Bad News: My Idiot Brother Has Decided Not to Vote At All

[Doctor Jack]

He was a Bernie or Bust fanatic and then decided to go with a protest vote by going with Stein. Then about a week and a half ago decided to bite the bullet and vote for Clinton. Now he says he just flat out isn't going to vote. He used to be very level headed, politically speaking, but now he is a full on conspiracy theorist. He is buying into every ultra left wing and right wing national enquirer conspiracy theory about Clinton. Apparently she is both crippled with severe dementia and is a cunning, ruthless strategist that stole the nomination. Those two things seem mutually exclusive to me but I don't live in a JPR paranoid fantasy, so what do i know?

I guess its pretty easy to take a principled stand in this election if you are a well off, straight, white male. If its any consolation, he lives in Chicago, so his lack of voting is unlikely to help Trump. Still, what an idiot.

[izzybella]

1. It could be worse

My brother is voting for Trump.

[Doctor Jack]

4. I would have to disown him if he did

I usually don't try to force my political views onto anyone else, including family. However, if he voted for Trump, anytime someone asked me about him I would have to grit my teeth and say "I have no brother".

[mnhtnbb]

7. I hear my brother is voting for Trump, too. But he's a knee-jerk Republican.

He's also in California, so his vote will not change the outcome in that state.

[SCantiGOP]

11. My brother may not

He is a hard-core republican, but he hates Trump but says he would vote for him before Hillary. He said if I bought him a bottle of 18-year old McCallan he would stay home drunk and not vote.
(I would do it if I could trust him)

[FrodosPet]

13. He may be frustrating, but he is your brother

Is he basically good, just badly messing up on Trump? If you can afford it, perhaps you can go ahead and buy him a bottle of 18-year old McCallan, just for being your brother?

[SCantiGOP]

14. Trust me....

He and I have exchanged and teamed up on many bottles of Scotch over the years.
We're good friends, just that I am an old war-protesting hippie while he was a Green Beret in Viet Nam and then Rhodesian Army consultant. Now we are just old farts who will never agree on politics but are very comfortable with each other's differences.

[FrodosPet]

15. Some people find it easy to reject otherwise close friends and family members over politics

I'm too lazy. I like people based on whether I like them. Yes, I will make efforts at educating them about the orange dung pile, but my peeps are my peeps.

[Laffy Kat]

2. There is still time for him to change his mind.

And he probably will. Gentle persuasion is called for. Good luck.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

5. Cool story bro! nt

[CincyDem]

6. Hey - wait - you can't steal my OP.

I find myself in the same situation...in Ohio. He's still hung up on NAFTA and when I asked for any slightly tangible rationale that NAFTA has done anything but benefit him...he's silent. But he's still not voting for the top line.

As they say, you can pick your friends but you can't pick your family. But I am deeply disappointed.

[Maru Kitteh]

8. Go for a drive with him if you can- take him through a neighborhood of vulnerable

people- remind him in a visual, tactile way that this vote is about them.

[Doctor Jack]

9. He lives about 1500 miles away

If I lived that close to him, I would just smack him upside the head.

[Maru Kitteh]

12. Well that was going to be my second suggestion

But I'm on a "trying to be nice" kick.

[Peacetrain]

10. Doctor Jack.. I am so sorry.. so so very sorry

We can choose our friends.. but our family.. we are just stuck with them.. even when they go off the deep end of the conspiracy drop off..Given time I am sure he will come back to himself for the most part.. but will probably cling to the Hillary conspiracies till the day he dies.. to do otherwise would mean he would have to admit making an error.. and when they go that far off the cliff .. that is something they only do on the death bed.. admit they were wrong

[LWolf]

16. With the process he is struggling with,

and the number of times he's changed his mind, I'll bet he's not done with this. Maybe if you just let him struggle with it, he'll arrive at something you approve of in the end, although he certainly doesn't have to do so.

[Doctor Jack]

17. He's an adult, he can do what he pleases

But that doesn't stop me from silently judging him.

[LWolf]

18. Which is my point.

A wise person spends more time evaluating his own self than judging others. That outward impulse to focus judgment on others is indicative of an inner insecurity.

Not that I meant to turn your thread into this. I am glad that my own sons are less judgmental of each other, more accepting. More unconditional love, more brotherly love. One doesn't have to agree, but one should respect free will and an individuals process.

[obamanut2012]

19. I am betting he never was really going to vote for HRC