I just accidentally made a girl cry by explaining why she shouldn't vote for Trump. It was bizarre.
She's originally from Ecuador, and said that her family had a tough time getting to the US. Because of this, she thought that undocumented immigrants (who "have it easy") need to be punished. For whatever reason, me insisting that mass deportation is cruel seemed to trigger some horrible memories for her.
The weirdest part was that she insisted Trump is "good for Hispanic people" because he's getting rid of the ones who make them look bad. She honestly did not believe Trump was racist, and thought his statements about Mexicans (which she insisted only applied to illegal immigrants) were reasonable.
My great aunt from panama has similar feelings about Trump. She came to this country after marrying my grandpa's brother. She also comes from an extremely wealthy family, and my grandpa's brother was a high ranking commando, so they lived very well and she never had to even consider anything. She basically waltzed into the US, no questions asked, and has lived the life since then.
She's never voted in her life though. And has no plans to. She just likes Trump. My grandma even jokes her and my grandma would fight more if she could actually understand her when she starts talking quickly. My grandparents hate Trump and are very liberal.
I was actually taken aback that my grandparents were liberal. I mean, my mom is like, far left crazy town, but I never really assumed that came from my grandparents. Until I was hanging out with my grandpa watching the news, and gay marriage was being discussed and he went on a rant. Not about the evils of gay marriage or anything, but about how stupid the people who opposed it were, and what was the point in being against it, two men who want to marry and are in love aren't hurting you, and so on, and I just didn't believe it. I hadn't ever expected that to come from a 76 year old man. I asked my mom about it, and she said "oh yea, he's always been liberal, I thought you knew that?"
For my grandma, I found out when asking my mom why my grandma didn't work at a bank her entire life, since he had worked there forever, and then when I was born, she just stopped and I never knew why. It was because a close friend and colleague had gotten fired for something my grandma didn't believe was valid, and she organized a group of people in the bank and they just left in protest of the firing. I actually have a lot of respect for her for doing something like that. Over time I noticed that she too, was yelling at Fox News whenever stupid GOP nonsense would come up.
I don't know why either of them like watching Fox News if it just gets them annoyed...
I actually can't believe I come from such a liberal family. On my mom's side. My dad's side are far right religious loonies. My dad doesn't talk to them anymore. He's always been liberal as well, and being around my mom for 30 years certainly hasn't made him less liberal. I haven't heard from my dad's side in about a decade. I just ate dinner at my mom's side last week.
It's kind of nice actually. It doesn't make anything awkward when we sit around and laugh at the GOP and none of us feel weird or awkward doing it. I can never, ever discuss GMOs with my mom though. That's not a road I like going down with her.