One Thing You May Not Know About Me...2nd (The Political Crossdressing)Edition.

 Writing Wednesday is a place for me to write whatever I want to write.  

Hi. I stumbled upon this post earlier this week and thought, seeing it is Writing Wednesday time, I would do another similar post.  

And then, I didn't plan the exact subject for this post, and then today our country's capitol is all up in craziness, so I am all sorts of out of sorts.

Image found here: https://fortune.com/2019/10/29/most-popular-halloween-costumes-masks-2019-trump-jfk-celebrities/

    I do not by any means like to be political.  I really just want all the people to shut up and get over everything.  Can we just at least have that? Agree with some, disagree with others and peacefully move on?  In the craziness that is this 100% weird and confusing pandemic life, can we get some peace, some rest.  Can we pull out a white flag and wave it and declare a truce?  That would be nice.

    So, the thing you may not know about me is that I am an unaffiliated voter. See, I used to be ultra Democrat and as the world has kept spinning and in some ways become more and more liberal in so many ways, I got stuck in the middle.  I wouldn't label myself 100% conservative, but compared to the party that I used to affiliate with, I am much more conservative than their platform seems to be of late.

    (This is the judgy paragraph so if you are sensitive to that kind of thing, scroll to the next paragraph!) Because of my experience in the middle, I really have a bad taste in my mouth towards both extremes of our political spectrum.  I think that some people are way out there too liberal, and others are way out there too conservative.  I think it is silly that we get stuck as a label.  We are either a Democrat or a Republican.  And then we sit here and complain about there only being bipartisan politics.  See, we have pigeonholed ourselves into this idea that a two party system is horrible and yet, we cling to one side or the other and have to stay there for some unknown reason.  The problem here is that we don't have a middle ground.  There isn't a "safe space" to agree with some on the left and some on the right. We have to be exactly one or there must be something wrong with us.  Instead of truth, we seek whatever fits our perception and agenda instead of looking at both sides.  We cannot even sit down with relatives and have a human conversation about in and outs, good and bad of both sides.  Nope, it's just me and my people are right; you and your people are wrong. It's just plain asinine. With a polar approach like this we can never work together on solutions.  We cannot hear the good ideas of others because we label all of those people over there on the other side as stupid and having only have bad ideas. 

    I have even been called a "political crossdresser" for pointing out the fact that I don't think you should be able to walk in to vote and just click a box to vote for just one party.  See, again, here is that dangerous space that makes us not be able to think at all.  When I vote, I research each person running.  I get a feel for their ideas and background.  I try to feel in my conscious who would be the best person for the job.  I look past the label of party and look to leadership and character.  I think about what they can bring to the office and what is needed in the open position.  I have voted for almost all parties(except communist and socialist.  I do draw a little line in the sand).  I think being an informed voter is our responsibility rather than being a party voter, so sue me.

    Overall though, I really just want to be a good human.  I want to try to treat people as kind as I am able to treat them.  I am doing my best, and I think we all can do better.   I miss the days when we would just calm down and let the election go when it was over and not cry like little babies.  And if you think I am referring to just this past election you are quite wrong.  Sure, I am tired of this endless banter about corrupt elections(even if I do believe there is lots of fishiness that did happen this past election) but I was also tired of the rants of "Not my president" the last four years.  We, all of us on any side, can and need to do better.  Unite.  Division is the enemy and the enemy is certainly raging. We are Americans, that is the only label I am okay with.  

    Well, so there a little tidbit about me.  (Okay, maybe a little of a rant too, but it was very therapeutic to write it.) Feel free to chime in on the discussion, but remember that there is nobody in all of this who is 100% right 100% of the time.  Humans are humans, people.  

Peace.  Love.  Hamburgers.

Alice out!