I hear some "unaffiliated" PAC has an ad out pushing Ron DeSantis for president, premised on his supposedly steely spine because one of his grandfathers worked in steel.
Twitter folks were having fun with that, volunteering information on what their grandparents' jobs were, and wondering why the focus wasn't on what DeSantis's other grandfather's job was (a politician and a bureaucrat), or his parents. His mom was a nurse and his dad installed Nielsen boxes, both fine jobs, but not something you can make a manly tag line out of.
Save this excellent photo for all future uses of the guy who wants to know when teen-aged girls have their periods. He has a spine of steel, I tell you.
It made me wonder how someone could package me as a candidate based on my grandparents' jobs.
Well, I have some union bonafides. One grandpa was a bread truck driver and a Teamster. (Farther back, I have railroad union members on the same side of the family.) My grandma from that same side worked in a dress factory, and I think may have been a member of the International Ladies' Garment Workers' Union, though I'm not sure.
My other set of grandparents were a bit more genteel, and so make worse campaign copy, though their story could be spun in the right hands. Grandpa owned a fairly unsuccessful corner grocery store, offering credit to people through the Depression (which often wasn't paid off). Grandma was a teacher for a few years, then a homemaker and would-be writer, then later a secretary.
I know politicians have to package themselves with their family stories one way or another. Even my favorites do it. I, too, want to know who they are, where they come from.
But it must be weird to be the family members whose relationships are being packaged, to hear about yourself as part of someone else's story, reduced to signifiers.
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