It took four phone calls from me, and one from my mom, but my 76 year old grandma went and voted today for Obama.
I'm the liberal in the family. No doubt there. But over the past four years, my grandma has become increasingly liberalized. The reason? Right wing radio, and watching CNN 24/7. This election season, she's gone on half an hour rants against "that damn Palin woman" and how she's so worried for Obama's safety. But she's constantly refused to vote.
My mom, who is slightly conservative but a swing voter, also voted today for Obama. The reason? Joe Biden. She thinks he would be the best president out of the four of them running, and thinks Palin is a joke. (Coincidentally, she told me if Hillary had either been president or VP, she would have voted for McCain today.) We talked last week, and she told me how shocked she was my Grandma supports Obama.
See my Grandma, and Grandpa who died 3 years ago from cancer, weren't excatly progressive. One holiday in front of me and my sister, my grandpa said "of course we have alligators in Indiana, that's what we fed the n****** to." [My sister walked out of the house in anger.] My mom remembers hearing the ugliest racist language growing up from my grandpa. Although she didn't remember my grandma ever using the language, she never objected. My mom can't believe her mom supports a black man as president.
Well, I made it my mission today to annoy the hell out of her until she voted. She even started screening her calls this week, because of the obscene amount of disgusting robocalls she's gotten.
The first phone call today, she said she wasn't going to go vote because she wasn't sure she was registered, and she didn't want to get dressed up.
I told her I would check to see if she was registered to vote because I could online. She was shocked. She hadn't voted at all in years and years, she told me. She thought you had to re-register before every election up until about two years ago. I talked to her and convinced her she didn't have to re-register, and that odds are she is still registered at her old polling place - the church down the street. She asked if when you walked in they still separated you into lines, one for democrat and one for republican. (I have no clue what she was taking about for that one, but told her, no, they didn't do that anymore.)
Then she told me she saw the Obamas voting on CNN this morning, and how "Obama's wife wasn't even dressed up! She looked to be wearing a sweat suit. See? They're just ordinary people like us." I used this as ammo - "See Grandma, you don't have to get dressed up to vote." Her reply - "I shouldn't have told you that! I keep digging myself into a bigger hole."
She told me she would think about it (Grandma-speak for no.) I looked her up on the Indiana voter website, and sure enough she was registered at the church down the street. I called her back and told her. She told me to shush and get back to work.
Then I called my mom, to make sure she voted today. She had no line down in Columbus, and when I told her Grandma wasn't going to vote my mom was shocked - so shocked, she vowed to call my Grandma. I was shocked at that one - my mom's never shown a political bone in her life, and here she was vowing to GOTV for Barack Obama.
I called back my grandma twenty minutes ago, and left a message saying "Polls close in an hour and half! Stop glaring at the answering machine and go vote!"
Well, ten minutes ago she called me. "Tim, I went and voted. Now stop harassing me! I had to go after you got your mom to call me!"
She walked over to the church where she votes, about two or three blocks away. She ended up meeting another "old lady" on the way on her way to vote, and they walked together. As she was walking to the church, she was shocked at how many Obama signs she was seeing. She said, "you could tell by the home how they were voting. The regular homes had Obama signs. The fancy ones had McCain. I thought, "I'm a poor regular Democrat too." There were only four people in line, the two old ladies and two men. No wait. She was worried that her vote wouldn't count (voted on an optical scan machine) and that "If Barack Obama loses I'm suing him." She told the poll workers, "I'm here because my grandson won't stop calling me. He told me to get off my old butt and vote, so here I am." She said the poll worker smiled, and burst out laughing.
There, coincidentally, happens to be a Starbucks less than a block away from church. I had told her of the Starbucks promotion earlier, and she told me on the way back home she grabbed her free cup of coffee. (She thought it was too strong, but still drank it.)
There you have it. In the dying eastside of Indianapolis, in the community of Irving, a 76 year old former racist grandma got off "her old butt" and walked down to vote for Barack Obama for president...and Mitch Daniels for governor. (Couldn't convince her out of that one.)
It's election day as I'm writing this, 5:10 eastern time. Can't post due to posting earlier in the day. So by the the time this gets posted, election day will be over. And I'm dying to know if Obama pulls off Indiana.
And now, Obama's won. And Indiana looks like it'll end up for Obama. Good god.