This is going to be brief. I've never diaried here before, as I feel I'm simply neither informed enough nor articulate enough to take up bandwidth. I truly believe in keeping the signal-to-noise ratio high. But an hour ago something happened that I had to share.
It might help to know I'm an identical twin. As teens and young adults, my sister and I both skewed left. We had no love for pretty, popular girls. And less for willful ignorance. We had NARAL, Amnesty International, and Greenpeace stickers in our lockers in high school. Later she participated in her university's environmental group.
As we grew older my sister started drifting...more toward the center, really. She married a center-right sort of guy. Really more of an independent/libertarian sort. Sincere belief in small government. Neither of them bothered to vote, because they felt their votes merely cancelled each other out.
I've never hidden my continued left slant. When my brother-in-law starts talking politics, it's really more of a soliloquy anyway; so I just listen and don't engage. I respect and trust my sister enough to not try to "convert her back". While I chatter about going to Obama rallies, watching the convention and doing some doorknocking I never ask if she was voting, let alone her choice of candidate.
A couple months ago I became somewhat concerned when she mentioned that she respected McCain. I pointed out that McCain 2000 might have been worth of respect, but McCain 2008 is not the same man. And I let the subject drop. Again, I just have to trust her. She's intelligent and informed, she'll make the decision she feels best.
A couple weeks ago I mentioned...something political. I don't remember what it was. It was probably about Palin. It almost had to be, because my sister responded, "Yeah. I could have voted for McCain, but I WILL NOT vote for Palin!" I honestly thought it was just a rhetorical statement, as I said she's not in the habit of voting. It was comforting to hear nonetheless.
This morning my sister said something about her village's community center being her polling place, and repeated that statement, "I could have voted for McCain, but I WILL NOT vote for Palin!"
I paused for a moment and asked, "Are you voting?" "Yes, I am." I boggled for a moment and had a coherent followup, "Are you registered?!?" Her response: "Well yeah, how do you think I know my polling place? When we bought this house I motor-votered."
Oh. OK.
One more vote for Obama. Because of Palin, my sister is voting, and she's voting for Obama. My sister lives in the bluest county in Iowa, but still...
Well, this was supposed to be brief. It didn't really turn out that way. I don't know if it counts as substantive; there's no information or analysis. But it is anecdotal evidence that the choice of Sarah Palin as VP is driving independents and women to the Obama/Biden ticket.
Thanks for reading.