Yes, you read that title correctly! I'm here in celebration of a momentous step forward on the part of my mother! And I apologize to those of you who feel this topic is over-blogged on, but it is concerning the presidential election.
You see, my mom's the type that's very, very loyal to her political party. As she's registered as a Republican, she has always voted Republican. So, it makes sense that I had thought she planned to do the same this year.
How wrong I was! In talking to her the other day, she randomly brought up the topic she knows I hate most, and started talking about the election. I was expecting to hear the same old little rant that I've learned to tune out over the years. But she threw me for a loop when the first thing she said about the candidates was that, in her opinion, McCain is a joke. Now, hearing this from my party-loyal mother stunned me into silence. And before I could come out of my stupor, she went on to say that she'd been seriously considering voting for Obama, but didn't really like him, either.
I very nearly died of a heart attack there. My mom was starting to really think about her vote, instead of going along with party affiliations. And I must say, I wished in that moment that I wasn't 11 hours from home, because she really, really deserved a giant bear hug.
But it doesn't end there. After she griped for a bit about how she didn't really like either candidate, I pulled myself from my stupor and told her that she could vote third party, if she wanted to. Now, she hadn't considered this at all. But she was curious. So I suggested she do some research (I would've informed her, but, alas, I'm vastly uninformed.) and right then and there, she jumped on her computer and started searching. She even managed to forget that I was on the phone.
And so, my mom is doing some research and thinking a lot more than she usually does. I'm not sure what prompted this sudden shift, but I'm very happy about it. And very, very proud of her. Even though I've made an informed decision to not vote this time around, not feeling ready for the responsibility that voting is, I'm glad that my mother is taking this election so seriously. And I'm glad that she's taking the time to look into third party candidates, since they're often forgotten about in the amount of attention that the Republican and Democrat candidates get from the media.
