Republicans Known for Familial Strife
As suggested here, it’s awkward when a child of a household-name Republican openly and aggressively urges voters to cast their ballots for the Democrats. It’s also as if that close proximity and all those years of acquaintance have resulted in some perception of Dad’s character that might be, shall we say, unsavory?
From this piece in Vanity Fair, written by Caroline Rose Giuliani:
To anyone who feels overwhelmed or apathetic about this election, there is nothing I relate to more than desperation to escape corrosive political discourse. As a child, I saw firsthand the kind of cruel, selfish politics that Donald Trump has now inflicted on our country. It made me want to run as far away from them as possible. But trust me when I tell you: Running away does not solve the problem. We have to stand and fight. The only way to end this nightmare is to vote. There is hope on the horizon, but we’ll only grasp it if we elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.
The case with the Giulianis is reminiscent of the scene featuring Ronald Reagan and his children.
Reagan’s daughter Patti Davis was active in the anti-nuclear movement before her father was elected president, and continued her activism through his term, stirring controversy and creating strife in the family. She’s sharply critical of the Republican Party, which she has never been affiliated with.
The president’s son Ron Reagan wrote an essay “The Case Against George W. Bush” for Esquire in 2004. He voted for Democratic candidate John Kerry in the 2004 presidential election. Reagan endorsed then-senator Barack Obama of Illinois for president in the 2008 presidential election. In November 2015, Reagan endorsed Bernie Sanders for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2016 Democratic Party primaries.
In 2020, Reagan stated that his father would’ve opposed Donald Trump, remarking to The Daily Beast that his “father would have been ashamed of this Republican Party,” as well as “been embarrassed and ashamed that a president of the United States was as incompetent and traitorous as the man occupying the White House now.”
Giuliani finishes her article:
We are hanging by a single, slipping finger on a cliff’s edge, and the fall will be fatal. If we remove ourselves from the fight, our country will be in freefall. Alternatively, we can hang on, elect a compassionate and decent president, and claw our way back onto the ledge. If I, after decades of despair over politics, can engage in our democracy to meet this critical moment, I know you can too.
Again, awkward times.
