Winning over the Generation: My Mother.

I should note here that my mother is a shade over 50 and has never voted in her life.  Not one single time.  

However, some things, in her mind, had to change.

During the Clinton years, she benefited greatly.  Though I live in a state that would sooner arrest then vote for him, she never voted on any level because it didn't matter.  She told me that, no matter what, her voice wouldn't count because of the lock step machination of the local and state populace.  One of the benefits I enjoy living in a larger city, I suppose.

You see, during those years of working for Federal Express running the local AFB route, she received yearly raises based on her performance.  She had a profit sharing retirement, great benefits and pay.  The company took care of her.  In return, she never called in sick unless I made her.  She never took vacation unless it was necessary for her sanity (I will get to this).  She always worked hard and never complained.  Basically, the model employee.  Not a lock-step one as she is never one for blind allegiance, but simply had nothing to complain about.

Her personal life, however, was not so satisfying.  She lived with a jackass of a man whom always questioned her loyalty, where she had been, never did a thing around the house save scratch himself after work and lay on the couch in a drunken stupor.  He never layed a hand on her that I saw, but I had suspicions.

So she used work as an escape.  Her time alone.  Just her, the road, and privacy.  She earned a decent wage and was being looked after somewhere, in any case.

Then something went wrong, in her eyes.  It was around the time Bush raped the Electoral College and got into the White House.  

All of a sudden, things changed. Her benefits were cut back, her pay raises became nearly none existent (if she received them at all), and, most of all, they forced her to pay into a retirement package she didn't want.  In other words, the company forgot about her.  The company betrayed her.  It had to end at some point, she realized, as situations are always fluid.  However, it was a bitter pill to swallow.

By this time, her marriage went south and divorced from said verbally abusive man.  She found another man after living with me for a bit (and one I would gladly take a bullet for if he asked me to because he is that awesome and she is, for the first time, genuinely happy), but still, life isn't as it should be.

She has always worked hard and is approaching retirement.  She's done her bit for King and Company (and me).  Now was her time to find some voice that spoke her her.  She began to realize her self worth, and that she, as a person, mattered.  It was time to make issues known.

So a few weeks before Super Tuesday rolled around, she and I were talking while I was visiting, and she told me that she was going to vote.  This struck me as odd, and I asked her who she was voting for.  Of course, the answer was Hillary.  I smiled quietly and asked her why.  The usual answers were there in the form of Experience and some minor case, though unspoken, of gender loyalty.  Most of all though, it was a time she had some fondness of.  I asked her, for the sake of the right decision, to really look into the candidates.  I won't tell my mother how to do something. I respect her too much.

I live about 45 miles south of her, so I don't get to see her that much.  But I rolled back a week after Super Tuesday, and we were throwing a few back, watching Tiger Woods win some tournament somewhere, and I asked her whom she voted for.

She smiled and said "Barack."

I asked her why, and she mentioned she caught one of his speeches.  He talked about things that were making sense to her, something that struck her deep in a place where you don't talk about at parties.

My mother has always had problems letting go of the past, and this is something I've worked with her on forever and a day.  As I mentioned, she was in a verbally abusive relationship for a long time, and finally snapped and left about 6 years ago.  Since then, she has dealt with threats and litigation, winning each time.  I finally informed my father (whom I still respect and love, Gods know why sometimes) that if he didn't cease, that I would make him cease in no uncertain terms.  It has since stopped.  

However, she still feels guilty sometimes, and me and her current husband/Knight in Shining Armor have helped bring her through this.  

"It's okay to look ahead and smile.  You are a stronger person for going through what you have, and I will always be there for you," tends to be a favorite line.

She researched his ideas, his politics, his past.  She didn't see very much of a difference between Clinton and Obama.  However, he spoke of things that mattered to her.  He spoke of ideas that, "if you work hard and I work hard, we can achieve things.  Great things.  Not simple solutions, but things that will make the sun shine a little brighter, and make the days a lot more tolerable.  Yes we can."

Not exactly in those terms, but you understand.

After she answered, I tapped her beer with my own, gave her a subtle smile, took a swig of Bud Light, and went back to watching Tiger kick ass, despite the fact I despise golf.  I love my mother that much.