Teaparty Question. If you are the child or grandchild of an American Teaparty Movement sponsor or member, how closely do your views mirror that of your parents?

Then why did someone send me this question??
I’m a Canadian, and have nothing to do with the teaparty.
But to answer your question, my parents are very (NDP Canadian), and so am I, just a touch more conservative then they are.

I guess I am the opposite. My son and I have very similar views on the vast majority of things but we differ on the Tea Party issue. I see them as bigoted, narrow sighted folks funded and controlled by special interests while he sees them as a bunch of patriotic individuals standing up for real Americans. He is not an active member but has been to several of their rallies.

As I said, we see the same problems but our solutions are often diametrically opposite.

My aunt is a Tea Partier. Two of her three children, and her husband, think she has nutso political views. They, and we in the extended family, all just try to avoid talking politics with her and bite our tongues whenever she says something horrible. Their youngest is too young to have political views of her own yet, but it’ll be interesting to see which way she falls in the coming years. She’s always been more bonded to her mom than the older two.

My father leans right and my mother leans left. I lean right in some issues and left on others. I guess I got to see things from multiple perspectives so there was some influence there. My wife used to lean left. After she got out of school and entered the real world she appears to be in the center now like me. I have an uncle who could be described as a tea partier. He is into the conspiracy stuff, they don’t even vaccinate their kids. His wife is the same way. They are good people just a little gullible and misguided.
He is an exception, most of the tea partiers I have met don’t fit the stereotype the left frames them with. They are just conservatives and republicans fed up with their leadership.

@ARE_you_kidding_me My father leans right and my mother leans left.I bet your folks do a mean mambo

The people I know who identify with the tea party mostly have children who agree, but a few have children who are the polar opposite. What they all seem to have in common is being extreme in their political views, which I guess is what was passed down parent to child. Same with people who were raised in extremely religious homes and turn atheist, they seem to be the most militant of atheists. Ironic. It’s not always try, but it is a generalization I have made.

@ARE_you_kidding_me I don’t think of leaning right and leaning left as being extreme, and I think of the tea partiers as extreme.

I don’t discuss politics with my kids, but through casual conversation I suddenly realized that my oldest daughter is in the “the government is going to to to war against the American people,” camp. That distressed me.

Valid response, @SQUEEKY2. There is the equivalent of the Teaparty in Briton…I expect you Canukes have one as well.

Interesting, @rojo & @wildpotato. I should have just asked about immediate family.

You discuss it with your son amicably,though, @rojo?

If the children are young, they could re-align when they come of age and start working and voting, @wildpotato, much as @ARE_you_kidding_me describes his wife’s evolution.

Interesting observation, @JLeslie. Perhaps it has to do with overall household harmony? I could see a hippy’s middle child becoming a Teapartier.

I think there is some validity to her view, @Dutchess_III. She’s helping ask questions that need to be asked. I mean, who knew that the military had given civilian police forces something like 3 billion dollars worth of equipment before Ferguson?

Well, we think they are amicable discussions although the rest of the family runs and hides and refuses to participate.

@ibstubro It’s utterly, completely and ridiculous to think the government is going to declare war on us. And if they did there isn’t a damn thing anyone could do about it.

@Dutchess_III I think @ibstubro is simply saying that we keep power structures in check. Oligarchs can do some pretty bad stuff. While there is no looming attack from our gov’t there are abuses of power. Some of the things the NSA is doing for example.

@ibstubro I think on Family Ties it was the oldest child.

@Dutchess_III I don’t think it is completely ridiculous. I’m Jewish, we have it drummed into us that Germany was a modern, educated, civilized country at the time of the holocaust.

Are you Crimean, @Dutchess_III?