Reprinted by permission of Ray Abernathy. Ray's website is available at: http://www.rayabernathy.com
Okay, okay, okay. It’s time for another confession: My son-in-law Dick is a Republican. No really, a Republican. My lefty middle daughter married him for a bunch of goofy reasons — handsome, hard-working, trustworthy, loving, wanted a lot of kids. Now he has three of them and that makes him an expert on everything. So we argue sometimes. Then last weekend, even after the Rev. Wright thing, he says if he gets the chance he’s voting for Obama.
Actually, Dick’s a republican with a little “r,” and that’s not his real name because he still isn’t out. He’s what we used to call an Eisenhower Republican, then a Rockefeller Republican, and, maybe this Fall, an Obama Republican. We knock heads on free trade, small government, stuff like that. But on most of the social issues, we’re pretty close. And of course, Obama is the pride of Illinois, where Dick lives with my three grandchildren and my daughter Jill (not her real name either, as that would certainly out Dick big-time). Still and all, I was surprised when he said he wants the most liberal member of the United States Senate to become president of the United States. Dick says this is about values, not party or ideology. He’s tired of the scandals, tired of the greed, tired of the personal peccadilloes. Up to here with lobbyists, crooks and corrupt politicians. Too much power for corporations. Too few good things happening for working families. Obama has character and class. He’ll bring us together and find solutions. And he won’t embarrass us around the world. So what if we disagree on how to get out of Iraq? And besides, it’s about time an African-American was elected president. It’s just the right thing to do.
When I asked Dick if he would vote for Hillary if Obama loses the nomination fight, the answer was certainly not. Too many personal attacks. Too much about the past. Too much about Bill. When I asked him how he could swing so easily from Obama to McCain, he reasoned that McCain is about as far off on the right as Obama is on the left and what really counts is character and class, of which, he opined, Hillary has neither.
My guess is that there are a whole lot of forty-something Republicans out there who share my son-in-law’s feelings, and that the elections this year are as much about character and the age-thing as ideology and the race or the sex-thing. Elephants for Obama may turn about the be more important than blue-collar Democratic white males or even seniors, most of whom are going now for Hillary and will subsequently shift over to McCain (he’s definitely out when it comes to white and old). When you add moderate 40-something Republicans to overwhelming majorities of black and newly-registered young-young voters and then multiply them by millions of higher-income, college-educated white grownups, you come up with a formula for an Obama rout of McCain.
Of course, Hillary isn’t out of contention, and unlike my son-in-law, she’s out on all my issues. So I’m still wrestling with my choice, If she gets the nomination, Dick and I will have to argue: I’m a big Yellow Dog Democrat (I even have a big Yellow Dog at home) and I’m not going to swap Bush for a Bush-league batboy like McCain. Unless, of course, he switches parties.