This was an original post for LA Moms Blog on September 8, 2008. Sadly, the SV Moms Group has shut ‘er down, so I’ll be posting my archives here every Friday.
I hope you’re honored. I am coming out of the closet with my political feelings here, in this space, in a space full of opinionated, informed, razor-sharp, well-spoken, and well-read women.
Have I buttered you up enough?
I’ve been wanting to write about this topic for weeks (who hasn’t?) but haven’t had the courage, the time (who has?), or the right words until now. So here it is.
I’m undecided about the upcoming Presidential Election.
I feel your collective gasp. After all, the choices are clear, aren’t they? According to the internets and other media, a vote for McCain/Palin would be to choose more of the same. A vote for Obama/Biden would be a vote for change!
At least that’s the message I get in the online circles in which I roll. The email groups, the blogs, the Twitter. I didn’t have to watch the Democratic National Convention because I got play-by-play tweets of every major speech it featured. The MOMocrats were everywhere I turned! I had to ask “What’s a PUMA?” By the time I actually sat down to watch Barack himself, I already knew what had been said and how many times he jabbed his hand into the air for emphasis.
Then McCain went and picked a “hockey mom” for his running mate, and oh, how the internets gnashed their teeth and typed their little fingers off! I read everything that came along, naturally, putting off the work I should have been doing because like any great train wreck, how can you look away? The only thing that would have given us more material would have been if Palin was a mommyblogger herself. Think of the trolls!
With the lefty influence of my internet posse, I didn’t really have much of an idea about what the RNC and its stars were rolling out, so I actually set my DVR to watch Palin and McCain’s speeches. I did watch Palin. I couldn’t make it through McCain, although I caught highlights and was moved once again by his POW story.
Television doesn’t help. The networks, the cable news channels, even the Daily Show and Stephen Colbert are spinning everything like so much smoke up my ass. I haven’t heard one straight piece of information unfettered by a pundit’s opinion in all the hours of TV that I’ve tried to ignore.
Last week I had to start ignoring the online Democratic background noise, too, because it was becoming more than just background noise. It was getting mean and distracting. I haven’t logged into Twitter in days. I sometimes skip the message board emails. And I save the politically charged blog posts for the days when I’m not suffering from PMS. Why make it worse?
I live in a mixed-political household. I was raised a Democrat and am currently a registered Independent. My husband has been a faithful Republican for years. We have infuriating arguments that end nowhere. If you have trouble imagining how such a couple can co-exist and even thrive, I will tell you the secret: we always remember that we have core values in common. The safety and prosperity of our family. The quality of our environment, of our educational system, of our roads and infrastructure. The use of our tax dollars. How we get to the results may be different, but we want the same results.
Yet during this month and undoubtedly during the months ahead, my husband and I will have more than one argument about politics. I will question the Republicans and defend the Democrats, sometimes just to screw with him, but mostly to work through my confusion and come up with my own beliefs about who will do the best job for our country.
Right now I am simply skeptical, like a wounded animal who can’t trust anyone to be its caregiver. Both parties tell us what they think we want to hear depending on who they think “we” are. One thing I know for sure, though. I don’t need pundits, blogs, or tweets to tell me what I should think.
What a refreshing post. I consider mysel independent too, although I am pretty liberal on some issues. I couldn’t stand Twitter and reading anything political in my circles either. It was scary how polarized people were/are. If you disagreed, you were racist or stupid.
Great point about not following everyone else. I’ll think for myself, thank you very much!