As a life-long (it seems) Obamanut, I've been perplexed about how someone could possibly be undecided at this point in this election. The contrasts to me seem stark and desperate -- only if you lived in a cave could you not know, at least deep down, which America you want to wake up in Wednesday morning.
But last night, I started to understand what the trouble was for at least one anguished voter, and found a way to win her over . . .(there's more)
There I was at a small dinner party with some friends, assuming we were all on the same page, when I brought out my new Obama earrings. (They're just small pins -- his face -- hanging from earring findings, but they're brilliant.)
The conversation turned to politics and it turned out that the woman at the end of the table was genuinely undecided, actually in anguish about it. She even started to tear up while she was talking. Her trouble? She started out this election assuming she was going to vote for the Republicans based solely on her horror of abortion. She's a conservative Irish Catholic in a conservative parish and that sealed the deal, at least last spring.
But recently, as the McCain people got uglier and uglier, and after Palin came on board, she found that she couldn't imagine actually pushing that Republican button, so she started reluctantly listening to Obama.
But by that point, the Obama campaign had largely stopped musing about the "Big Picture" -- the nature of politics and the importance of community and the audacity of hope. Stung by criticisms about celebrity and over-broad themes, they were trying to go all nitty-gritty with their pitches to the undecideds, promising to lower taxes, improve healthcare, increase access to education, all of that stuff.
So what my friend heard sounded like duelling promises between McCain and Obama and to her, they all sounded equally unlikely. "The economy is imploding!" she almost wept. "Why do these guys think I'm stupid enough to believe any of their promises about how they are going to make anything better! It simply cannot happen and they think I am an idiot!"
So we quietly walked it back. I started talking about what drew me inexorably to Obama in the first place, way back in 2004. I, too, am tired of top-down government, of hearing about what politicians are going to do for me, for my town, for my kids, for my country.
I don't believe that government has that kind of power. In fact, I would fear a government that tried to make intense and fundamental changes to my world without any imput from the citizens. (Hello George W!)
But if government can give us the right tools, a little hope and the guidance to help ourselves, then cheer us on as we succeed, I believe that great, even transformational change is possible.
It's all about community organizing, I told her, with a wink to Sarah Palin.
And SHE GOT IT!
She started talking about how she believes in helping the folks around her who have less, about how she enjoys cooking for the sick, driving her infirm neighbors to church, sending her spare change to charity for immunizations and rations to starving children. Maybe we can do it, she said.
YES WE CAN!
She gave me a big hug when she left and whispered, "Thank you so much for talking to me tonight without yelling! I feel so, so, so much better."
Now if we can just get to an Obama sun-filled Wednesday morning, I'll feel much better, too.