My family has really surprised me this election season. We all live in Northwest Georgia, an area that ranges from the small city of Rome to the Atlanta exurbs to places where crickets keep you awake at night. They're white, blue collar people who, even if they weren't regular church goers, still were very much a part of the rural, Southern, Protestant culture.
So, I was shocked to hear that my aunt and cousin are supporting Obama. To give you an idea of who they are, they're the type of people that go to church several times a week. Their social life is largely built around the church. My uncle is an ordained minister. For a while, my cousin's Facebook page proclaimed "I support Mike Huckabee," and then "I support John McCain." Now, it proudly states "I support Barack Obama."
I was shocked to hear that my grandmother, a woman we've always said would never vote for a black man. We knew she wouldn't come out and say it; she'd say something like "Oh, I didn't like what he said," or some other excuse. She said she voted for Bush in 2004. So, imagine the shock when we found out that she went down the line looking for a certain name on the primary ballot. We were expecting someone like Huckabee or McCain or even Edwards. Nope, she was looking for Obama's name.
That's three votes for Obama from people in my family I wouldn't expect, plus four more from myself, my uncle (a different uncle who's only three years older than me) and his wife, and my other aunt; all of which were given Democratic votes anyways. That's seven.
However, my favorite surprise is my mother. For years, I had begged her to register to vote. She never wanted to because she didn't want to serve jury duty. However, it become clear that she was more likely to be another dittohead that took her cues from the likes of John Hagee and Ron Parsley. I've been interrogated by her about whether Dean was "a good Christian man," because education, etc. was secondary. So, I decided to drop the issue. This underlied what was an extremely turbulent time in my relationship with my mother.
But that turbulent time has mostly passed and today, I told her about the analysis of the candidates' tax plans ran by the Washington Post. I told her that our family (I'm a college student living at home) would bring home around $700 more under Obama than under McCain, that McCain's tax plan benefits the rich while Obama's helps the poor and middle class, and that McCain literally doesn't know how many houses he owns.
She was sold. That makes eight. Now, she's working on her cousin. Who would have thought it would take a black man with a funny name to get my mom and I to the polls together? Even if Obama doesn't win Georgia, he'll have one new voter in his corner.