Reply #26: when i was in college, taking poly sci theory courses, i had a prof

[nashville_brook]

who always pitted my lone leftiness against another girl who was equally conservative in her persuasion. my school in east tennessee, even in the 80s, was mostly conservative, although we had a vibrant lefty community.

i became friends with this girl, amy and later served under her at the student newspaper where she was editor and i was news editor. the closer we became, the more she shared with me about her upbringing:

absent father
religious mother (southern baptist)
and community culture that only included church members.

now, she had a crush on the features editor who was totally not her type. pot-smoker, lefty. and i was fascinated. why him i asked. because he reminded her of her father she said. emotionally unavailable, quiet, submissive.

as i got to know her, everything about her politics seemed to point back to her father. i imagine her political ruthlessness was a way to out-conservative her conservative father. to be the ultimate daddy's little girl in order to just some little fleck of attention from him.

as time went on and she grew-up (and healed that emptiness she felt with her father), she shed a lot of that conservatism. she's still anti-choice as far as i know, but hey, what are gonna do?

now look at these overacheivers and think about the conservatives you know: do they fit this? are they appealing to authority as a means to "out-Father" their fathers?