Swinging Voters
A couple experiments with different positions
An updated version of a piece from the Martin archive:
After fifty years of marriage, my wife and I have become swing voters. In retrospect, it seems like this change was inevitable but if you had asked me even a year ago, I would have condemned swing voting as immoral and un-American.
After all, both Kathy and I grew up in strict, one-party households. I supported Barry Goldwater and she was a Rockefeller Republican. When it came to matters political, we pretty much stuck to one position.
I’m not saying we always followed party lines. Heck, back in college, I even tried my hand at being a Democrat like Ronald Reagan once did. But even then I was still a conservative and always drew the line at swing voting.
Frankly, I wasn’t sure our marriage would make it past the first year. It was 1972 and I was committed to voting for Richard Nixon. Despite Kathy’s moderate tendencies, I thought she would remain faithful and vote for Nixon, too.
To my surprise, she started complaining about how our political life was boring, how we always voted the same way and how a little electoral variety might spice up our marriage. However, when faced with casting a ballot for George McGovern, she finally came around and voted the…
