Ba-Rock the Vote

Growing up as one of three Jewish kids in a class of about one hundred kids, almost everyone white, except one black student, I was accustomed to hearing predjudiced remarks, seeing smirks, and giggles after an "off color" remark, and the such. I also seemed to be the only democrat.

In 1988, I stood up for Dukakis while my middle school classmates laughed at his bushy eyebrows. When they said things like, "George Bush was already the vice president..." I rebutted with, "So? What about the S and L scandal?! Huh???" But even though I wasn't totally sure what was so scandalous about it, my friends were confused and instead of understanding the I was speaking of the Savings and Loan corruption that Bush was apart of, they assumed I was referring to the SNL bits with Dana Carvey.


My parents heavily influenced the political views that I have today. My mother always made a point to bring me into the voting booth and let me pull that curtain lever...God, I miss those things.

I grew up believing that only the rich, the white, the anti-Semitic were of the Republican persuasion. Although older and not that much wiser, I now know that is not always the case, and by that I mean they could just be rich, or white, or anti-Semitic separately and not necessarily a combination of all the above.

My first time voting in a presidential election I voted for Ross Perot.

I missed voting for Gore in 2000 because I had moved and didn't realize that I wasn't registered in my new district until 7:15 pm election day. I cried on the way home.
I had pangs of guilt in the days following...I live in Ohio. It wasn't as bad as Florida, but not far from it. I couldn't bring myself to fully trust John Kerry's exit plan for the war and decided to vote for Bush....yes, I know, but my parents felt the same way. My husband John did not however and claimed that he canceled out my Bush vote with his Kerry vote, so there.

My parents haved listed to Rush Limbaugh for years, I could never understand why, he always pissed me off. They thought his show was entertaining, laughable, and filled the car with enough noise to drown out traffic. They always watched CNN then sometimes FOX News and lately, all Fox news. What's going on there?

Now my mother says, "Oh, I just don't like him..." when referring to Obama. My parents were sure he might be an anti-Semi. Then there's "that crazy outlandish Reverand Jeremiah Wright, he hates Jews, you know."

When McCain announced Sarah Palin was his running mate, I told Mom "that woman frightens me." And my mother's response? "Who, Sarah?" Was I in a paralell universe, or had my mother just referred to the ultra conservative, gun-toting, shoot-em and eat-em former beauty pageant mother of five by her first name? It was as if Mom knew her personally and she was just that misunderstood neighbor that she regularly borrowed a cup of sugar from without a thought. "What do you mean, Who? Sarah? Like she's your Sarah? Mom! Are you kidding me? You're comfortable who her taking the reigns if McCain died?! Are you serious?" "Oh, come on, she's harmless..." Harmless is not on the long list of words I would have picked to describe the govenor.

What happened to my parents? Where did we go wrong? As John pointed out, it was all that casual Rush Limbaugh listening, and the constant drone of a TV with Fox News on all day. They were slowly brainwashed. Don't let it happen to your family like it did mine. I know they already sent in their ballots weeks ago and there's nothing we can do now.

Yeah, it's free country. Yeah, you have the right to vote for who you see fit to run the place. But honestly, who's ever heard of Republican Jews?
Oh, besides Joe Leiberman, I mean.