More Republican Ruminations at the Thanksgiving Table

Holiday dinners with my husband's mostly moderate-Republican family in Reno, Nevada always provide me with new, interesting political insights quite different from my UCLA-educated, NPR-listening, Southern California liberal perspective.

Thanksgiving 2007 "gave me great hope for the 2008 presidential elections," especially my husband's Uncle Jack, a retired Army veteran and West Point attendee, who praised John McCain of old, but sadly commented, "I'm not so sure about John McCain anymore... " He then held little hope for any potential Republican presidential candidates. And his assessments two years ago were dead-on correct.

Thanksgiving 2009 with the same libertarian-leaning crowd offered an equally revealing take on the pressing issues of the day... but it all boils down to Clintonesque cliche: It's the economy, stupid!

The middle-aged husbands of two cousins, an orthopedic surgeon and an urban planner, are facing unanticipated salary cutbacks and diminished professional prospects, causing financial woes for these fathers of three children each... kids who range in age from 7-year-old twins to a 16-year-old college-bound high school junior.

Fortunately, these two men are among the lucky ones in northern Nevada: they're employed, their wives have returned to the work force (teaching and part-time nursing), and they're in no danger of losing their comfortable homes, although both houses have plunged in value. But both men have heart-rending stories of long-time friends or colleagues who are jobless, and a few who are homeless...

Meanwhile, Uncle Jack, the sharp-witted 80-year-old patriarch of the clan, pronounced that President Obama is "wishy-washy," and that Mitt Romney "is my guy" in 2012. Jack admires Romney in large part because of his economic expertise, but also because he's a leader and a "moral," stand-up guy.

When I asked him about Sarah Palin, Uncle Jack looked down at the table, shook his head, and quietly commented that he doesn't trust her, and that she knows... well, nothing. She has no substance, in his opinion; he doesn't take her seriously. And plainly, he wishes she would go away.

The only other topic of concerned discussion was over the No Child Left Behind Act. One of the cousins returned to elementary teaching after a six-year hiatus, and she's disgusted by new, undue pressures placed by NCLB mandates on both teachers and her fourth-graders to achieve, at all costs, high standardized test scores.

We talked about the inherent complexities in effectively inspiring fourth-graders to learn, and the unfairness of linking a teacher's salary to the performance of a classroom of young students to the results of one federally-approved test series.

No one had praises for President Obama. Or for Democrats. Or for Republicans, either.

I was left by my Nevada in-laws with a distinct impression not of anger, but of anxiety and bone-deep weariness. And of a gnawing, desperate hunger for bold change and smart, strong leadership.

Unlike my positive epiphanies at Thanksgiving 2007, Thanksgiving 2009 dinner table talks for our family conveyed an unmistakable discontent with all political incumbents... and an extraordinary desire for any measures or policies to stem unemployment and to bolster lagging real estate values.