If I was your father, I would have said the same thing. Instead of sounding genuinely helpful, you came off cold - even condescending with your talking points -as if you placed your ideaology over your father's worries to win a debate. Sorry, but that's the way it came off to me.
Aside from the last paragraph there really aren't that many "talking points." I wasn't even going to write that paragraph, but my wife thought I should really let him know that I'm not some die hard Obama fan that worships obamacare. I'd much rather have a different system. Other than that, though, where are the talking points? I was explaining my knowledge of the law and how it conflicted with his apparent knowledge of the law. If there's a flaw there, then he should let me know, because I'd like to know where he got his numbers.
I wasn't trying to come off condescending. I'm not very good with trying to debate him or whatever, but I really did try and make it so that I was merely explaining things as I knew it rather than trying to belittle him or his view. Maybe it did come off cold, and I guess that is my fault.
I know he probably sees it now as me putting ideology above worries, but that's really not the case. When he sent the email I did feel terrible at first. I wouldn't want to do that to them and my mom. It'd probably cause me a lot of pain to vote Obama if that were the case. But I researched it and found out his worries shouldn't be worries, at least not those specific ones.
Your Dad's answer is pretty insulting. May as well just tell him that you don't appreciate being spoken to like that and if he isn't willing to discuss these matters in a respectful tone then he should refrain from bringing it up.
Basically a "Hey Dad, don't belittle your children," email.
I'll ask because it can impact your Dad's view of you, how old are you? If you're late teens, early twenties he probably still views you as "Not Adult" and it'll be easier for him to dismiss your opinion in what he thinks is a standard "My crazy kids!" manner.
I'm 26, and it is odd. He knows I'm smart and has said it countless times how I've done things he could never do (go to college and all that). And he's always impressed when I do get on the phone and explain things to him.
At the same time he does kind of get into the "crazy kids" thing because it is his belief that sooner or later you turn conservative. You start out liberal and then you settle down, have a family and then you "understand" things and are a conservative.
And politics has been a long time passion for him, I suppose. He's been watching and listening to politics for almost every waking moment since I can even remember. That's what he does. It's part of his hobby. His activities at night would be shooting darts (his other favorite hobby) and watching Fox News or whatever. If he was in the garage he'd have talk radio on. If we were driving somewhere? Talk radio. At work when he worked in the factories? Talk radio. Now in his office he had to have his talk radio, and when they blocked the internet on his computer he figured out how to download talk radio podcasts and listen to them at work. He sends in editorials to the newspaper ripping on liberals. He's the loudest guy in the room when a political argument comes up. He's served on the police and fire commission in his town, too. Politics is his thing, so I suppose no matter how informed I feel I am he's been doing it longer, and he may feel he's just got the experience to back it up.
Why? Did you, honestly, expect a different response? I could've written his response out the moment you said he was "extremely" conservative, well except for emailing it to your Rep part.
Also, how old are you? For him to say "in the real world" implies that you're still living in his house.
I suppose I didn't expect a much different response. The emailing the rep thing is kind of odd, though. It's like he "knows" I'm wrong, simply because it conflicts with him, but doesn't know why. Bringing it back to religion, it'd be the same as telling a religious person something conflicting in the bible and they're like "Well, I'm going to have to ask our priest."
I'm 26 and I haven't lived with them for a long while. I came back a few times during the summers in college, but I wouldn't really called it living with them. Even that was back when I was 19, so I've had 7 years on my own. Granted, my parents still help us out when we need it, and we're incredibly thankful for that, and have let them know countless times how thankful we are. But still, for the most part I've been living enough in the real world.
