Heard of it. Thank you.

I do volunteer work at a local homeless shelter, helping to feed people there, so I'm real aware of the need for food by some people. And I'm likewise aware of the issue about getting broken equipment fixed. What you did was the kind of right thing we should all do on occasion, but too many of us don't.

Thank you for caring enough, and being willing to overlook the differences between you and your parents.

Thanks for sharing your Christmas.

Merry Christmas to you also.

Thank you for sharing. ☺️

Thank you so very much for sharing it with us.

Happy New Year.

In many ways, they are really nice people.

Both sets of parents are gone now; hubby's were fairly liberal, mine right-wing Catholic and I miss them all. We rarely argued with mine, but did do some teasing - my Mom was appalled with Trump and voted Dem for Obama before she passed. Also wanted to live long enough to see Hillary as Pres. Quite the turnabout for Mom.

They also, all of them, made sure to give to "the less fortunate".

Honor thy father and mother.

get their news from Faux and think we are the ones who are being brainwashed. But they are good people.

and deceived a lot of people who themselves are used to telling the truth. For many of them, particularly the older people, it is difficult to imagine that someone could lie like that, so therefore they believed him.

Well done. The "fix" to help others, give aid to others. Merry Christmas.

Thanks for this. I live in red FL and often feel like a fish out of water. But, my Dotard voting neighbors would give me the shirt off their backs if I needed it.

I don't understand them, but it is what it is.

Thank you to your boss. And thank you to their church.

Thank you for sharing it with us.

You’re a pretty talented writer. I look forward to reading more of your posts!

... is the answer to how we'll get past this time of Fox/HateRadio induced division.

And I think too, Shara Silverman is on to something.

John Lennon knew, as did MLK and Grandi.

Cheers for a breakout 2019

My Texas town has more Republicans and conservative-leaning independents than Dems.

But it has a huge culture of volunteerism, and people who believe that to whom much has been given, much is required. They gather donations and distribute at our local food bank, staff volunteer hotlines, drive for Meals on Wheels, spend their time, labor, and own money on mission trips to to help towns hard hit by Hurricane Harvey, (or Katrina or other disasters), or to the impoverished communities in the state to repair homes and make them livable for those who have neither the health nor the means to do so themselves.

When we can find what we have in common and build relationships, we have reason to hope that we can overcome the bitter partisan divide, and restore our country.

It's tempting to label each character defect in those who voted for Trump. But we ignore our own flaws when we do that and we give evidence that makes Rush credible when he says, as he does repeatedly, to his listeners: Liberals HATE you and everything you stand for.

I find most people here do the best they can. They make mistakes. They have preconceptions and areas of prejudice. I don't like admitting it, but I make mistakes and have some areas of prejudice myself.

I think you are right that the picture the OP paints and what Sarah Silverman is doing points the way to getting through this time to a better one.

Thank you for adding your take.
Hopefully this is a nascent trend,
that will get us thru another dark
cycle on our path to growing up.

Most of my family are republicans. But I still love them.

They are not in Congress, don’t have much money and do some good things.

Rural Louisiana is just so removed from the world I live in.

That said, the young folks show promise. Sadly, the smart ones all have left or plan on leaving the area after college.

I can understand DU members who cut off relationships when it becomes abusive, but politics in not much discussed when I am there. They know my beliefs and seem to respect them.

Choked me up.

Like you, I have some RW relatives whose political views seem alien to me. But in other ways they're good people, generous people -- including through their churches.

And like your parents, they live in rural areas or small towns in regions where RW views are prevalent. Even if they don't watch Fox News, they're likely to hear RW talk radio throughout the day. Even if they don't hear it directly, they'll hear it echoed by their RW neighbors.

We have a lot of Democrats in the family, too. But in almost all cases they grew up in cities or moved to cities as soon as they could, and in some cases traveled more widely than the RWers.

You’ll never regret spending that extra time with your parents and I bet they really appreciate your help with their property. I’m sure the recipients of the food from the food bank are thankful for that now-working cooler.

I’m glad to meet you. Aloha.

This is what Christmas is all about. You and your parents are lucky to have each other. Blessings to you all.

It was very nice to hear.

I have no progressive family members left so xmas is very chill, laid back, no pretending for the sake of a Holiday for me, I just don't have time to spend with tRumpsters.

for any readers who are feeling like there most be something wrong with them since they can't deal with their family like you can, I will put this out there.

My mother did not want me. She did not hold me, she did not nurture me, she did everything she could to avoid having any sort of loving relationship with me. She had realized that my Dad was not who she thought he was and now she was trapped and I was the cause of her being unable to go back to her family. This was in the 50s after all and divorce was not acceptable in many families.

She did have an image to uphold however so I was properly clothed, fed, housed, and cared for but that was the extent of it. When my wife and I took our 16 month old daughter back to meet her great great grandfather and his wife my mother showed up. When she and my sister were getting ready to leave I took my daughter to the kitchen and offered her to my mother to hold, my mother declined. How does anybody do that to a baby?

People have told me all through my life that mothers always love their children and up till I started raising sheep I believed them. I've been lambing now for over 20 years and each year I have a few ewes who refuse to have anything to do with one or more of their lambs. Sometimes there's a reasonable explanation. Something is wrong with the lamb and we only find out when it fails to thrive or dies. Sometimes the ewe has a problem with her bag or teats and it is painful or difficult for her to feed her lambs. Sometimes there is just no obvious answer.

The mother just doesn't want anything to do with her offspring.

Obviously information we get from animal models has to be taken with a grain of salt but frequently there is value in what we can learn from those observations. Things go wrong, some females just aren't wired to be mothers, sometimes circumstances come together that just make it impossible for the mother and child to bond.

Sometimes no matter how much you want to believe that if you just try hard enough anyone can experience what the person who posted this is blessed to have, you just can't.

So to people who have to struggle during the holidays to deal with biological families who have different political views and agendas I want you to know how lucky you are for that connection no matter how tenuous.

For any of you who were dealt the sort of hand I was, I say if there is nothing there don't beat yourself up. Go make your own family, biological or not. Cherish those people, realize how lucky you are to have them in your life and let the rest go. Sometimes things just don't work the way they are supposed to work.

Without the natural mother-child bond, you must have bonded with another adult to end up so mentally healthy. Sometimes another relative or family friend can fill the gaps left by a parent.

You have a beautiful heart

My mother was pretty cold too, and a great one for guilt tripping us and brow beating. She also had a mean streak, but she took care of us, and in return I took care of her when she had Dementia and was bedridden for 5 years before she died. I always loved her and know that as far as she was capable of love she loved us too.

and was running off with a fireman. Three kids between us and a step-son.
I was shocked. I asked her "what about the kids?" She said "I don't want them.
I only had them because you wanted them." I didn't sleep for a week.
The twins were still in diapers, older daughter was three and step-son was ten.
She did not have the mother gene.
I raised them the best I could. Both daughters have college degrees and good jobs.
Both sons are in the Coast Guard.

My mom couldn’t handle my hyper brother and there was no drugs or help back then, parents believed in spanking and he would laugh at them.

She fell apart emotionally when I was 12, my brother was sent away and crazy home life continued.

I was close to my dad who died in 2000, I spent my Christmas time driving last minute out of state to move my mom to assisted living. We aren’t close but there was no one else to help except my daughter who is busy manager.

My back was on fire all week from picking up heavy bags of garbage, books and clothes. My heart was sad from being needled and demanded to all week by mom who is freaked of giving up her life and taking it out on me.

I come home my husband is freaked because we are retired and mom may cost us money. I couldn’t have her live with us because my husband has bad depression problems and she drives me nuts.

I have been spending the week finding her new doctor, fixing her finances, a million things and she writes in FB how great my kids were helping her and didn’t even mention I come to help her once. Family is tough sometimes, life is but its the one we have.

her mother was physically, verbally and mentally abusive to her. Her father was "there" but checked himself out and choose to ignore what went on. Inspite of that kind of home life my mother was kind, giving and loving to my brother and me. Somehow she had the strength to overcome her past and be a wonderful mother, I couldn't have had a better one. Hugs!

Great story. You have your priorites right....family is so important, and politics and religion are topics that threaten the love and bond that is healthy and so wonderful.

Four older siblings are all trump supporters. We just have to avoid the touchie subject when we get together. Love them all, but if we ever careen to close to talking politics, we all feel like we are threatened.

Mom and Dad are special, and there is good in everyone of us...just sometimes more in some than others. Glad you recognize the good soul in your parents.

Thanks for sharing.

I volunteer at a Food Bank and not too long ago our huge walk-in fridge malfunctioned. We lost everything in it, took us a couple of weeks to resupply and we were unable to provide any meat/milk/eggs to our clients. So I know how important your actions were to your father's church.
Good job!!!

We didn't sway from the underlying values they taught us, we just found our own understanding on how to achieve them.

Your story sounds similar, except that I only get to see mine in pictures and memories, now.

own community. I respect that. My sense is the conservatives love to help people in their own community who needy, but their empathy does not extend farther to the nation or the world at large. Like Dick Cheney can accept his gay daughter. My Dad spoke fluent Spanish and loved the Latin American people in our neighborhood when we lived in South America. But he was afraid of "illegal immigrants" and "Muslims." Go figure.

Thank you so much for sharing your story, and thank you for being such a good person. Your kind deed will help hundreds of people, and your dad will be proud to say "my son helped."

Seriously.

You tell a good story out of simple actions.

I know two of these people too--they are ornaments to their communities, and probably voted Republican. These people need a better party, not a brain transplant. And you never mentioned your boss's politics. However he votes, he too is a teddy bear.

I wish you and your family more years of Prime Rib, chores and donated food.

It goes to show that most people are good at heart no matter where they stand.

We too eat prime rib for Christmas dinner.

Some of the family go to church and some of us are not believers - no one cares either way.

One person who flew in brought his boyfriend. No one even blinked - I was so proud.

My grown nephew, at whose house we met, asked if anyone wanted to see hundreds of dollars of wrapping paper go up in a bonfire. We all ran outside and go up it did.

One of the in-laws mom ate quickly and then ran upstairs and packed up ALL THE FOOD AND PUT IT IN HER CAR. She is a church going, Dr. No leftovers for anyone nor could we even pick at the food. We had 7 small children and one college student in attendance.

country has been dominated with 30 years of rw radio liars and bigots making excuses for the bigotry and ignorance and completely malinforming half the country, blaming liberals and democrats at every chance

you, your folks, your boss, and all those folks helping others as best they can.

I am lucky in that regard. My mom (she died in '99) was more liberal than my dad ... my dad has become more liberal than I am under Trump. He hates Trump more than me I think (though I admit - that would be hard - I absolutely despise our cheeto resident thingy.)

Thank you. Your portrait reminds us of what we have in common, which is far more than what divides us, no matter how it looks.

It gives me hope that I can find the courage to talk and especially listen, respectfully, to my two sons who are bright and wonderful people, but I am almost certain voted for Trump. I haven't wanted to be completely sure, but I have little doubt.

this the way I feel about my extended family (my parents are gone now), I will always choose them.

doing this thing right.

Love them.