Turning Blue

I grew up in a red house. Well, not literally. Our house was tan. Maybe camel. Or mocha. No, no, no - we're a good Mormon family, we would never live in a mocha-colored house. Speaking of which, I accidentally drank coffee last week. But that's a story for another day; one that involves pumpkin spice and a barista. But, politically, my family bleeds red.

This has been a pretty indisputable fact until recently. It's always been pretty safe to "discuss religion and politics" at family reunions and expect a civil and polite, if not well rounded, discussion. Until lately.

It's happened gradually. First there was the Clinton scandal. No, I'm not talking about Monica or impeachment. I'm referring to the day my father found out that his then one and only beloved son-in-law voted for Clinton. Twice. "The first time could be forgiven," he said only half-jokingly, "But TWICE?" Joe-Joe was lucky he was still allowed at the adult table at Christmas. I have to admit I was pretty shocked to be standing so close to a real-live democrat.

Then I married one.

Technically, Jimmy John is a registered Republican. When we moved to Maryland he had an infuriating experience at the DMV. After hours of waiting and three different lines, he was asked to register to vote. In some mix of exasperation and misplaced retribution against the bureaucracy of the blue state he registered for the opposing party. "I see what you've been telling me, " he said to me. "Smaller government." Then the people around us started rubbing off on him. At dinner parties I found him taking the side of all the liberal-talking wackos, erstwhile I remained the lone bastion of reason. I could tell I was losing him to the dark side. I guess he and Joe-Joe could sit together at Thanksgiving.

Of course, Rosie would be there to. My sister has been the most outspoken, and only blood related, liberal in the family. The artist. Every family's got one. Her support of Obama came as a surprised to no one.

What I didn't realize, until just recently, was how everyone in my family now viewed ME as a liberal. Tainted by association I guess (i.e. Barak Obama and William Ayers). I was shocked when my eldest sister casually referred to me as part of the familial liberal contingency. ME? The lone Dole supporter in my ninth grade Civics class! A straight ticket voter since 18. My goodness, I even supported Alan Keyes in the 2000 republican primary. I did briefly consider voting for John Kerry in 2004 in protest of treatment of prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, but in the end my conservative leanings on other social issues won out.

I didn't start noticing the liberal drift in my life until a family reunion a year ago. I joined an in-progress "debate" between two blood-red family members (a sister and brother-in-law) on global warming. I use the term in its loosest sense as there were absolutely no conflicting points of view until I arrived. I thought since I have a MS in a scientific field, I might be able to add to the discussion. I disagreed with the Glenn Beck doctrine they were relating and suggested some evidence to the contrary. I thought the discussion was interesting and invigorating, although I might have said "PUH-LEEEZ, Glenn Beck is not a scientific expert (and an idiot)." or something like it. Oops, blew my cover. When I left my brother-in-law asked my sister, "Who else in your family is a democrat?!"

My little leftward slide has been interpreted by my family as a total conversion. But, it's two days before the election and I still don't know who I'm voting for. I flip-flop daily. I believe in smaller government, but I think that everyone should have real access to health care (McCain's plan would 1) never pass and 2) would make things worse). I believe in free enterprise, but I see too much corruption in big businesses. I don't think we should abandon our post in Iraq without finishing fixing the mess, but I never agreed with going in there to begin with. I hate the idea of higher taxes, but I can't see a way out of a $10.5 trillion debt without raising the government's revenue.

Maybe I will go with Banana and write-in Cheesecake (see previous post) after all. No, no, no, I know! I'll just pick the candidate with the better performance on a pop-comedy show (Obama McCain)