I am not a political person, and this is (obviously) not a political blog. I have always been one of those “swing voters”… the “undecided.” I have friends and family members who ARE political people, who are members of a particular political party. They frequently have a hard time grasping my politics. My Democrat friends assume I’m a Republican. My Republican friends are convinced I’m a Democrat.
I am neither.
I actually avoid political discussions… mostly because they are a bore… but really because they get in the way of day-to-day life. If I have to work with, or live with somebody, I don’t want their perceptions of political belief to color their perception of ME. I feel the same way about matters of faith. My beliefs, be they about politics or religion are mine, not yours.
I do however, ALWAYS vote. It is my right, and my duty as an American citizen.
A month ago, I almost wrote a blog post entitled “Wake me up when October ends”… the central idea of it being that I loathe politics and the political season that surrounds this month biennially. The title is a reference to a great tune by a modern punk band, Green Day. The content was to be about being assaulted by political advertising, spin, and media throughout the month of October, usually one of my favorite times of year. The process of voting, and the existence of government are necessary. I firmly believe however, that the system has been poisoned… or at least compromised to the point that I prefer to just ignore it. For any reasonably intelligent person, the noise far outweighs the signal. The “Party Line” becomes far more important than the actual act or process of governing. In order to retain my true independence from the political parties, I ignore them in the weeks running up to an election.
This year though is different. Things have been happening to this country, and in the parlance of a bumper sticker I saw, “If you aren’t outraged, you haven’t been paying attention.” I’m not losing my independence, but I am going to speak my mind for once. If you are my friend and you have been waiting for this moment to finally uncover my party affiliation, you will be disappointed. This isn’t about any particular political party, this is about the very fabric of our nation. I’ve decided I can no longer keep my proverbial mouth shut, and can’t sleep through October.
It will take me a few posts to outline what I have to say, and I’ll tag it with the “uncategorized” label so that my regular readers who would prefer I shut up about politics and stick to rambling about, or pictures of cars, can ignore me.
Oh, and what the hell does Maxim Gorky have to do with any of this? Stay tuned…
