Politics

Politics today are nothing like they were back in the 50s and 60s. Oh, I guess they are, but they seem different. First, we didn't have primaries run by the media for two years prior to the primary season, and an open or brokered convention was normal, and frankly, enjoyed by those of us on the outside looking in. Today, the press seems to think it would be a crime if that happened.

I remember after we got our TV, one of the first things we watched, because there was nothing else on TV, was the Republican convention that was putting Dwight Eisenhower back as their choice for President again (56-60). The democrat convention was not enjoyed at our house, but the Republican convention was. Runnemede at that time was a Republican town.

Dad was a Republican through and through. He reminded me of that on several occasions, as was his father. He castigated me once when I voted against John Glenn in a primary -- the reason I did was that I figured if the other person who was running against Mr. Glenn won the primary, the Republican candidated would win the seat in the senate. In order to vote in that primary I had to declare that I was a democrat. It stuck in my crawl to do that, but I did it. The person I voted for did not win, but that was the only time I ever voted for a democrat.

Back to politics -- daddy style. He was a history buff, my father was, and he would go through all the "bad" things the dems did or were going to do, and how much he didn't like Woodrow Wilson, the League of Nations, the United Nations, FDR or Truman, although, he did respect Mr. Truman's style. He thought the USA was going to hell because of FDR's socialism, which wasn't seen as socialism but as a means to get people back to work, which his policies did; but if you check it out, they were socialistic policies.

There was a boy who went to our Sunday school who ran for mayor in Runnemede as a democrat and daddy did vote for him, but he didn't want anyone to know. And from the pulpit dad was not shy to talk about politics from a Biblical perspective.

So, growing up, Republicans were good, Democrats were bad, and never, no never would we say anything good about the democrats.