charlie stopped by last weekend and we went to austin so he could visit with our relatives before he goes out to portland. ooohh boy. for the most part, we avoided poli-religious talk, chatting about how aunt wants a jaguar, daylight saving time, and the drought, etc, but there were some doozies.
to recap:
1. country’s going to pot. next thing you know, we’ll go from a republic to socialism. at which point i wanted to yell, “JESUS WAS A SOCIALIST” but didn’t think that would go over well.
2. reason for all the immorality in the world: abortion. if we can’t even respect life in the womb, how can we respect life elsewhere? i wanted to yell “HOW ABOUT FREE WILL???”
3. people rely on the government too much. why should i pay for your stuff on my dollar? why do you get a fancy phone and a welfare check? get off your sweet little backside and get a job. at which point i wanted yell “OMG — YOUR IMMEDIATE FAMILY WAS ON WELFARE BACK IN ’92!!!” (really, i felt insulted for our parents.)
 
a note on family dynamics: uncle only interjects in these conversations when he’s really riled up over something, usually politically that’s just happened so it’s fresh. cousin 1 doesn’t really bring up poli-religious conversations at all. she’ll tsk tsk at things that are said and if she’s praying, she’ll invite you to join, but that’s it as far as i’ve notice. aunt will deliver pieces of “information” (from faux news) in a pretty deadpan, deliberate way. cousin 2, however, will bring up these convos, and on top of it, she gets REALLY into them. i feel like i can slightly disagree with aunt in a vague way, but ANY disagreement with cousin 2 would be attacked.
in other news, i’m meeting these people for supper tomorrow. here’s hoping that we can avoid stuff like this.