Here at DKos I've come across many inspirational diaries written by people who share their own stories about how friends or family members who, for whatever reason, had supported a Republican ticket in the past but this year will put their support behind the Obama/Biden ticket. Three of my family members, all of whom supported Bush in both 2000 & 2004 have come on board and are now supporting Barack Obama so I too wanted to share my story here.
Continued below the fold...
My mother, my brother and my sister all supported Bush in 2000 & 2004. It has never been pretty for us to talk politics in the past, and quite honestly I usually just avoided the subject altogether. Politics is a fairly easy subject to avoid as I live in California and they live in Utah, but over the last 4 years things have changed for my family... My father passed away (he was a Republican until the Reagan years and then switched to the Democrats, the real history of why I am not fully sure of but would most likely make an interesting diary in itself), my brother lost a good job and my sister's husband's business has slowed to a near crawl so this year I really wanted to know who they were supporting and why. I was assuming they would all 3 be for McCain so my original intentions were more out of curiosity than anything else.
First up was my mom. I began talking to her about Obama back during the primaries when I happily discovered she was, by her own words "undecided". The thing with my mom (my whole family really, but specifically my mom) is that she is now and always has been pretty open-minded... For example: I'm gay and have been with my partner (soon to be husband - NO ON 8!!) for 11 years. My mom has always accepted me for who I am, and even introduces my partner and I to her friends as "my two sons from San Francisco" which is always a great conversation starter and ice breaker (my family is Slavic and my partner's is Filipino). So, being confident that she would listen to me I began to promote the idea of Barack Obama being president to my mom. She had heard every rumor out there by that point so I had to systematically dismantle all the B.S. that someone living in a very red Utah is apt to be exposed to. She listened respectively, but I really didn't think I was getting through to her. Once the primaries were done and both parties had their nominees I again started to talk to her about the idea of President Obama and again I was met with respectful, but disengaged listening.
It is important here that I say it wasn't me that convinced my mom to vote for Barack Obama... It was Obama himself. My mom had listened to me, and one of her close friends talk about why we are supporting Obama but it wasn't until Obama appeared on the David Letterman Show that she finally began to listen to him... She suddenly wanted me to send her more information about the Obama campaign, about his tax plan, his health-care plan as well as any links I had to his speeches. My mom's friend (mentioned above) who I had never spoke to or met emailed me because my mom had given her my email address and we were going back and fourth about the sudden spark of interest in my mom. Finally one Sunday afternoon during our regular, weekly phone call my mom said "I've decided I'm going to vote for Obama."... Biting my tongue to keep from yelling "YEEAAHH!!!" I asked her what made up her mind... She listed a lot of reasons that had to do with her conscience and about how Barack Obama really seems to understand the middle class. The only negative thing she said at all concerned Gov. Palin and the reflection on McCain's judgment for choosing her as a running mate. That is what impressed me the most... My mom decided to vote for Obama based almost entirely on the positive aspects of his message.
Next, my brother...
My brother is a hard-working guy. He is married to a sweet woman who was already the mother of 3 children and he loves them as his own. He is a good guy too. I've never felt unsafe in the world because my brother always looked out for me (growing up gay will always include some horror stories), but my brother forever had my back and for that he will always have my respect and I will always love him unconditionally as he has me. That being said, he is not really the guy to talk about current events with unless it is NFL related. He doesn't watch or read the news... He spends a lot of time working, helping his 3 kids or working on his cars... When I started talking to him about Obama his reaction shocked me... He said "Well, bottom-line, on November 5th, McCain is going to be president which is why I'm voting for him".... WHOA!! I asked him where he was getting his information and his response was he listens to the people at his work (after losing his job he found work at a grocery store). So I took that opportunity to immediately send him some polls and some of Barack Obama's ads & speeches. His reaction was pretty amazing... I never gave much credit to the idea that some Americans just want to vote for the winner, but with my brother that seems to be the case because it took very little convincing after he saw the leads Obama had in the polls and really listened to what Obama is saying out on the campaign trail (our first real conversation about this took place just before the Vice Presidential Debate). My brother even watched the remaining debates and has an Obama/Biden yard sign up. Again, all I did was send the information; Obama is the one who convinced him.
Finally, my sister...
My sister has always been somewhat of an enigma to me. She is a member of the NRA, loves hunting, NASCAR and country western music. Both she and her husband drive big, American made trucks and would never consider, even if gas prices skyrocketed past $5/gallon buying anything else. Whenever Palin says "Joe-Six-pack" I always picture my sister and my brother-in-law. However; both of them and their 3 children have always been accepting of me, they love both me and my partner and have never made any exceptions in their support for us and our life together. My sister is always the one to volunteer to pick us up at the airport when we visit, she is always the one to plan a big dinner and get everyone there when we visit. Recently her husband (my brother-in-law) was here in the Bay Area for a conference and spent one of the evenings with us at dinner, genuinely interested in our lives and just plain happy to see us. But it was my sister I was least optimistic about when thinking I could introduce the idea of voting for Obama to my family.
A few weeks back I received that email where you can put anyone’s name in and it produces a fun video of a news story about the person whose named you’ve supplied and how they are beating all odds and winning the election. I put my pet’s name in and sent it out to family and friends... My sister responded immediately with "I’d rather vote for your animal than either of the candidates at this point". This gave me hope because she wasn’t flat out supporting McCain. I wrote back explaining that I was 110% behind Obama and was glad to hear that she was not totally behind McCain. I thought that would be the end of it, but again she responded immediately with "I haven’t made my mind up about Obama yet, but I’m sure as hell not going to vote for McCain and Palin"... YES!!!
Ok, Fast-forward a couple of days when an email from her arrives and in ALL CAPS she describes a radio ad she heard urging church members in Utah to call people in California to help support Prop. 8. She was mad-as-hell to say the least. I wrote back saying the recent poll numbers on Prop 8 here had me a little worried that the efforts of the Mormon church were paying off to which she replied (again, in ALL CAPS) "THESE CONSERVATIVES HAVE GOT TO GO! THIS IS JUST WRONG!" These conservatives have got to go?? I was more hopeful now... I wrote back, agreeing completely about the hate behind the Yes on 8 campaign and, in response to her ‘conservatives have got to go’ comment I added "That is why I am voting for Obama" to which she replied "AFTER WATCHING THE DEBATE LAST NIGHT (the second debate) I AM TOO!" Now, all I did with my sister was tell her that I am voting for Obama... She decided to vote for Obama after the second presidential debate, and apparently the hate-filled campaign in favor of prop 8 here in California helped fuel her decision that we do indeed need change.
I must say, I am so proud of my family!!
My entire point in writing this is that for even the most die-hard supporters of Bush in the past the current state of our economy and the chaotic messages of anger, hate and intolerance coming from the right are no match for what Obama has been saying since day one. The lesson from all of this: if you meet someone who really is undecided about the presidential election at this point let Obama do the talking.
He convinced my family.