Every election season my sister-in-law becomes part of the grey…undecided, mostly, with the propensity to go with what feels comfortable: voting Republican. This preference is largely prompted due to family upbringing, religious values, and a healthy distrust of the government. However, she is pro-choice, pro-socialized healthcare, understands the need to have social services, and is well educated. She is a valuable part of shaping my political sanity–for every asinine Republican extremist there is the reminder that many of them represent the practical, rational, thoughts and feelings of my sister-in-law. I can count on her to be reflective, concise, and reasonable with my political questions. I can’t, however, beg her to vote for Obama–I’ve thought about it–because she has a point: he’s inexperienced, young, lacks the foreign policy experience of McCain, and while, I wholeheartedly disagree, she finds him difficult to listen to vocally. Can’t negate that as much as I want to…she’s family after all. It’s very easy to lump all Republicans in a shameless manner, it’s quite a different experience having one sit down at the dinner table. Besides, she has some really great quotes, today one of them being, “Welfare should be limited…instead of giving people free food we should be handing everyone free condoms instead.”