“Al Gore's our guy”: Linguistically Constructing a Family Political Identity

Abstract

Abstract Researchers have suggested that family discourse can work toward socializing children into the political beliefs of their parents, thereby “reproducing” political values and behaviors across generations of the same family. This chapter shows that a family's political identity can be a fundamental component of family identity. It considers how members of one family construct a family identity based on their support of Democratic Party presidential candidate Al Gore. The chapter illustrates how family members use language during conversations to create a group, rather than individual, identity and how political socialization is multidirectional in the family context, where all family members play a role in constructing the family identity. It also contributes to research in political socialization, wherein researchers have previously claimed that the family is of great importance in this process but have relied on interviews and surveys.