Mom has always been a political person. Her mother worked the polls on Election Day until she was no longer able, and she passed on her views to my Mom. Growing up I always knew where Mom stood on the various candidates, and I went along with her behind the curtain of the voting machine.
As she grew older and she threw off many of the filters of "appropriate" social conversation, Mom's political views intensified. She had (and still has) ideas of what should be done about certain notorious characters in and out of political office. We have been pretty much in sync in our perspectives, although I couldn't say that I agree with some of her more colorful recommendations for activism. I'm not sure that I could have fully evaded the topic of politics even if my views were diametrically opposed to hers. To be honest, I might have even fanned the flames of her outrage a few times for entertainment value.
Mom's dementia has progressed to the point that although she still knows clearly who she loves and abhors in the public arena, she has trouble following the processes. In her adult lifetime, she has voted every time, even during Covid. And this past November she stood with her Rollator in line with me for more than an hour to cast her vote in person.
Now she has a hard time remembering who the current President is, and who will become the next one. She was not happy with the outcome in November, so maybe she has blocked it out. Once reminded, though, she's back into the exclamations of what is and isn't going well, politically speaking. And as long as she's energetically ranting, I can tell she's still the Mom I've known all my life and that she's doing OK.
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