ninanevermore

Today on the drive into work, I was thinking about how it's getting harder and harder to shock and upset my father. I'm losing my touch, and it upsets me a little.

I took my son over to his grandfather's house for a visit yesterday and for a chance to trick my father and That Woman he's married to into babysitting for a few hours (it worked). Before I left home, I made sure to put my new Kinky Friedman Gubernatorial campaign sticker on my back windshield. I had just gotten the stickers I ordered from his site in Saturday's mail, a selection of 4 stickers that included "Kinky Friedman for Governor 2006," "My Governor is a Jewish Cowboy," and "He Ain't Kinky - He's My Governor." I went with the classic, "Kinky for Governor, Why the Hell Not?"

For you non-Texans, Kinky Friedman is running as an independent candidate in the race for Governor of Texas. He is a singer/songwriter and novelist. A lot of his songs range from off-color to obscene and therefore didn't get a lot of radio play back when he was recording with his band, The Texas Jew Boys. He describes himself as "Just your typical East Texas Jewish cowboy." If you are surprised to learn that there even are Jewish cowboys, so was I. Still, I kind of like the idea. I don't think Kinky has a chance in hell of winning, but I'm willing to help him try. Like he says, he couldn't possibly screw things up in this state any worse than they are right now.

My family is very conservative and staunchly Republican, except for my youngest brother and me. A decade ago, the worst thing my father could say about my kid brother's politics was, "I don't know about him, I bet he voted for that Bill Clinton."

I tried to reassure my dad by saying, "No, he didn't. Ron voted for Ross Perot.* I'm the one who voted for Clinton." You could see the disgust and dismay on his face. He's just not sure where he went wrong with his youngest two offspring.

My dad didn't see the sticker until he helped me put my son in the car to go home. He called over That Woman to have her look at it.

"Did you see this sticker?" he said, shaking his head. "The really sad thing is, I halfway agree with her."

I just stood there with my mouth hanging open. At 36 years old, it turns out that I don't upset my father with my politics any more.

I am so disappointed.

* Ross Perot's independent presidential bid took enough of the votes of reform-minded conservatives in the 1992 presidential election to help to put Bill Clinton into office.