This is my first diary after spending several months reading and commenting. Something is in the air in Indiana, and it smells mighty fine.
I live a part of Indianapolis that's been described as the most Republican area in town. I'm not a native Hoosier, coming from Michigan to attend Indiana University, so it's been frustrating these many years. But there have been many signs that something's happening here, and bode well for an upset Obama victory in November.
The cracks started appearing early in the summer. At the recycling dumpster (this is interesting, they're always full and even white-haired Republicans seem to have the recycling bug) I met an older gentleman in a Ford 150 pickup. What caught my eye was his bumper stickers, including "Impeach Bush". During the primaries I was reluctant to confront my neighbors, so I canvassed on the north side of Indy (heavily Dem). The surprise there was the number of Obamacans from the wealthy northern suburbs in Hamilton County, which has been reliably red. Obama has an office up there, and by all accounts it's quite popular. It seems the thinking and prosperous Repubs have had it with the stupidity of Bush and the criminal creepiness of Rove and the anti-American evil of Cheney. One older Obamacan couple I met in the headquarters was willing to canvass for BHO but wanted to vote in the Repub primary in order to vote against former Clinton impeachment manager Dan Burton.
Things started rolling when I talked to a couple of delightful young folks canvassing for Obama on my very street. I'd never seen any sign of Democratic life in the ten years I'd lived there, yet there they were. They told me they got a warm reception-nice! On primary day, I went into my local Panera for bagels, and the clerk complemented me on my Obama pin-then I noticed he was wearing one too! I'm sure he wouldn't have dared to sport a Kerry button 4 years ago.
Yesterday, two houses down from me, I spotted an Obama bumper sticker, and today there was one on a car in the driveway of one of the "local gentry", or what passes for it here. A big house on a hill with a pool, I think the family owns a concrete company.
Something's in the air in red Indiana, and it smells mighty fine.
I am a composer and jazz pianist, and hope to write another diary on the curious phenomenon of right-wing musicians, to my mind an oxymoron (or perhaps an "oxy-moran"?).
UPDATE Whoa, on the rec list with my first diary?! Thanks!