My dear mama has been a yellow-dog-Democrat since forever.
If you’re unfamiliar with the phrase, it means “I’ll vote for a yellow dog before I’ll vote for a Republican.”
I don’t blame her one bit for holding this rather harsh view. As a person, a Republican elected official may be quite charming and harmless. As a party, Republican elected officials — especially the higher up in power they rise and the closer to Washington D.C. their roles — have proven quite dangerous and unprincipled. Tim agreed. We couldn’t see any point of voting for a party that has jettisoned its platform based on restrained fiscal matters in favor of targeting tax breaks and bedroom-door issues. But I digress.
She still watches the evening news (she skipped the debates: too hard to hear and follow the discussion through the shouting). She reads the headlines on the daily and Sunday papers. She treasures her copy of The Week, its bite-sized stories more easily digestible these days than The Atlantic. And she checks her wall calendar religiously. The caregiver confided to me that Mom often fretted whether her ballot had come and she’d missed filling it in.
The big day arrives
And so we were all relieved when her nice, early, uneventfully mail-in Washington state ballot arrived. In the nick of time, the health department decided to allow one family member at a time to visit indoors. If masked, I could go inside to help her with her ballot. Also in the nick of time: my new face-mask with a clear plastic insert over the mouth arrived. Although Mom may not have been able to hear me perfectly, she could lip-read as she used to do.
With much repeating and pointing to the voter information pamphlet (and patience and good will all around), we got her ballot filled in. The important spots, anyway: she rather lost enthusiasm for the voter approvals of legislative budget items. And circuit court judges. And I think we ignored dog-catcher.
My mother was so proud to do her part as a citizen and vote. And it made her laugh out loud that I brought her a new sign to mark the achievement.
Yes, if you’re wondering, her first vote was for Franklin Delano Roosevelt. She’ll be 97 in a month or two. Let’s hope the milestones align as she hopes they will. And to keep you motivated, here’s something from our friends at Hamilton. Go vote!