My mom is a 45-year old lifelong Republican.
Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 03:30:41 AM PDT
Bless her heart, she's born and bred GOP. Voted for Reagan twice, Bush Sr, twice, cried watching the Clinton inauguration, voted for Dole in '96.
When I told her I supported Gore in 2000 she was visibly disappointed. "I can't believe you're a Democrat..." she would trail off, shaking her head in disappointment. Where had she gone wrong? That year she proudly voted for Bush, "to save lives". Her support only grew more fervent after the 9/11 attacks.
Then came the Iraq war. She was starting to have her doubts. She realized, before most Americans, that the invasion of Iraq was completely unrelated to terrorism. Yet in 2004 she voted for Bush again, because she "wasn't sure that Kerry could keep us safe".
Then came Katrina. My mom completely lost it. By the end of 2005 she couldn't support Bush anymore - so she sat out the 2006 elections, and last time I went home she couldn't stop saying "Bush isn't a Republican, he's a criminal."
Last weekend, she called me to complain about the election laws in our state, Maryland. See, we have closed primaries, and my mom is still a registered Republican. And she had been really excited to vote in the upcoming primaries...
...for Barack Obama.
My mom has no enthusiasm for John McCain - she's fearful of another Cheney-like VP who will seize power if McCain's health fails. She loathes the Clintons, convinced that they're dishonest and generally sleazy.
But she's open to listening to what Barack Obama has to say.
My mom is not the only one of her kind out there. Right now, for the first time, millions of Americans are waking up to what the Republican Party has become, what Bush and Co. have done to this country, how bad things have gotten and how far we've fallen from what we once were. For the first time, millions of Americans are rejecting the political ideology they were raised on, casting about for something new they can believe in. Something they can hope for. Something that can restore their faith in America after the Bush administration destroyed it.
Barack Obama is that hope.
Hillary Clinton is a victim of the battles of the 90's - forever trapped in the us-versus-them mentality that Democrats needed to survive the Republican onslaught of that era. Make no mistake, the Clintons put up a good defense when the deck was stacked against them. They had to fight rough and tumble sometimes, but they held the gate. But that era forever defined how the Clintons will view people like my mom: At worst, enemies to be held off at any cost; At best, swing voters who can be neutralized with school uniforms and other "microtrends".
Obama is offering my mom, and millions of people like her, something to believe in, a clean break from the past. And that's what my mom needs right now. Even though Obama and Clinton hold many of the same positions, only Obama recognizes the opportunity afforded by this moment in history. Because only Obama is willing to go to people like my mother and present an entire framework, a vision of America, which starts with the axioms of freedom, opportunity and possibility, and leads to health care and civil liberties. Where Hillary Clinton's approach to my mom is to condemn rap music and welfare queens, Obama rejects the politics of microtrends and speaks directly, openly, and honestly to people like my mom. And that's why she is supporting him.
So I apologized to my mom for Maryland's closed primary law, but I made her a promise. I promised her that in November, she'll be able to vote for Obama in the general election.
Please help me keep my promise.
Make some calls
Donate $5.01 or whatever you can for today's Obama money bomb.
Thank you.
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