My Mother was rabid when it came to political debates. She loved presenting a point of view to all of us (my brother, sister and me) and then encouraging us to debate it. She’d sit back with a grin as we all got madder and madder. The behavior puzzled me.
Several days before she died, my Mother, a “die hard” Republican who still loved Richard Nixon and still believed weaspons of mass destruction were somewhere in Iraq (long after the administration had said otherwise) looked at me and said, “Well, what do you think of our current leadership in America?”
“Mom,” I said gently, “I’m not talking politics with you (we hadn’t discussed them for more than a decade….and it gave us both some peace).”
Mom knew I wasn’t fond of George Bush or a Republican party that could be so mean-spirited and get away with it.
But here she was on her deathbed, asking me about George Bush. When she realized I wasn’t going to answer, she answered for me. What a deathbed confession! A little sideways and indirect…but I knew exactly what she meant.
“As Thomas Jefferson once said, ‘Absolute power corrupts absolutely’ ” she said.
Mom…I wish you were alive today, to see the political drama that lies ahead. I know your eyes would be ablaze with excitement.
Now, a poem I wrote when I wasn’t even voting age (1970).
The Day After Elections -by Linda Athis
A cold wind rattles tattered campaign signs.
Wall street wakes with a fear of the past.
“The winners are winning,
the losers are losing!”
Please put down your placards, flags and buttons.
Playtime’s over men.
Go back to your ten commandments…
’til the next campaign year.
Forgiving Mom 