplorables. Her mom was a school teacher and dad was a union electrician his whole career. In other words, FORMER Democrats who, somewhere along the line, were convinced by Rush, then Hannity and Fox, that their (perceived) declining standard of living was the fault of "coloreds" and "liberals," thus rendering them reliable white blue collar Republican voters. Being in that demographic, they naturally love TRUMP.

Anyway, they both showed up this morning on their way to our nephew's hockey game, and their reaction to the Nunes memo was... interesting? I expected them to kind of smirk and insinuate that TRUMP had been right all along, but that's not what we got. Instead we got my wife's father, red-faced and almost yelling about how we needed MILITARY TRIBUNALS for THAT SCHIFF LOSER and OBAMA and HILLARY and THE REST OF THE DEMOCRATS ON THAT COMMITTEE AND THEY HAD BETTER HAVE LOTS OF ROPE BECAUSE THEY'D BE NEEDING IT!

I am Jewish, of Eastern European and Russian ancestry, and there are several holes in my family tree because of people who thought exactly like my in-laws. This is terrifying.

My wife asked her parents to leave our house. That has never happened before. Dark times.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. Wow! I am so very sorry!

[lunasun]

2. your wife did the right thing

People talk about Nazi Germany and say stuff like-
"If I was alive then, I would've…..” You're alive now. Whatever you're doing is what you would've done

So many say they tolerate deplorables . If they come after them later for whatever reason, it will be tolerated

[madaboutharry]

60. 100% right you are, lunasun.

We are seeing in real time exactly how people would have behaved if they were living in Nazi occupied Europe. We now know who each and every collaborator would have been.

We know them all; those who would have signed up for the SS and for the death squads, those who would have lent their educations and training to help the regime, those who would turn in their neighbors, and those who would have shut the curtains and pretended not to see.

[lunasun]

64. +1 "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter" MLK Jr...In the end,

"In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends." "Only in the darkness can you see the stars"

"It may well be that we will have to repent in this generation, not merely for the vitriolic words and the violent actions of the bad people who would bomb a church in Birmingham, Alabama but for the appalling silence and indifference of the good people who sit around and say wait on time."
MLK Jr.

[CanonRay]

73. My cousin already call us "the enemy"

and he thinks we should be treated exactly that way. If they marched us off to death camps, he'd be on the side of the road cheering.

[johnmont]

85. cousin

He doesnt know that Soon he will be the one that's being marched down the road and being watched silently.

[Cary]

98. Please explain this

We don't want for anyone to be "marched down the road." Tell me you understand that.

[Maynar]

86. My sympathies Ray

Hell of a thing.

[maryellen99]

107. Sorry you have such shitty relatives nt

[irisblue]

3. I'm sorry. That must have hurt your wife & you very much.

Telling family members to leave is a big sad step.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

12. Been there, done that... recently, with an aunt and uncle. No longer welcome in my home!!

Fuck 'em!!

[lindysalsagal]

4. "red-faced and yelling" means scared, regardless of the words that followed.

That's a terrible scene for your family. But unless I'm misunderstanding, that's a crack in the denial.

The cracks always hurt, but they're also permanent. That's why they hurt.

They may be heading for the "all politicians are the same: crooks" category, which is an improvement over being trumpettes.

[SunSeeker]

76. Exactly what came to my mind. nt

[Sophia4]

5. Next time, remind them that Congress has the authority to change

the FISA law and make it more difficult to get a surveillance warrant. That's up to Congress. Republicans control Congress and the presidency, so if a warrant was unfairly or wrongly issued for Carter Page, the Congress should change the FISA law. We don't need a revolution. We have a Congress that can change things.

Tell them that.

Put the shoe on the foot where it belongs.

[pangaia]

51. No way would they EVER be able to process that.

It's like discussing Grand Unified Theory.

[Gabi Hayes]

89. The repub congress just did this

https://www.wired.com/story/fisa-section-702-renewal-congress/

They re-upped for six years and made it more onerous

If they still know how to read, show this to your in-laws

In 2013, EDWARD Snowden revealed that the National Security Agency was legally collecting millions of Americans’ phone calls and electronic communications—including emails, Facebook messages, and browsing histories—without a warrant. Congress has now decided not only to reauthorize these programs, but also to expand some of their most invasive techniques.

The spying initiatives Snowden brought to light are authorized under Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which was set to expire later this month. On Thursday, Congress voted down an effort to reform Section 702, and instead passed a bill that expanded warrantless surveillance of US citizens and foreigners. The newly passed bill reauthorizes Section 702 for six years, long after President Trump’s first term in office will have expired.

The amendment that the House of Representatives shot down would have added significant privacy safeguards to the law, including the requirement that intelligence agents get a warrant in many cases before searching through emails and other digital communications belonging to US citizens. The bill Congress did pass, meanwhile, codifies some of the most troubling aspects of Section 702, according to privacy advocates. The legislation still needs to pass in the Senate, where fewer representatives are interested in significantly reforming the law.

[UpInArms]

94. This 👆🏼

Is what everyone needs to know ... right NOW

[Sophia4]

106. Thanks.

Albeit the Fourth Amendment requires probable cause for searches and seizures and the Sixth Amendment requires that a person accused in a court has the right to confront his accusers. This surveillance is used to circumvent those limitations on the government, but it's the activists on the right who insist on the one hand that we have to have the surveillance and on the other talk about the "deep state" etc. that the surveillance and secrecy laws create.

They are talking out of both sides of their mouths. It's just about taking power for themselves. They don't think rationally or critically about what Section 702 really does or how and when it contradicts our Constitution and violates our rights.

That kind of rational thought is just above them.

[Gabi Hayes]

108. Agree, except they are perfectly rational.....they DONT CARE!

They’re monsters; they know very well what they’re doing, just like AH and JG did 90 years ago, as they revved up the Weimar geebs.


https://www.lewrockwell.com/2005/02/stephen-bender/karl-rove-the-spectre-of-freudsnephew/

"The conscious and intelligent manipulation of the organized habits and opinions of the masses is an important element in democratic society. Those who manipulate this unseen mechanism of society constitute an invisible government which is the true ruling power of our country… We are governed, our minds molded, our tastes formed, our ideas suggested, largely by men we have never heard of. This is a logical result of the way in which our democratic society is organized… "

So opens Propaganda (1928), one of several strikingly frank analyses of western social psychology written by Edward Bernays. This nephew of Sigmund Freud founded the public relations industry in the United States.

Mr. Bernays lived a fascinating life. He first got involved in high stakes politics when he "warmed up" the dour Calvin Coolidge by arranging the first presidential celebrity photo op in 1928. For the private sector, Bernays engineered a most notorious publicity stunt for the American Tobacco Company, by single-handedly neutralizing the taboo against women smoking in public. He organized a "Torches of Freedom" march down Broadway by ten smoking debutantes during the 1929 Easter Parade. With the help of feminists – some of whom understood the "right to smoke" as libratory – Bernays expertly publicized this spectacle, thus setting in motion the expected stir on op-ed pages across the land.

For Bernays, truth in public affairs did not exist per se. Rather, truth was the product of the "public relations counsel" forging prevailing "public opinion." It should be said that he readily recognized the ethical implications of his work, as witnessed in his later anti-smoking advocacy, after the dangers of cigarettes became known in the late-1950s. He could also be, in his own curious way, a humanitarian – as reflected in his work promoting the NAACP and anti-syphilis public education.

For Bernays, however, the necessity of controlling the public mind was a crucially important matter confronting the better element, a group in which he clearly included himself. In his first work, the hugely influential Crystallizing Public Opinion (1923), Bernays noted that the establishment of public education and the gradual extension of the right to vote caused consternation among western elites. The use of public relations techniques, then, was a way for the minority to "so mold the mind of the masses that they will throw their newly gained strength in the desired direction."

Then, the obvious occurred:

Mein Kampf (1925):

"But it was not until the [First World] War that it became evident what immense results could be obtained by a correct application of propaganda. Here again, unfortunately, all our studying had to be done on the enemy side…" In Bernays's 1965 memoir, Biography of an Idea, he acknowledged that Crystallizing Public Opinion significantly influenced Josef Goebbels.

[bluestarone]

6. GOOD FOR HER!!!!

hope it ruins there hockey trip!!!!!!!!!!!!! (sorry for you guys tho)

[Siwsan]

7. I'm sending hugs

I had several close encounters, recently, with people, both in the family and on the periphery, that I normally avoid, at all costs.

And I escaped with just a quick 'laying on of the hands', by one of the evangelicals, to expel what I guess is a depression causing demon. I didn't have the heart to tell him that the demon causing my depression actually lives in the White House.

[Grammy23]

8. They must be feeling very frightened by what they are seeing and hearing.

In such circumstances, people often cling even tighter to their delusions. Plus, Fox will double down on their indoctrination of the masses. Instead of inserting a wee bit of doubt about all they have been sold as “truth”, the discomfort of being sold lies makes them turn even more to their sources of mistruth.

At some point (and who knows when that will come?) the truth will win out over the lies. All but the most hardcore tRumpies will understand the degree to which they were misled. Some of them will acknowledge the deception and will lash out at him and his administration. Others will never admit they were deceived but will just quietly move on. Remember Emily Lie-tella of Saturday Night Live fame? “Never mind.”

Those of us who are watching all of this unfold and have been since the day tRump rode down the golden escalator, want to see tRump get what he is due. But also having these tRumpers admit their deception would be icing on the cake. It will be really, really hard not to indulge in a bit of “I told you so.”

[maryellen99]

52. I bet a lot of them will be having mental breakdowns from his supporters when it all comes out nt

[TeamPooka]

9. Fox news has really ginned up the crowd for torches and pitchforks this time.

they are so stupid.

[InAbLuEsTaTe]

10. Well that sucks... so sorry to hear. I'll reserve my true thoughts, since they are your inlaws.

[Ferrets are Cool]

11. I've seen that response on FB this morning...

it is very depressing.

[oberliner]

13. All over twitter also

You should see some of the images. Check some hashtags: military tribunals, treason, etc.

[spanone]

14. they live in foxland

[dalton99a]

15. Typical deplorable behavior

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100210183857

[ffr]

18. +1

[kimbutgar]

16. They are so brainwashed in the cult of twitler and Fox

I always come back to the documentary, the brainwashing of my Dad. He was a democrat nice guy then started listening to rush and fox and became this angry mean person. It wasn’t until he retired that they got him back. His radio broke and then his tv , the daughter blocked fox and eventually he became himself again. They show the movie on free speech tv from time to time and you can also stream for a fee. It will explain what happened to your wife’s parents. Maybe even show them the movie if you can. But they will probably walk out.

http://www.thebrainwashingofmydad.com/

[Initech]

26. Rupert Murdoch is really no different than any other cult leader.

I think the only difference between him and people like David Koresh, Charles Manson, and the Heaven's Gate guy is he controls a news network and has the ability to reach more people. I'd love to see someone do a study on the cult like behavior of Fox News viewers.

[ffr]

17. The tribunals are coming alright, for the Grifter and his accomplices. #RESIST

[Vinca]

19. Wow - your post makes me happy most of my relatives are dead. Good for your wife.

[PatrickforO]

20. Our federal law enforcement agencies, State and our military all

swear oaths to uphold this country, not a political party or a single dictator-president.

It is my solemn hope and fervent prayer that they remember their oaths when the time comes. Particularly if the brownshirts begin marching in our streets with jackboots and bloody truncheons, they need to be met with force if necessary.

Let's hope our institutions are strong enough to stand tall through this crisis.

[lancelyons]

21. Thats too far.. its hard but i think you have to keep politics way out of the way when family

Thats too far.. its hard but i think you have to keep politics way out of the way when family members are around.

If just for a day or afternoon.

[Mariana]

45. It's not too far when someone is clearly not in control of himself.

If the description in the OP was accurate, she absolutely did the right thing. It's frightening to be around someone who is that angry and out of control. I would throw out anyone who behaved like that in my house, too.

[bluestarone]

57. this 100%

[catbyte]

63. What do you mean "that's too far"? So they should've gone along with the insane ranting & raving

just because they're "family"?!? I imagine a lot of that occurred in Germany, circa 1933.

[Initech]

22. The Fox Cult claims more victims.

Fuck Fox News!

[liberalnarb]

40. Ive lost family members to Levins cult. Not sure which is worse.

I hate that smug little piece of shit.

[SWBTATTReg]

23. ah....family, eh?

Nothing like 'family' to bring values to the table/play the 'blame' game on everyone else but themselves...

Shame. Wife is smart, and sticking to her guns...good for her!

[the_sly_pig]

24. Good for your wife...

Maintaining relationships with the willfully ignorant is a waste of precious time.

[AllaN01Bear]

25. friend of mine was turned by his lying right wing brother

[Drahthaardogs]

27. When Fascism comes to America,

It will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.

[KPN]

29. +1!

And it is trying hard to come to America already.

[marble falls]

28. Surprised. My family deplorables flipped the other way. No one ever mentions who they voted ....

for anymore. My wife flipped parties as soon as Trump was obviously going to be nominated. She changed her opinion of Hilary Clinton once she listened carefully to her during the election. She switched party because "only the Democratic Party was paying attention to my issues."

I am so sorry to hear about your experience. Things can change, they did for my dad, too.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

33. not really deplorables, then. yay!

IMO, a deplorable is irredeemable. They are Nazi at heart and you can never get them to accept 'others' as equals.

Sounds like you just had some misinformed folks who reasoned their way out of some bad company.

Happy for you and yours!

[marble falls]

34. We're still praying for her parents, her dad is a deplorable but at least he doesn't discuss it ....

around us any more. Her mom just loves Trump but she never argued.

[Juliusseizure]

49. I don't think the Nazi label fits or is helpful

I'll go with racist and loose moral compass, but Nazi is an extreme evil I have not seen demonstrated. I don't see any support for genocide.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

59. read the news

You may have missed Charlottesville.

All trumpers are not deplorables. All deplorables are trumpers.

There are more people who voted for tRump than there are deplorables. I know many who are misinformed and many who are uninformed. There are many who voted "R" because they always have.

The basket of deplorables is real. It doesn't contain all Republicans nor even all trump voters. The big problem is to inform and educate those people who are caught up in the screeching of the deplorables.

[True Blue American]

92. Adolph Hitler

Actually started by promising to help the unemployed. He blamed the bankers who were mostly wealthy Jews for their lack of jobs. The German people were starving.

News was not available to many in those days, only radios,and short Documentaries at the Movies.

But he pulled the same hate tactics Trump is using. Shut down any news. Trump gets his ideas from the worst hate monger of all, Sean Hannity.

Do not kid yourself it can not happen here. The Republican Party has become increasingly mean over the years. They use any method to win and the Supreme Court has given them unlopimited money to do just that.

Thank goodness we still have enough free media to counter their hate. That is why Trump is attacking. The media and our Justice system.

This is not going to end well.

[Hermit-The-Prog]

30. messaging

How in the world do we break that cult bubble to get reasoning in?

[liberalnarb]

39. Ive tried. Youd have better luck talking to trumps wall.

[deurbano]

62. I really don't know because the media markets in so many regions are dominated

by Fox and Sinclair and hate TV/radio. And it seems like when the left tries for balance (like Air America), we just don't have the same audience for that kind of content.

My mom was the constituent representative for a powerful Republican congressmen, and if we ever visited his office (which we tried to avoid), Fox was always playing in the waiting room, and my mom was listening to Limbaugh (or whatever crap was available) in her office as she worked. At home, she also has hate radio or hate TV on constantly in every room. I don't think most liberals/progressives/those-of-the-Democratic-persuasion choose to live like that-- constantly immersed in propaganda, even if coming from "our" side.

There is no critical thinking there. She just gets her "marching orders" from Hannity, Rush (etc.) and eventually falls in line. I mean, my mom started out saying Trump was just a joke with no chance whatsoever. Then she began to become anxious that he was being taken seriously, and she LOATHED him and said she would never vote for someone who mocked disabled people (etc.). I think she wrote in Kasich in the CA primary. But over time, constantly immersed in that filth, she even began to criticize her former idol, Romney, and anyone else who dared to express reservations about the Vulgar Talking Yam... and she ended up attending the inauguration!

I don't think it is so much about a problem with our messaging as it is the "cult bubble" you mention... and I know that my mom is impervious to reason. I used to try to counter the ridiculous email claims she would share with the actual facts from Snopes (or elsewhere), but it didn't matter. Maybe it was true that the only qualification of the "doctor" who diagnosed Obama as a narcissist was that he, himself, was a self-diagnosed narcissist, but that didn't matter because Obama was obviously narcissistic, anyway. Maybe it was true that the government phone program for low income people did not originate with Obama's administration, but in Cleveland, it was still a fact that Obama was giving out free phones in exchange for votes. Maybe other First Ladies (like Jackie Kennedy) wore sleeveless dresses to the State of the Union, too-- a fact-check I shared with her after she parroted the new "outrage of the day," which involved Ms. Obama's utter lack of respect for our sacred institutions by having the gall to expose her bare arms (and WHO wears a sleeveless dress in the winter, anyway, so not just disrespectful, but stupid) -- but Ms. Obama's sleeveless dresses were definitely more arm-revealing (or something, but it was really about the hue), so still disrespectful. (And now we have a First Lady who has actually bared her breasts as a model--and a First Daughter who is now trying to channel Jackie Kennedy, but previously seemed to be emulating Las Vegas showgirls--and from my mom.... crickets.)

They don't have the critical thinking skills that would allow "reason" to penetrate through this non-stop marination in such a toxic stew of hatred and lies. It's scary. I'm currently barely communicating with my mom, and I have ceased communicating with my sister, who also attended the inauguration (and was gung-ho about that creature from the start)... and who also trashed (on Facebook) the "snowflakes" at my alma mater (and my daughter's alma mater), Berkeley, in her zeal to defend that revolting, pedophile-loving, white supremacist who encountered protestors. Another example of their total lack of critical thinking skills: on Facebook, my sister enthusiastically shared an obviously photo-shopped photo of Taylor Swift with a MAGA hat. They have become complete idiots, totally gullible, able to be manipulated to any point of view.

[DownriverDem]

31. Wow!

I know how you and your wife feel. Although not a relative, a co-worker went to that extreme world on me. I walked into the lunch room to get something from the vending machine. He was the only one in there & he was watching Fox News. I said Fox News? They lie. He went nuts going after Hillary, Obama, Pelosi, George Soros and whoever else he vilified. I said you're on the wrong side. He sounded crazy. Then I realized that we aren't supposed to talk about politics at work. So I just said, let's just pretend this conversation never happened.
Karma? Over the weeks I wouldn't see him. One day I asked our receptionist about him. He fell off his house last summer when on the roof of his house. He was off work using the process we have at work. Then like many of the employees, you end up fired. I would never wish that on anyone, but talk about negative energy & Karma.

[lunasun]

68. Maybe he was listening to a Rush L while working on the roof . Got too upset by one of

Limbaugh s evil rants that day, and not watching his step. Those crazy types with long lists are scary

[mn9driver]

32. It goes to show how effective brainwashing is.

I’ve seen this same reaction from some of the local Trump cultists. They are foaming at the mouth calling for mass arrests of FBI agents and democrats. Really strange.

[DBoon]

35. If we actually had their dictatorship in this country

I would bet the first thing they would do is turn you and your wife in to the secret police.

You would vanish, and they would be smugly pleased they got another "libtartd"

These people are very dangerous. All they need is a system that allows them to exercise their evil

[liberalnarb]

36. A lot of us are right there with you in that boat.

Right wingers have been made even more vicious than before (if that’s possible) by tRump. When President Obama’s was in office I would just roll my eyes at this stuff, now that it’s running the most powerful government in the world it’s hard for me not to cry when I hear someone in my family spewing that garbage. I’ve actually been in political arguments that have turned physical with rw family members. That’s how bad it’s getting. Hang in there.

[mountain grammy]

37. Yes, dark times.

people have lost their ever loving minds.

[ismnotwasm]

38. I believe we are seeing a changing of the guard so to speak

As whites slowly become a minority of sorts, in population, if not money and power, the edge in money and power is slowly being lost. This seems to drive some white folks crazy. It drives others who accept Whiteness as a standard crazy. We’ve never had to confront the actual repercussions of the erosion Whiteness as the dominant cultural standard. Some of us are uneasy—we were always so GOOD at cultural appropriation, we took credit where it was by no means due. We’ve done this for centuries. We’ve led the way in modern times anyway, when another culture has something interesting or attractive or genius, we created the culture of cultural theft.

And, to coin a phrase, time is up.

So much of what the right is, is reactive—anger and fear. Trump is everything diseased and damaged about Whiteness (which, so there is no mistake, does not mean white people as a whole, I know many of us are great people. I hate that I have to qualify this though, because people will misunderstand what Whiteness is, or think it merely an acedemic exercise) and about patriarchy.

Such bitter, angry, violent reactions everywhere. Trumps election even being possible . A powerful woman as a perennial scapegoat, the whole idea of libertarianism. The resurgence of the “alt-right” —a number of who started with Men’s Rights Activism fuckery. Men’s Rights Activism fuckery becoming almost mainstream—not quite, but too close. All that anger directed toward people with non-white skin and non-compliant women.

Still. Time is up.

[Duppers]

41. I'll echo the "GOOD for her" here. Hurray for your wife.

I've ended a 22yr long friendship during Shrub's admin over shit like this. Also one with my hub's sister that ended with costing us big inheritance $$$. No regrets tho.

I knew those relationships needed to end anyway. Maintaining such relationships was just too stressful for me - hated having a bloody tongue (biting it too much) .

[bitterross]

42. So, Clearly, they didn't bother reading the memo

Nor are they capable of critical thinking.

[mvd]

43. Oh my - sorry to hear that

I'm thinking the memo was really disappointing to them, so the hate came out in a rage. Fortunately I deal with all Democrats in my family (rarely see the Repukes), though I am the only Sanders supporter that I know of even in the extended family. My grandfather may have been a Sanders supporter as he was a big FDR guy, but he was also a Democrat for a lot of years. Who knows for sure.

[kydo]

44. This is when living in a red area has prepared me for this. It's the one I expect.

No really, going full Benghazi nuts, getting red in the face, yelling the craziest crap is what I found out on many occasions is their normal response to bad news for rethugs. There is no words to describe it. One minute you are having normal chat. Then some dog whistle phrase happens and next thing you know you are sitting next to the demonically possessed Linda Blair. You have to duck as to not get hit by the pea soup erupting from their mouth hole.

Sadly they are programmed to react this way. Nothing can be done until they seek treatment. Your argument will always end in a shouting match and you will always lose. No matter what. No matter how right you are and how many facts and truth you offer. It will fall on deaf ears, The only thing that happens is your ears hurt from the yelling and you have sore throat.

I found it best to just walk away when they go Benghazi on me. Sometimes if you do it right, you can slip into the crowd and give the "oh look a crazy person screaming at them-self" look, stop and stare like the other on lookers before walking away shaking your head in pity for the sick person.

[LenaBaby61]

46. I know that it hurts Wisconsin ....

But GOOD for your wife in sticking to her guns. She nor you/your family deserves to have that nastiness around.

A friend who lives here in the LA County area said good-bye permanently to relatives in Ohio. Same for a friend from West Virgina. The racism and hatred--pure nasty BILE--they tell me that they had to endure while around family members--they couldn't take any longer, or accept. Neither have had ANY contact with their relatives and both friends tell me that they're STILL feeling just FINE with their decisions.

I tell you, Faux Noose, tRump et al have really done a job on a lot of people in bringing out the racism, sexism etc. that exists within them, and sadly the riffs between family members/friends/co-workers won't EVER heal.

[samnsara]

47. Holy Moley!!! Im glad your wife stood up to them..altho it must have been..

..hard for her. They will have to give some real thought.. their daughter or trump. She should tell them to make that decision.

[safeinOhio]

48. cognitive dissonance explained

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_dissonance

Can lead to this..

[Nitram]

50. My condolences.

They are clearly very frightened. I imagine they are avid Fox viewers. My parents were until the day they each passed away.

[OnDoutside]

53. We'll done to your wife, but I really don't know how all this is going to end.

[C_U_L8R]

54. The final throes arent pretty.

Hopefully we can all get through this quickly

[Meowmee]

55. Sorry

That is really terrible. I hope you told them off before they left. I have the same background as you on one side, Ashkenzy, and Scottish/ Scandinavian on the other. I’m a descendant of survivors. This is a nightmare. Fortunately no one in my small immediate family or anyone else supports or would ever support a monster like 🍊💩 or fascism etc. These people who voted for him for the most part are evil imo, the anger and violence is there just below the surface. And it always has been.

[Upthevibe]

66. I'm so sorry....

That sounds traumatic...I wish there was something I could do or say.

[smirkymonkey]

56. I'm sorry to hear of that unfortunate experience.

I know how frustrating it can be. i have people like that in my own family. Still, I am very glad that your wife stood up for you and took your side.

[riversedge]

58. so, they follow Trump's example of doubling down on the stupid. Or

tripling down or more. That is horrible. so sorry for you and your wife. whow.

[Eliot Rosewater]

61. This is the reaction putin wants and mcconnell and the rest.

They want us killing each other.

[bucolic_frolic]

65. "Military Tribunals" - a nuclear response

That's how their angry minds think. These people have lifelong repressed hatred, they don't even know what
made them that way, but they have been conditioned by Right Wing TV to turn their anger on Democrats.

All of them should be told to find the root cause of their anger.

We could have that debate here, but my two cents is it stems from frustration over not earning full value for
what they produce. Several people in my life put it differently - "working for the man" or "I bought my boss
3 Cadillacs over the years".

So they place the blame on the weakest victims they can find.

[StuckInTexas]

69. The 30% are the most dangerous internal threat the country has faced since the 1860's

I work in a field with mostly blue collar conservatives. The extreme rhetoric ten years ago was usually about wanting very racist immigration laws, lazy "libruls" and "thugs" taken off welfare, etc. The rhetoric now is light years worse. I don't go a week without hearing somebody wishing for genocide of minorities, or public executions for all "libtards". They are gearing for violence.

[Mariana]

77. They're talking about this in the workplace? nt.

[MFM008]

70. It's difficult I know

We have had a family split .
What's even sadder is maggot would
Be highly amused to know he's dividing families.

[titanicdave]

71. .......WOW.........

I applaud your wife to have the intestinal fortitude to tell her parents to leave her home.......(and yours).........your in-laws appear to be real pieces of work......too stupid to understand what in the hell is going on......

[BlancheSplanchnik]

72. Same ancestry here. Holes in it too. Many DU folk could see the similarities back in Ws time. ☹️

Now it’s grown so virulent, it’s become blatant enough that only people drowning extremely deep in the cult wouldn’t see it.

[pansypoo53219]

74. sounds like a severe case of fuxgnewzagenda.

[BobTheSubgenius]

75. "Not the reaction I expected." barely describes it, for me.

When I clicked into this thread, the "punch line" to the story was exactly the opposite of what I expected, and hoping for.

Wow, what an uphill slog this is, and is going to be. What is the GOP going to do to make people like this see the light?

I'm sorry, both for you and your immediate, and also for saying this, but I'd be very close to never allowing them in my house again until they go back to being people of reason.

[KentuckyWoman]

78. More hugs for you and your wife.

My brother and I had some dark times because his worship of Trump mattered more to him than friends and family that had been with him all his life.

I was fortunate, a few hard to say, tearful words, softly spoken turned his heart just a little. Though I thought I'd lost him forever, within a few months we started working on repairs. Still working it... but there's a light in the darkness.

Hope the same for your family.

[MustLoveBeagles]

83. I hope things work out between the two of you

[parkerMcDavis]

79. Invite them back, and agree not to talk politics. Don't allow Trump to break up your family.

[Angry Dragon]

80. Trump brings hate with him

[ConnorMarc]

81. Vlah-dee-mier Pyoo-ten is very pleased...

#MRGA

[MustLoveBeagles]

82. I'm sorry

How awful for you and your wife. She did the right thing and I'm sure it wasn't easy. You don't have to put up with that in your own home.

[Lifelong Protester]

84. As many people have said here, I am sorry.

This would have been tough, but (unfortunately) necessary.

[dweller]

87. sounds like they are disappointed

in the memo... they'll get over it

✌🏼️

[DFW]

88. That took courage

I got lucky. When I first met my wife's parents, I knew they were teenagers during the Nazi era, and her father has lost a leg at Stalingrad. I have some Jewish ancestry and look the part.

But when I met my inlaws-to-be, they were as nice and as welcoming to me as they could be. Her father, never falling for the Nazi routine when he was a kid, was drafted off his farm at age 17, sent to the Russian front as cannon fodder, and returned minus a leg at age 18. You could see him physically bristle and hold back his rage every time some documentary on the Nazi era came on TV. His most fervent wish was that all his grandchildren would be girls so they would never have to face compulsory military service (a wish that fate was to grant him, as it turned out).

I think the more horrors you have had to face personally, the less likely you are to support politicians who seem to have no inhibitions about perpetrating more of them. My mother-in-law had to run and jump in ditches by the side of the road to escape strafing runs by Allied fighter planes, and my father-in-law had to face things at Stalingrad so awful, he couldn't bear to discuss the details out loud. Donald Trump has faced courtrooms and golf courses. Sean Hannity has had to face tapes of Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow. The conclusions are easy to draw.

*The argument could be made that Hannity is not a politician, but a media personality. Judging by what the effects of his broadcasts are, I submit that he is as much involved in politics as Ryan, McTurtle or Göbbels ever were.

[47of74]

97. Yeah my granddad was not at all supportive of Iraq II

Kind of surprised me at first that he was against it but I thought of it and realized since he had been through WW II that he had a damn good reason for opposing war.

[DFW]

100. People who have experienced intense deadly combat up close

They are usually the ones least likely to advocate that others should have to go through it.

It's almost always the ones who have never been in the thick of it that are the most fervent advocates of sending other people into it. They are never the one who have seen close up where friends were being cut into parts, or having limbs blown off before their eyes.

Never having been there doesn't necessarily mean you're a coward. A willingness to send others there without being willing to do it yourself--that does.

[Raine]

90. WOW!!!

is all I can say..

[True Blue American]

91. No one has mentioned this but I would be concerned

About this man’s mental health.

Rage and anger can be signs of Dementia or Alzheimer’s. Some one should check with his wife before they write him off. If he had no history of rages like this I would be concerned.

I am sorry you were exposed to such hate. It is never easy.

One member of my family had Alzheimer’s. A very smart businessman. His company had to retire him. His wife was warned not to turn her back on him, but thankfully he did not become mean.

But I have known many others that developed severe paranoia.

Not saying this is the case, but worth thinking about.

But am still sorry for you. God bless.

[Turbineguy]

93. People like your in-laws have the power

to turn off Fox News.

Healing can then happen on its own.

[LittleGirl]

95. Hugs, I'm so sorry

There's a political divide in my family as well. I have only spoken to my sister (who moved to FL recently) once in 5 years and that was because I saw her in public. The first thing she asked me was "how was Obama" . Really? sigh. One of my brothers and I don't discuss politics at all. We can't because he leans right like my sister. My liberal 85 yr old mother won't even plan a funeral. She says that if we want a service that we have to plan it ourselves and pay for it. She's being cremated so no showing at a funeral home either. Her heart is broken over our divided family.
My heart breaks for you too.

[USALiberal]

96. Ii have lost some friends in the last year......

one who said too many anti-Obama comments.

Too old to need to deal with idiots.

[47of74]

99. Sorry about that.

So far no one in my family has reached the point where I’ve needed to tell them to fuck off. My parents don’t watch Faux Spews. It is persona non grata here. I have it blocked here at the house. People could porn and I wouldn’t care but I figure I’m the one paying for the service so I decide what channels are and are not blocked here.

[WhiskaBiscuit]

101. Family is too important

Tell them you have a firm “no politics” rule, and if they want to see your family that is a non-negotional term

[CrispyQ]

102. Bummer. I thought this was going to be one of those, "they finally saw the light" stories.

I'm so sorry you have to experience this, much less from family, even if they are in-laws.

I hate Rush Limbaugh with passion. The day he dies, I'll buy a bottle of champagne & dance all night. My mother was a JFK dem. Then she had a run of bad luck & made some bad decisions. She got a job where they listened to Limbaugh every day on the radio. The day she told me she no longer cared about choice issues, I knew she'd drunk the koolaid. She passed in '07. Our relationship was conflicted & I often wonder how bad it would have gotten if she'd lived. She would have loved the tea party & Sarah Palin. I think she'd be a trumper if she were alive today. One of the biggest mistakes the dems made was ignoring hate radio. Now it's metastasized into Breitbart & Fox, too, & they still ignore it.

[MichMary]

103. Without reading all the responses--

--I'm just wondering if anyone has called you out for referring to your wife's parents as "deplorables."

I've never liked the term, or the characterization, and I think that right there lost Hillary the election. But, referring to an unknown mass of people as "deplorables" is one thing, but--relatives? Sorry, that's just wrong.

[AlexSFCA]

104. politics has poisoned our lives and is destroying our families

how i miss the days when not everything was politicized. These days everything is viewed as politics from byuing coffee from starbucks, ordering from amazon, driving prius, having non white spouse, working in education, belonging to a union, working for municipal or state gov, working for google or apple, having kids or not having kids, being a woman, etc., etc.

[Gothmog]

105. Trump supporters are nut cases who need to be pitied

You were correct to ask them to leave