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Thanks for your condolences.
Yes, my family were democrats. My mother was born in Baltimore in 1924 and she passed away in October 2012. She suffered from dementia/Alzheimers and had fractured a leg.
She had gone into assisted living and was actually placed in the same room with her older sister, my Aunt, who I also lost in July 2013. My Aunt was a World War II Navy nurse and missed her 100th birthday by 17 days.
My mother luckily did not linger in pain and died the day after the break. She had just turned 88.
While my family were Maryland democrats, I was the real political animal, if you will. My mother always told me how dirty politics was. She was, of course, wise about that but politics was my first passion. It was an awakening as a young girl, when I discovered that I shared the same birth date as John F. Kennedy (May 29). I was born on his 43rd birthday in 1960.
I admired him and Hubert Humphrey. At sixteen, I warned my relatives about not voting for Carter. While I did end up voting for Reagan in both of my first two General Elections, my next genuine democratic hero was Gary Hart. I did a little volunteer door-to-door work for Hart and was devastated when Mondale edged him out with super delegates despite the fact that Hart won more primaries, including California. I voted for Bush ‘41 both times, although I liked Quayle more than Bush and hoped he would have run for the White House. I did vote for Clinton in 1996 and Gore in 2000. In 2004, I voted for Bush ‘43 to keep Kerry out (I had hoped Hart would make another stand but he declined and was briefly behind Howard Dean). I voted for Obama in 2008, largely due to his stories about how his mother died from cancer while struggling with insurance forms. I am grateful to Obama for having been made eligible for medicaid (the first time I’ve had coverage and I am now 56).
I did follow Mittens for over 8 years but thankfully never wasted a vote on him since he’s proven himself to be a jerk.
AS FAR AS WHAT TRUMP SAID OR DID THAT TRANSFORMED ME:
I first took notice of him during his encounter with Megyn Kelly in the first debate and loved how he dealt with her.
His strong message about stopping illegal immigration{BUILDING THAT WALL} and defeating terrorism propelled me to jump aboard the Trump Train. He even made me change my views on gun control. I had always detested the NRA but Trump opened my eyes by explaining how different outcomes may be in places like Paris and here in San Bernadino if legal citizens are armed and fire bullets in the opposite direction. I now feel gun-free zones are absurd and only serve to make innocent people, including schoolchildren sitting ducks. It also would be wonderful to have products made in America again and blue collar workers earning living wages. All of these factors, coupled with my profound, visceral disgust at how weak our country has become, motivated me to switch party affiliation back in March to vote for Trump on April 26 in Maryland. Finally, I relish how Trump eschews political correctness, warns how we are committing national suicide by not naming our enemy and doing things like waterboarding and it’s also refreshing to see him fight to abolish the Johnson amendment to regain freedom of speech for churches.