365Gay Agenda Blog

Here are two elections stories taken from both sides of my family tree:

The first time I ever got into presidential politics was 1976. A southern governor was making the rounds telling the American people it was time to add a fresh voice to Washington D.C., and an incumbent was making a case for staying the course (for you youngster in the group the election that year was between Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford).

The day of the election, my father came home and announced he had voted for the incumbent.

“Gerald Ford,” my mother said, her voice taking a tone he rarely used. “You voted for a Republican?”

She said “Republican” like it pained her to get the word out.

“There was no way I was voting for Carter,” Daddy replied. “Anyway it isn’t like my vote is going to change the election.”

“That’s not the point. You voted for a Republican” my mother saying the word again in such a way that would make any liberal proud.

They went back and forth like this for sometime, Dad not seeing the big deal and Ma acting as if the man who looked like her husband was a complete stranger.

I watched this debate for a while and then got bored.

In hindsight, their reactions made perfect sense. For my mother, born and raised in the south the Democratic Party was the party of civil rights (minus those Dixie-crats of course). On the other side my father, also a southerner by birth and up bringing, the Republican Party was the party of Lincoln, Grant, and Douglass.

Four years ago at the height of the presidential election, I was at a family reunion. A cousin, on my mother’s side, asked me how I planned to vote. I paused because usually I like to keep my voting habits to myself. Also my plan was to look at some third party candidate. Kerry was going to carry New York and giving my vote to a man who just couldn’t run a campaign beyond “I’m a Vietnam vet” seemed silly. All this was going on in my head but for my cousin my pause was too long.

“This always happens,” he bellowed. “Negroes get some money and they vote Republican.”

“What money are you talking about, ” I asked. “Also I didn’t even answer your question.”

“Took you too long to answer and that means you are voting Republican. They don’t like you boy…”

I tuned out because what was the point? I was voting for a Republican because I paused in answering a question. How can you argue with that?

So what does all of this have to do with whom I am voting for? Just to show that in my blood the standard battle between elephant and donkey get played out. My mother’s DNA is pushing for the Democrats. My mom, a good race woman in the classical sense, would have been all about Barack Obama. Dad’s genes are saying GOP all the way. A proud military man, pop would most likely lean toward John McCain.

As a registered voter who has no say in tomorrow’s primary because I’m not affiliated with any party–independence is a good thing–I’m for Mike Huckabee. Here are the two things that are positive about Huckabee: 1) he pardoned Keith Richards, and 2) he’s funny. Aside from that, there’s nothing we agree on. He doesn’t believe in evolution, wants to replace the Constitution with the Bible, and would make our present president look like a member of Queer Nation. So why vote for a man who I don’t agree with? Because Huckabee would get his clock cleaned in the fall. Unless Mike Gravel becomes the Democratic nominee, either Clinton or Obama would beat Huckabee like Alan Keyes gets his brains knocked out in every election he enters. Voting isn’t just about your passion. It’s also a about being strategic; manipulative is another word. As I get older, my passion lessens (for the record: I’ve been on the winning side in only one presidential election since 1984), but the long term vision gets deeper and a bit more pragmatic. So give your vote to Huckabee people! Come November, you’ll be glad you did.