The rapture is coming...

Today, the hubby and I went to his parent's house for lunch. My in-laws are aged 77 and 71. They're slowing down, but still active. Both are still registered Democrats, but I don't think they've voted for a Dem since Strom Thurmond switched parties. My father-in-law thought Nixon was a communist, and refers to  Carter as "Ole Peanut." The most oft used phrase I've heard my father-in-law use to describe George W. Bush is "good Christian man." I've recounted here before the differences in our family over the war in Iraq and the very ugly holiday dinner when I snapped while my son was in Iraq and screamed at my father-in-law to tell me "one damned thing in Iraq" worth my child/his grandchild being killed for.

My in-laws are generally well-meaning people these days. There's normally a lot of "daylight" between the in-laws and hubby/sons/I on politics, but their views are not uncommon among Southerners of their age. I was feeling a bit punchy today and asked my FIL, "So, who are you rooting for in the presidential election?"

His response, "I like Barack Obama best." My husband almost choked at hearing his father, who voted for George Wallace, utter those words...

I thought my FIL was pulling my leg at first, so I decided to probe him on this, and asked, "why?"

His response: "I don't trust John McCain or Hillary Clinton. Both of them will say anything just to get elected. That governor who is a preacher is ok, but his tax idea is crazy. Obama seems like a good man, and I think we need someone with good values to lead this country. I just don't know what Obama will do about the Supreme Court, though and that worries me, because so many of the problems we have in this country are because of the court taking power away from the states and making such a huge federal bureacracy." (Yes, states' rights is a code phrase that often hides base instincts, but there are some valid instances of the feds wrongly intruding into state and local authority - Terry Schiavo, Defense of Marriage Act, No Child Left Behind...)

I then launched into the same lecture I give my students who make uneducated comments about the SCOTUS - how it's been a 7-2 Republican majority for decades...and that the problem of the increase in power isn't the Court's fault, it is the fault of Congress and the President...and some wimpy-assed governors who seek federal funding for everything because they don't want to raise taxes to pay for programs out of state revenues. My FIL said, "Well, you're right. George Bush has grown the government more than Ole Peanut ever did and screwed up everything except Medicare. The economy is ruined because of no plan and the politicians reacting to the stuff that newsreaders say on the financial channels."

Bottom line - my FIL said that he was considering Obama vs. Libertarian, and that if the primaries were still active when NC votes in May, he'd vote in the Dem primary for the first time in decades - and vote for Obama. He said he doesn't know who he'll vote for in the general election, but would consider voting Dem or Libertarian.

Just a little anecdote I wanted to share to show that even the most die-hard traditional conservatives are fed up with the Republican Party and its candidates.