Daddy Politics – taking your dad’s political views as infallible

By: Nate Sikora – Staff Writer

Growing up in a place of privilege, wealth, and stature makes one increasingly susceptible to being locked in the bubble of their secluded world. Dublin, Ohio, the city I grew up in, is a city of around 43,000 in northwest Columbus. Dublin is host to the annual Memorial Golf Tournament by Jack Nicklaus at the Muirfield Village Country Club, where the yearly membership is an approximate $200,000. Dublin is a city of what some may call “new money” because it developed exponentially in the past 20 years as big money interests? capitalized on its potential, whereas it was basically all farmland in the 1970s and 80s.

So why am I telling you this? Early in my upbringing, I became conscious of my relative environment and noticed that not everywhere in the country, or the world for that matter, is like Dublin. This might seem simple to observe, but upon further investigation, seldom kids who grow up in these areas become conscious like I did. I began to notice the overwhelming and blinding presence of conservatism to the point of asphyxiation.

The city of Dublin is a bubble of privilege where everyone believes if you are not like “us,” then you either did not work hard enough or are not worthy of the privileges we in Dublin have at our disposal. This mentality, of which is ubiquitous in the town, heavily influences the children that are raised in it. So much so that many, upon departure to college or other endeavors, still hold this close-minded perception of reality. What I have discovered is that my fellow peers I grew up with in Dublin inherited not only their parents’ genes but also their political ideologies and skewed perception of reality.

The blind acceptance of parental political ideology is what I call “Daddy Politics,” which is defined as consciously accepting your parent’s political ideology wholesale without personal analysis or research. The thought process goes like this: since my dad is successful, he must be right about everything. This is an unconscious thought created by the logical section of our brain that links the “if, then” statements to form an assertion.

However, the assertion formulated is fallible and a clear abridgment. Yes, it is true that parents have an influence on how their child thinks; however, the aspect I cannot comprehend is that young adults that are 18 years or older are still finding refuge with just agreeing with what their parents say and without thinking for themselves. Basically, whatever daddy says is right. People who fall victim to Daddy Politics only analyze issues within the realm of their own life and to those close to them.

Not that this is bad, but its consequence is a complete disdain for people who are not like them or their family. Unfortunately, what does not directly affect people subsequently becomes unimportant or nonexistent – such things like climate change, police violence, discrimination, poverty, and the like.

Our elders have trouble facing inconvenient facts that reveal the problems their generation created – a weak economy, useless wars, crumbling infrastructure, climate change, and so on. Parents do not want to accept these facts because by accepting them, it would burst their comfortable bubble and expose them to the true reality in which we live. This denial of inconvenient truths is thus passed down to some members of our generation due to the infectious power of Daddy Politics.

My quarrel is this – instead of basing your opinions by what video you saw on Facebook or what your dad spewed about when drinking a Yuengling while watching football, maybe base your opinion by a journal from the Federal Bureau of Labor Statistics or a report from the Congressional Research Service, then your opinion might be one, valid, and two, your own.