Reply #87: A Story for you [View All]

[Psst_Im_Not_Here]

I have a confession, my parents are republicans. There I said it. Over the last few months, my parents have realized they've been conned. My father, who has always been a republican of the "old school" variety, made his confession to me a couple of weeks ago during a discussion we were having about gas prices. It went like this "I'm ashamed to say that I voted for him twice." I was dumbfounded. My father does NOT discuss politics, especially with any of his 3 dem kids. For this man to actually discuss politics or admit to making a mistake in voting for a republican is huge. It just doesn't happen. They both live in Indiana, the epitome of old school republicanism. My father is highly intelligent, educated and was a VP in his company before retiring. He's no run of the mill "redneck" from Indiana. He just didn't pay all that much attention. They've woken him up.

Now to the point of this little story. He knows where I stand and how I volunteer for the party. He says to me, "I will vote for any Democrat other than Hillary and John Kerry." "Put someone up, other than them and they will get my vote as well as many more "old school" republicans." It wasn't that they liked Bush, but, they saw him as the lesser evil. From what I've heard from "the other side" is that Hillary is too polarizing and Kerry, well, they just can't stand him, I think they've lumped him in with Teddy Kennedy. They're perception of these 2 candidates may not be correct, but, it's not likely to change. I feel deep down that if we actually ran Hillary, it would energize the republican base against her. In these times, it's just too risky, in my opinion.

The anger felt by these old schoolers, what we would consider moderate republicans, at Bush is something we would be remiss in not taking advantage of. They are PISSED.

Now before I get flamed like crazy by Kerry and Clinton supporters, it's not that I don't think they'd be decent candidates, I just feel that we need to have someone totally new. We could have a landslide with the right candidate and at this point, those 2 can't be that. I volunteered for Kerry here in Colorado. I do like them but, I can't take a chance with them. Not this time.