On Politics

I grew up in a blue state, but my house was red. I was brought up in a family where we end every grace with "God bless the troops", watch Fox News, go fishing and hunting, and love country music. We were Reagan's biggest fans.

I spent most of my childhood years in a small town in Upstate New York, where most people felt the same way. Nothing really pushed me to challenge these ideals, so I didn't. I held them close, like a precious family heirloom. On the rare occasion someone did provoke me, my father's words fell from my mouth in defense. It felt like a betrayal to think any other way. Besides, everything made sense. In our own little world, our beliefs worked.

But then I moved away, and I grew apart from my family. And this has given me a different perspective on so many things. When you meet different people and you hear their experiences, suddenly ideas that at one point were so incredibly wrong start making sense. And this was really hard to handle.

It starts with the exceptions. "Well, I guess in that situation it would be okay..." and "I'm a republican except when it comes to these issues..." started becoming sentences I said more and more. And I was okay with that, because in my heart, I didn't feel like I was betraying anyone. I was still a republican, after all, I was just being more understanding.

But then, my beliefs started moving farther and farther away from my family's, and it hurt more and more. I felt like I was different, and somehow less respected. I struggled with this for a long time. I started keeping quiet in political conversations to avoid conflict. I didn't want to disappoint my family with my opinions, but I also wanted to stay true to my changing beliefs. And an even deeper part of me, didn't WANT to change. I wanted to stay connected to my family in this major way. Those ideas and beliefs felt like home to me, so to deny them felt like a crime.

Now, I am finally starting to get to the point where I feel okay with where I am, politically speaking. Happily independent. Some of my former beliefs will probably never die, and that's okay. But some have, and that's okay too. And some are maybe on their way out, but that remains to be seen.

I felt compelled to write about this for one specific reason. And that is the incessant abuse we inflict upon anyone whose beliefs differ from ours. Every time I hear someone call all republicans "racist" or "fascist" or "idiots", I flinch. That's my family. And despite what you may think, they aren't those people. There are extremists on both sides, but for the most part, people have true and real reasons for their beliefs. My family are republicans because to them, those beliefs and policies help us the most. You might not see it, but that's because you're not a republican. I think the majority of people in this country, republican and democrat, want a world where most people are happy and taken care of. They just have extremely different ways of going about it.

So the next time you go to insult the opposite side, please think twice about it.

You shouldn't use insults to fight the person, you should use facts to fight the idea.