My mother, a native Hoosier but living in California for the past 45 years, heads for the Midwest once every year to meet up with her sister and her cousins.
Mom was a lifelong Republican until Obama came along, she voted for a Democrat for president the first time in her life in 2008. Due to the political dysfunction in California, she has completely disavowed the Republican Party on the state level. She nearly always refers to the R's as "those Republicans" these days.
It's one thing when a California Republican goes to the bright side and gets wise to the utter nihilism of the Republican Party but it's another thing completely when Republicans in Indiana start expressing doubts. She tells me that the group did not discuss politics much but that 2 of the 7 in attendance expressed disgust with the Republicans and one found both parties distasteful when the subject came up. Keep in mind, these people are (were?) hard core....not only conservative but Christian Evangelical conservative. She has not shared her more liberal political leanings with them in recent years so was not leading the conversation.
I know this is anecdotal but I to this day marvel at the fact I can now talk politics to my mother and she agrees with everything I say. I worked her for YEARS to get her to this point.
I'm wondering if, in Indiana anyway, where there's smoke there is fire. If conservatives are saying out loud they don't like the direction of the Republican Party there has to have been a fair amount of discussion amongst themselves to reach this conclusion.
Anyone else noticing anything similar within their family?