Last Friday, my parents drove through Austin for a brief visit, on their way from South Texas, up to see my brother who lives in Dallas. We chatted over a late lunch about all the random things people talk to their parents about. Family, the old home town, etc. Talk turned slightly political and mom, of course, made it clear she was an "undecided".
I let that go and continued on with other topics, knowing that a political discussion with the 'rents would be about as fruitful as finding a sane Republican.
However, on Sunday, they drove through on the way home and our conversation was a bit different over dinner that night.
Maybe it was the margaritas I had at dinner. Maybe it was the steam from the fajitas. Maybe I hadn't had enough water during my "epic" tennis match immediately before (long story). Whatever, the reason, I pushed the political topic again because I couldn't believe that my own parents were both in the "undecided" category, especially since they are the prototypical Democratic demographic. Middle class, Hispanic, no college, border town, concerned about the economy, etc....
As tough as it was to remain calm with my dad referring to the candidates as "McBane" (Simpson's reference, I think) and "OBummer", I let them have their say about "OBummer's" inexperience, his scary middle name, and other distortions of his record, heritage, and character. I was calm and refuted each point as much as possible (with a couple of margaritas in me already).
Then the topic turned to the economy. My mom worked for a bank in the 80's and saw the S&L crash up close and personal. There were too many similarities between then and now and she was worried. Having just read the best post ever on this site, I was able to process Devilstower's journey through deregulation land and tie it all to McCain's past and present. I could see that it made an impression on mom, but as stubborn as she is, she would refuse to commit to any candidate. I didn't press the issue, but I know she was thinking about. She was also impressed with how thoroughly I knew, not just what was happening now, but what happened in the 80's. Yeah, I don't really remember what happened, because I wasn't even in middle school during that whole mess, but it's nice to read and learn before trying to make a point. Thanks to this site, and others like it, I have a vast pool of very intelligent people to learn from.
But, on to the title of this diary...
My parents and I haven't had any further discussions on the subject in the last week, but I can imagine the news over the last 8 days has really opened a lot of people's eyes.
I was talking to mom on the phone today and I asked "What's Dad up to?" She replied "Do you really want to know?"
"Of course I do!"
"One of his buddies had an extra 'semi-homemade' Obama yard sign. He's out picking it up so he can put in the front yard. What happened today is ridiculous."
Two down, millions more to go!