Chapter 5: Respect My Opinion: A Case Study on the Political Relational Dialectics Between Parent and Child

In the Philippines, the difference in political standpoints between generations was observed despite the prevalence of political patriotism and dynasties in Filipino families (Oliphant, 2018; Say et al., 2022). Employing the integration of Rational Choice Theory (RCT; Smith, 1776) and Relational Dialectics Theory (RDT; Baxter & Montgomery, 1996), this qualitative research aimed to describe the informants’ political standpoint, narrate situations that affect their internal and external relational dialectics, identify problems brought by their political standpoint differences, and describe their relational communication. Researchers utilized thematic analysis to examine the in-depth interviews, where moral and spiritual orientation, regional affiliation, media visibility, and candidates’ qualities showed to have an influence on informants’ choice of political candidate, thus their views on the depth of election. Moreover, the presented communicative behavior (non-confrontational, aggressiveness, and passiveness) keeps their family grounded, while tensions in form verbal aggressions (hurtful/offensive jokes, misogyny, red-tagging, and invalidation), communication avoidance, to severe aggressions (physical, psychological, and emotional distress) are named to be the problems brought by political standpoint differences. Other family informants found themselves on good terms after the election as they value the family relationship more, while communication gaps remain for some.