Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Political Post

I have spent the past 40-something years with the "Head Buried in the Sand" Political Party. I don't understand politics, I don't follow politics, I make decisions based on things like whose looks are pleasing to my eye, or spousal cheating, or Past Actions rather than What They're Saying While Campaigning.

We learned...or rather, they taught us about Government and Presidential elections and brought in voting machines to teach us about in high school. (Some of us just didn't care enough to learn.)

The first time I was old enough to vote was in 1988. I was 21 years old, had a baby to support with sporadic help from an ex-husband, and could care less about what was going on in the world outside of my own. My parents voted Republican, so I did, too.

Four years later I had another husband, another kid, and we were busy working on our "pursuit of happiness" and the American Dream. Once again I wasn't really all that interested in all the political rigamarore, until I saw the interview the Clinton's did on "60 Minutes" after he was accused of cheating.
I'm not the type of person that automatically believes everything I hear. He's running for President, it's not illogical, or surprising, that some one would pay a chick to try to discredit the man. I would need more proof.
And turned out, he himself gave it to me. He couldn't straight out, unequivocally say, "No, I have not had an affair with anyone during my marriage".   He tried to dance around the truth, sort of saying no, but yeah.
To me, that's the same as straight up lying. People lie, okay, but this guy was running for PRESIDENT. That is not okay.  Our President should be open and forthright and honest!
My parents didn't even have to tell me to vote Republican that year.


I had no idea what the Clinton's did politically during their first term as President, but I remember thinking no way he would be elected again, and for the second time finding myself surprised when he was!

Four years later, I was back to being apathetic about politics and the Presidency, and voted Republican because my parents did.

9/11 scared me. I didn't really understand what was going on in the aftermath, with the Iraq attack and all. But my parents still voted Republican and I trust my Dad, who's smarter and understands things better than I do, to know what's best.

For the 2008 election year, the Democrats had a candidate named Barack Hussein Obama.  Really. After Muslims hijacked planes and crashed them into the twin towers and killed over 3,000 Americans. After we attacked Iraq to hunt and kill the Dictator, Saddam HUSSEIN. After a terrorist named OSAMA BIn laDEN claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attack.

Seriously, I laughed. I figured hell, the Dems must want the Repubs to win, because no way, NO WAY, is someone named Barack Hussein Obama is going to be elected President of the UNITED STATES.

I could not believe it. Flabbergasted doesn't even come close. There was no way. I was certain the election had to have been fixed.  To be honest, I'm still kind of floored that people would have voted for him....even if he did promise everyone free health insurance.

In 2004 my oldest son was old enough to vote, but like me he's not very politically minded and doesn't understand most of the issues, foreign policy, taxes and such, so he asked me who I was voting for, and I told him Pawpaw votes for the Republican so I do, too.

Same thing in 2008, we all voted Republican, except my middle son. He did ask me who I voted for, and I told him who and why. He decided he would research the candidates and see if he could figure out for himself what candidate he liked.

He came to me later and told me that Ron Paul was the candidate that he was most in agreement with.
I had never even heard of Ron Paul. Once I did, I pretty much wrote him off as a disposable candidate, like the Independent, Green, Liberty and other parties that would never win. Sure enough, he dropped out of the race early. I didn't bother to look him up or find out anything about him.

I joined Facebook in 2009, hooked back up with a lot of old friends from school, new friends from different online groups I'd participated in, and family. Over the next little while, I would see people's posts, and some of them were political in nature.
I don't involve myself in political discussions because I don't feel anywhere near qualified to offer any sort of helpful or worthy opinion, but I started paying attention to what they were saying. Maybe because I could understand it better than the Politico websites or news media with their "Big" words.

And what I learned from paying attention to these conversations is that I'm neither Democrat nor Republican, nor Liberal or Conservative.  So, I set out to find out what it is that I am.

Apparently I am a Libertarian (which I previously, mistakenly, confused with Liberals). I believe in Personal Freedom, and Minimal Government.

I checked out the Libertarian Party nominee, Gary Johnson, and I have to say, on the face of it, I'm in almost complete agreement with his stance on the Issues.

While I was checking out the list of candidates looking for the Libertarian nominee, I saw that Ron Paul was running as one of the Republican party. Hmm.

I went and read up on his stance on the Issues, and I find that I agree with most of his platform, too. He is a bit more Conservative than I am, but I think I could deal with that for the main reason that, as near as I can tell, he has all through his political career voted consistently in accordance with the Constitution of the US. Despite his personal beliefs, I believe he feels strongly in leading in accordance with the Constitution, which deems that the Federal Government is there for the protection of the citizens (protect the Country), to establish a currency system, to protect individual rights, and not much else.




It's Time For A REVOLUTION



3 comments:

Danielle said...

I tend to have my head buried in the sand when it comes to politics. I feel guilty about it, and then just don't vote because I don't want to be an uninformed voter. I know I should care about what's going on and who is voted in, I just kind of live in my own little snowglobe and don't pay much attention to the rest of the world or I take things to heart too much. I don't even watch the news because of that.

Jodi said...

Good for you for taking the time to do the research & figure out where you stand!

I consider my self an independent, and do not adhere or follow any one particular party.

The last presidential election I voted for one of the 9 "third party" candidates. Honestly, I don't even remember which one. I just remember that I didn't want to vote for Obama, but I couldn't really align myself with McCain either, so found a candidate that my stance aligned with.

I wish more people did so. I think we'd have far fewer Democrats & Republicans than we do no. FAR fewer.

Great post!

Melissa said...

I was pretty much the same way, Danielle, but Obama and his laws and mandates crossed my last line.

I am really worried about how things are going, and what's going to happen in the future.
It just feels important to me this time that I wake up and pay attention to what's happening.

I don't watch the news, either, and I've recently learned that you can't trust what you see on there anyway. They show only what they want to, distort stories, even straight up lie. It's been proven more than once that they've combined news bits from completely different conversations, to make someone they don't like look like they said something they didn't.

FireWife - I don't know what happened to your comment? Or your last post on Gay marriage?

Although I agree mostly with the Libertarian party, I don't adhere to any one Party, and I think it's ridiculous to stick with one if you don't agree with them, like staunch Dems and Repubs seem to do. I don't care if a candidate is white, black, rich, poor, young, old, Dem or Repub or Liberal or Conservative or whatever, if they are there to do right by this country and it's citizens then that's who I want.

Ron Paul is running as a Republican, and already has a pretty large following, despite the mainstream media's effort at just blowing him off. I think he would have a very good chance of winning, if he could just get heard.

Unless something happens, I don't believe the Libertarian can win it.

BTW, I agree with your stance on Gay marriage.
I could only see the first few sentences in my feed, but I don't believe laws should be made based on religious beliefs.

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