Okay, first off, I am a Republican, though I have been tending towards the center politically the last couple of elections, and this year I am fully supporting Sen. Barack Obama in tomorrow's primary and also in the November election. I've even had the pleasure of going out a few weeks ago on behalf of the Obama campaign to register people to vote, yet another example of how the fine Senator has energized people to get involved in changing this country. I even got to shake his hand a couple of weeks back at a rally here in northern Indiana. It has been a fun and rewarding time for me for the last several months since I first decided to support Barack.
That all said, I am one pissed off supporter tonight.
Why, might you ask? Well, without going into too much detail, I am a design engineer, and I work for a very large automotive supplier. For those of you who might not realize this, engineering offices tend to be heavily Republican, and my office is no exception. Now there are a couple of us that I know of that are supporting Sen. Obama, but by far, the overwhelming majority are going to be voting for Sen. McCain this fall. I hear lots of conversations from day to day about the election around the cubicles, and they tend to reflect all of the typical talking points about the Democratic party and Senators Obama and Clinton. I don't watch or listen to Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity, but I can tell you quite often what their attacks of the day are just from what I overhear.
Now I don't get involved in talking politics at work, as for one, we have rules against it, and two, I need to maintain a good working relationship with my co-workers, and I have seen where things have turned sour for others in the past due to being on the "wrong" side of an issue. Trust me when I say that trying to debate back is not an option, for many different reasons.
Now here is where the pissed off part is. I am proud of being a crossover voter, because I strongly believe that you should vote against your own party when you don't like where it has been heading. On top of that, it is an easy switch for me, because I genuinely admire and respect Sen. Obama. So I am happy to add my vote for Barack tomorrow during the primary. Unfortunately I have heard of seven other Republicans that work within listening range of where I sit that are going to be voting for Hillary Clinton tomorrow, not because they like her, but quite the opposite, because they think she would be easier to beat in the fall, but also because they relish in dragging on the primary process as long as they can. Seven votes... to my one vote. I suspect these kinds of ratios to be present across the rest of my office.
I am angry. Here I am, proud to be able to cast my vote for Barack, but as I look at it now, it is simply going to be a vote just to nullify one of the seven other votes that are going to be cast for a candidate they don't even care about or want in office.
I feel deflated tonight, but I stay hopefull that the supporters for Barack in Indiana and North Carolina will come out in very strong numbers tomorrow to put an end to this.
So who in Daily Kos can give me six more votes for Barack to bring my office back to even??? Anyone???
UPDATE 1: Thanks for all of the recs! There have been a lot of great comments, and I appreciate all of them, even the ones that think I am some faux Republican.
I did a brief informal count, and I added up about 12 Republican votes in Indiana for Sen. Obama...! Keep 'em coming...!
UPDATE 2: Well, I just got done voting in my precinct at 6 a.m. The turnout was lighter than I expected but the news crews where there. All of the voters that were in front of me were pulling Democratic ballots. My wife just got home, and she said that the polling place was getting packed, so that's a good sign.
One other very shocking piece of news for me... My in-laws apparently voted for Sen. Obama this morning, and I did not see that coming! I love my in-laws, but I have had some very tense conversations with them over this election... everything from "secretly a muslim" to "doesn't wear a flag pin" to "Reverend Wright" to "illegals are taking all of our jobs"... etc... I guess I was able to get through to them...!!!