She is incredibly angry with me because I support Senator Obama. She says that I won't vote for Hillary because she's a "girl". She blames me that her mother will also likely vote for Barack come March 4th. (How could she?!) No matter how many times I tell her that if she were to get the nomination, I'd have a Hillary sign in our front yard so big you could see it from space, that I'd plaster my car with Hillary stickers, and that a vote for Barack, at least in my family and I suspect with most Democrats, is not a vote against Hillary, but a vote for Barack Obama, a person I believe in, am inspired by and whom I believe has the very best chance of implementing the policies I think are important. It's certainly not because she's a "girl"!
Yet, she persists in her anger. She wants so much to believe that a woman can be President (yes, she can!) that she thinks a vote for anyone else is saying that a woman can't. She tells me how much she wishes she could vote, and I tell her how much I wish that, too! Because knowing the beautiful little girl she is, and seeing the wonderful, passionate young woman she is to become, I have hope for her generation that it will be better than ours, and that what we do this election year can lay the groundwork, can pave the way for her and her younger brother to do truly great things.
Much of the bitter back and forth here reminds me so much of the same dirty looks I get from my daughter, the same pleas to do what she wants and the same anger and resentment when I don't or won't. She can't understand why I don't see things her way, without ever realizing that she can't see things mine.
Am I crushing her dreams? I don't believe so. I like to think I'm enabling them. And as much as I like Hillary Clinton, and don't get me wrong, I genuinely like her, as much as I think she would be a fantastic President and perhaps heal this nation, just a little bit, I like Barack Obama that much more. I truly believe he is my candidate, that he speaks to me and my family, and is the most deserving of my vote. By voting the way that I think best, not what my daughter does, my wife, or anybody else, I ensure that someday she can and will do the same. Yes, she can. Yes, WE can.
Peace.