two_brothers
im going to have to be at this thanksgiving we may be divided politically, but we're still going to have to come together over the thanksgiving turkey this year.

--Jeca


Brothers

Two brothers were born in New Mexico when the optimistic fifties were morphing into the turbulent sixties.
The first was born a Democrat. Two years later, his Republican brother was born.

The older brother was usually unreasonably happy. He cooed, giggled, and laughed from the day he was
born. He was thrilled with his baby brother, and cheerfully fetched bottles, diapers, and baby powder
whenever his brother cried.
The younger brother loved his mother dearly. She was a part of him, and he expected her to always be
there, holding him, and keeping him safe.

A third brother was born two years after the second. Brother number one was just as happy to have
brother number three, as he was to have number two. But the Republican brother did not feel the same.

His security was threatened; his mother had replaced him. He decided (at age 2) that he would never trust that deeply again. The Democratic brother didn't get it. In fact he didn't even notice. He was brother number one.

School came easily to the Democrat. Not that it was effortless -- he did the work, and had all the gold
stars and happy stickers to prove it. But there was a joy in the effort, and deep satisfaction in the results.
He was almost always in the front of the line and at the top of the list.

The Republican brother did well in school. He worked hard at it. He always suspected though, that some
people were cheating to get in front.
The second brother was more social than the first. He always had a group of buddies that played together, and stood up for each other. They were a good group of guys, and were loyal to each other above all else. The older brother was peripheral to this group, sometimes joining in, but not generally
participating in a way that made him a full member of the group. In dealing with people, sometimes the
Democrat just didn't get it.

The eldest brother would not tolerate what he saw as "unfairness". He expected the world to be a fair and
just place, and that all people would be naturally motivated to be, and do as well as they could. (He
understood of course, that without agitation, and with scientific principles, the cream would rise to the
top.)

He oftentimes found himself defending one person from another. Usually, it was brother number three from brother number two.

The Democratic brother felt besieged. From the beginning brother number one was older, bigger, faster, stronger, and always won. Brother number two was frustrated. Without even thinking, he would take it out on younger brother number three. Brother number one's self serving sense of fairness and justice
would not tolerate that. He always jumped to the defense of his weaker brother. A natural constituency
was created. Brother number three realized he was safer with the Democratic leadership.

The Republican brother was strong (and good-looking too!). Not naturally (except for perhaps the goodlooking
part), but by force of his own will. He was a skinny 98 pounder when he started lifting weights in junior high, but developed and maintained a nearly perfect physique from then on.

Both brothers were highly competitive, and continuously measured themselves against each other. The Democrat was high school valedictorian. The Republican was president of his high school senior class.

Both went on to college, graduated with advanced technical degrees. In spite of their vast differences, they were more alike than either suspected (or would admit).

They dared not talk politics at Thanksgiving though. Lively, good-natured debates could be had on
almost any other subject. A political discussion would invariably escalate into an emotional tumult that
threatened the basic life-sustaining principles of the Democrat and the Republican.

Occasionally there was common political ground. They both voted for Ronald Reagan.

There was no common political ground anywhere near the turkey during the Clinton administration.

Where the Democrat saw a smart, happy (maybe sometimes a little too happy) top-notch politician
inspiring a booming economy, intellectual, scientific, ecological, and social progress, -- the Republican
saw a slimy, lying, immoral man who must be the root of all evil guiding the country into into an abyss of
depravity.

The Democrat could not understand how anyone who was so obviously receiving enormous benefits from
liberalism (his brother) could be so opposed to it. The Republican's business was booming, his property
values were escalating, and his stock values were going up, up, and up.

The Republican could not understand why his brother could not see the obvious evil embodied by Bill Clinton. Slick Willie was adulterous. He was actively promoting abortions, gay sex, and nazi-feminism.
He was liberal!

And then came the George W. Bush administration, where again neither brother understood the position
of the other. The Republican saw a good, strong, steady, leader defending the nation, as well as the
pocketbooks of other good hard-working people. The Democrat thought "Dubya" was a mean-spirited,intellectually lazy, dangerous religious zealot with no regard for ecology, science, or weaker people.

The ideology we were born with never changed. The fears, motivations, and strategies we use to get along in life are the same as when we were children.

I am still the optimistic, naïve, idealistic, paternalistic dreamer I always was. I personally identify with the intellectual, successful white men defending women, blacks, gays, and people of minority religions. I
don't see the defense of weaker peoples as a crass strategy to defeat "normal" people. Preventing human aggression "feels" necessary and important. It is an instinctive gut reaction in me. I suspect that
conservatives are just paranoid and mean. And yes, I often think their conclusions are just stupid.

And while I can't speak directly for my brother, I am certain that he believes that I just blindly refuse to see
the world as it really is. Threats and temptations surround us all and must be dealt with. Good is always contending with evil. We must always protect ourselves from the bad people.

I am liberal. That is not a dirty word. To me, it means that I expect the best from everyone and believe
that society should only restrict a person's freedoms when that person's actions directly harm others. No
person has the right to dictate how another person thinks, or what another person does privately, as long
as it doesn't hurt anyone else.

My brother is conservative. That does not mean he is stupid. He has his reasons for seeing the world the way he does. His reality, and life experience is not mine. He understands that a functional and successful life, and society, require discipline and some restrictions.

And yet we are brothers. We admire, love and respect each other, in spite of our differences. We try to
counter each others excesses, learn from each others sucesses and failures, and inspire and promote improvement in each other.

I doubt that either of us will ever compromise our position or outlook much.

This next Thanksgiving is likely to be a humdinger.

I was born a Democrat. My brother was born a Republican.

-Jens Jensen
Nov. 7th, 2004
Nutrioso, Az
041107
what's it to you?
who go
blather
from