Oh, how I wanted to be a parent, but oh how I did not want to be a parent that lost my identity completely, that put everything about me aside. So I'm glad to be back here. Yeah, it took me 6 months to get back here, but I'm here. And I want to talk about -of all things- politics. ?! Yes, politics.
I have never been very political. OK, to be completely honest, I've been downright apathetic. I have in the past, ashamedly, had the opinion that whether the President was a Democrat or a Republican had little bearing on me personally. I have never felt terribly strongly one way or the other. My knee-jerk reaction was always to say that I am a Democrat, but if pressed, I would have had trouble articulating the reasons why.
During the last election, though, I decided to do some research and try to fully understand my knee-jerk party affiliation. I decided to poll all of my Republican friends and acquaintances to see why they were voting for McCain. This is a sampling of what I got:
"He's a war hero." That alone didn't convince me.
"He's been around forever." Again, not moved.
"He's old. It's his last chance. Obama has plenty of time to be elected. " Seriously?
"I feel bad for him. He's a little old man. He can't even comb his hair." Pity? That's a reason?
"I'm scared of Obama. I think he is a Muslim."
I finally gave up. Oh, I heard a few arguments that were better articulated, but nothing convincing. And the majority of the arguments I heard were similar to the crap above.
Today I tried again. After I read the transcript of Obama's speech in Cairo, I decided to get the opinion of two people I work with that I knew would have some criticism. I was generally interested in hearing their side. I thought, "Maybe I'm missing something." I am, admittedly, not a student of politics. Maybe I could learn something, I foolishly thought.
I listened to them bash the speech and Obama for a few minutes. Then I asked, ,"So you watched the speech?" They hadn't. "Oh, well I didn't watch it either. I read the transcript. Did you read the transcript?" They hadn't.
AARRRRRRGGGGHHHHHH
They said they didn't like the way "things feel." They thought that Obama had deep seated roots in Islam. That he was secretly a Muslim. They scoffed at his use of "assalaamu alaykum." They snorted at the fact that he quoted from the Koran, and said he probably didn't quote from the Bible. ( He did.) They talked about how he once said that that America wasn't a Christian nation. They really went on about that one. I don't know if he said it or not. Maybe he did. But are we? As much as we might want to be, are we? Are we really? Yes, somewhere between 70-80% of Amercians say they are Christians. But are 70-80% of the people you come in contact with every day Christians? Look around. Does it look like a Christian nation to you? Do I want the leader of our country to be a Christian? Sure. But can you or I ever really be sure if they really are?
Anyway, I was disappointed again. They spew so much criticisim of Obama and the people who voted for him. They say those people are stupid, and then give stupid reasons like the ones I've listed here.
Maybe we're all stupid.
O.K. this post has run out of steam.
More later. Hopefully not six months later, but later.
