Why couldn't my parents make me religious or Republican?

David Brooks throws this aside in his column today:

I brought my 12-year-old son on this latest trip. My rule is that if a candidate can’t relate well to a 12-year-old, they’ll never win a general election. He approached all the candidates, and they were all wonderful except Gingrich. But that wasn’t Gingrich’s fault. My son, whose heroes include John Boehner and Tupac Shakur, picked an argument about gay marriage. Gingrich engaged, but after 10 seconds signaled security to brush my kid away.

It was kind of funny to me because I read this and thought, "Of course, David Brooks' 12-year old kid likes John Boehner."

But it's interesting, the only time I can remember actually being a Republican was when I was 8 years old. It was during the election of George H. W. Bush over Mike Dukakis. It was so elemental in those days. My dad liked Bush, so I was rooting for him too. It was the last time that would ever happen.

By '92, I had already switched allegiances despite my parents best efforts.

A similar problem arose over religion. My folks tried the right things, Mass every Sunday, religious studies classes every Wednesday night, but nada, zip. It just never took. I can recall being about as young as the fifth grade and openly challenging my religion teachers in class. "Wait, you don't really think the world was created like that, do you?"

What's more interesting is that my siblings (so all four of us) befell the same fate. Two religious, Republican parents raised four atheist liberals. It's kind of a staggering record of achievement for my parents given that some suggest that as much as 71% of kids usually have the same political leanings as their parents.

I don't really have the answers for this, other than my parents for all their religion and Republican views were also fairly open-minded folks who certainly never preached at us. I don't recall my father being all that concerned with who I voted for. I should probably point out that my dad has also had something of a conversion at the age of 69, recently voting for Barack Obama and finding fault with his former party's lurch to the right.

Which is all just a long way I guess of saying I wonder if in ten years mini David Brooks won't think decidedly differently about his John Boehner phase.