At a bar I frequent, I'm good friends with all of the bartenders, two in particular. One of them is one of my closest friends, and the other is not too far behind her.
Let's call her "Christina," since that's her name.
I've talked politics often in the bar, usually surrounded by conservatives, bigots and hardcore Bush supporters. I keep it polite and general because... well, I'm usually surrounded by conservatives, bigots and Bushies.
Tonight made me feel a little hope.
Christina isn't a bigot, nor is she necessarily conservative, but she has remarked several times that she doesn't see too much difference between Democrats and Republicans. The sort of low-information voter who buys into media hype to an extent but not so fully that she's completely ignorant of the truth.
I'll bet she's gonna love reading this when I email it to her, I should probably find a back-up bar in case she stops serving me.
Anyway, she and I have had some heated exchanges, usually ending in her walking away and just serving me whiskey for the rest of the night (diabolical). I just didn't have the patience to convince her of anything with any sort of speed, so I wrote off her vote and tried to convince her to stay home on Election Day so she wouldn't pollute the system with her vote.
Then she sent me a text message:
Obama is killing it! Great speech so far. You best be watching!!!
And then I smiled.
Not because I did anything to convince her (I don't think I did), but because she came around on her own.
Because someone who had all the earmarks of a hopeless low-information voter watched a speech and was moved enough to contact someone about it, to reach out and engage.
For the first time, I can honestly say that I'm looking forward to the next time she talks politics with me.
UPDATE: Another text from her:
It was awesome.
Even better, I think she's working tonight, which means she had to be watching it at the bar, which means....
Yeah, I think it was a good fucking night.