My Republican Brothers

International Women’s Day NYC 2025

I love them. So much. And yet there is the inescapable landscape the plays tricks with my heart, often a wide vista, a gap, open ended for miles only to become a narrow bridge crossing that turns into a valley and then suddenly we are swimming downstream sharing a belly laugh or obviously talking about the weather.

The weather a common nicety set upon us by my Irish father, (who by-the-way, tossed me out of family gatherings, literally telling me to get out of his house for my political points of views I believe four times in total. For those pour souls who witnessed our strenuously pitched rows the comments generally were ‘she is just like him’, hmmm, but not politically). First and foremost, my father always greeted my phone calls with the comings and goings of the weather. “How is the weather there Margaret?” After I reported in, he followed with his. Discussing thunderstorms, snow, rain and sunshine used to be a safe and benign topic, yeah those were the days, when weather was not dosed in politics, but still, to this day my brothers and I greet each other with weather reports from our various locations, on my end bated breath forgoing any liabilities on climate change.

It is endearing to me that both my brothers generally always seem to know what the weather is wherever I am. “I see you’re supposed to get a cold front,” or if I mention there was a storm, and my other brother responds, “I saw that.” Kinda makes me feel good as if they are checking on me. My phone location is shared with the two of them and when I travel as I frequently do, my older brother, who used to fly and own his own small plane, always checks my flights!

I believe they would do just about anything for me, that is anything except vote blue. Undoubtedly it is me who is bothered by their voting records, not the other way around. They understand I am an ardent environmentalist with a bit of track record; they see my skin in the game is to do good, be kind and fight hard, when necessary, yet none of my do goodness, speaking out for or marching to the beat of women’s rights, immigrants and climate ever, as far as I know, has sunk down into their souls to create any seismic shifts. They do not see the world the way I do.

Let me be clear (have we heard this phrase enough of late) I am very close with both of my brothers. The elder of the two is a financial analyst so maybe his vote is all about the market. Can it be though? All about the market? While I created a cause marketing company aligning public relation strategies for philanthropists to support nonprofits, my brother was watching the numbers, he began in high school charting stocks, in high school I began writing. He dropped out of college, played the market game and grew his portfolio, I graduated college, am a lifelong learner, passionate about the arts, but know very little about the market. Sometimes I wonder if he could be into the techno-fascism, the dark enlightenment game, we did get into a bit a disagreement once about Elon which I ended our convo simply by saying, “I disagree.”

My younger brother is in the golfing industry. Enough said.  The youngest of five he grew up playing golf from one country club to another. That’s his life. I was the oldest and my parents did not belong to racist country clubs until I was in high school and well, by then my personality shall we say, was ‘formed.’

He is an executive with what I feel is like a private equity firm that acquires old, defunct, can no longer affordto keep the club going golf clubs. My younger brother is the definite bad ass. He is my son’s godfather. The Godfather being his favorite all time film. Of late his responses are very corporate. How do I explain? His responses are short and to the point, maybe they always have been. We talk football and, of course, the weather.

Here is the interesting part, I believe both of my brother’s partners leaned right. I say leaned because my elder brother tragically lost his partner of 30 years a few years ago and if she voted I kind of believe she voted red. My younger brother’s wife is a very strong-willed, highly intelligent person, but lives amongst the seemingly endless many upon many country clubbers in a double-gated community in a gorgeous home, wait for it, in Florida. I am lost on this, hence no discussion. Back to weather, recipes, gardening, anything but women’s rights and the insanity of which we are now all apart of and play our part in.

Although my father god rest his soul and I passionately disagreed on many fronts, he once said aloud with me in the room, “My daughter Margaret has more balls than either one of my sons.” And with that I concur. Maybe this is the only way I can make sense, find solace and accept their political choices, that truly do drive me mad. However, it might just be this simple: they submit to the daily rounds of fear; I do not.

Stay True World,

MGH