I live in Florida. My mother-in-law the Goldwater Republican is going hard and fast for Obama. My brother-in-law the libertarian is going hard for Obama. And last night I received news that has me thinking, has me hoping, that this election will actually be a landslide. It is the sort of news that makes me wonder if down is up, if black is white. Because for sure this time the "Left" is right.
I am from Virginia and that is where much of my family lives. Though raised as fallen Catholics, almost all my Northern VA siblings have become evangelical. My brother married a born again evangelical woman and they have home schooled their children since day one (they are middle school aged now). I love her and she is a terrific lady, but I generally have not talked politics. Until now.
Jump over to see exactly what she says and see if it does not leave you cheering too.
The news came in a series of e-mails that originated following my sending along some recent pictures to family of our kids. The surprise came in the P.S. of my sister-in-law's reply, which read:
"...O-BA-ma! O-BA-ma!...heard you were a big fan. We are too!"
That made me do a double take. This is, after all, a hard and fast woman of the Religious Right. So I replied back discussing my fixation with this election, my fears about Palin the Impaler and my deep respect for Barak Obama. Her next reply was even stronger and reveals the depth of her commitment:
"I am totally sold on OBAMA too! A couple of weeks ago, after building up lots of courage and much prodding from the kids, I placed an Obama 08 bumper sticker on the car and drive around in my conservative homeschooling community!!!!!!! That was really difficult to do, truthfully, because I am in fear of losing my friends. My closest friends who have seen it, ignore it or pretend like they haven't seen it-Lord only knows what they are thinking. Then there's those dirty looks from afar. Hmmm. To me this decision is bigger than Pro Life and school vouchers!!!!!!!!!!"
This left me almost breathless. This decision clearly took some courage. This is a woman deeply plugged in to the home schooling community since she holds an education degree and is a former elementary teacher. I replied how proud I am of her for her decision. And she went even further in explaining her decision to support Obama:
"...And on the subject of honor, he has totally degraded his own reputation as well as the republicans' with the dishonest campaign his running. I've always been a republican, but now I'm ashamed to be identified with the name. I too am in fear of Palin running this country!
It's embarrasing she's on the republican ticket, truthfully! Talk about being a political opportunist!!!!!!!!
These times are VERY scary, and we need a brilliant individual such as Obama to manage them! To me, his best asset (although he has many) are his communication skills. He has what it takes-and then some-to get the job done!
Here's to Obaaaaama!!"
So behold, be proud and be encouraged because Barak Obama's powerful message, intellect and basic human decency are penetrating and widening cracks into parts of the electorate that are part of the Republican bedrock.
She closed her final mail to me with a "Hugs to all." Indeed.
UPDATE
Thanks to the feedback, which I sent to my sister-in-law, she has decided to volunteer to make calls to fellow home schoolers and evangelicals. She is inspired, and is in turn further inspiring me.