Last night, I was talking to my dad on the telephone. My team the Phillies had just beaten his team the Dodgers, and it was time for a little trash talk. After we got done with that, I went to a place I stopped going years ago. I asked him if he was still going to vote for the Republican candidate, after all that has happened. For the first time ever, Dad didn't answer right away.
A little background, and his answer, after the fold.
My dad was born and raised in a Republican family, as was my mom. In my family, we referred to ourselves as "Lincoln Republicans". They met on the homecoming committee at the University of Southern California, and married in 1953. My dad's first presidential election was in 1952, right around the time he and my mom started dating. She was an alternate delegate for IKE at the Republican convention, and they both enthusiastically voted for IKE. In 1964, mom, who was Arizona-born and raised, ran Goldwater's campaign in Northern California.
I was the first member of my family not to vote for the GOP candidate for president. I had worked on the Ford campaign as a teenager, and had been in Kansas City when Reagan's forces destroyed Ford's chance of winning. And trickle-down economics? George HW was right; it was voodoo economics. So I voted for Anderson in the primary. In the general election, I still felt enough identification with Republicans that, even though I despised Reagan, I elected to vote for no-one for president. First and last time. After that, as I watched the Dixiecrats and religious right take over "my" party, I finally made the switch.
Over time, everyone else in my family has followed me, even my mom. But not Dad. A stockbroker for 50 years, born and raised in the party of Abe, Teddy, Barry and Ronnie, he has been unrepentantly vigorous in support of his party. I tried to persuade him that the party we both had loved was dead, taken over by crooks and loons. He would have none of it. After a while, it became a subject for joshing at each other. We both knew the other was unpersuadable, and we loved each other too much to keep fighting about it.
So, when I asked him last night if he was really going to vote for McCain, I was really just teasing him. After a pregnant pause, my Dad said "I'm not going to vote for President this year." "Could you see your way clear to voting for Obama?", I asked him. "I don't know."
Let me be clear. My dad not voting for John McCain is the functional equivalent of the Pope questioning the Nicene Creed. So buckle your seatbelts, send off whatever money you can afford to whomever you like best, call, canvas, whatever. And don't be afraid to talk to that family member you already gave up on. If my dad is in play, it's a whole new ballgame.