Wasting Idyllic

I’m tired of politics. I used to love being informed and knowing what was going on and even engaging in a debat or two.  But lately, the last few weeks, I feel underwhelmed by the various candidates and overwhelmed by anger behind not the ads but the everyday people on Facebook talking trash. And the ironic part is that the people who talk the trashiest trash and the loudest are the same people a few weeks ago who were complaining about everyone else posting political garbage. Can’t beat’em, join’em I guess? I want to say something so badly. But a small part of me understands that regardless of how witty and accurate my retort would be, people will still respond and bash me. Also, Juanito told me to turn off Facebook if it was making me mad. Sound advice if I wasn’t already mad.

This past weekend at a happy hour (for my birthday might I add) a friend seemed to target one person at the table and took the political discussion to another level, seemingly attacking her for her presidential preference. Ironically, the attacker has never expressed opinions in the past and I wonder how many of the “facts” she presented were provided by the new boyfriend of questionable mental stability. I’m not saying that since he has an opposing opinion than he must be crazy but when your fear of the world’s end is based on the half-time show at the Super Bowl then you start to kinda wonder.

Anyways… I think it’s sad that one person can attack another person based solely on their political leanings. I’m sure if I had been discriminated against for something else this wouldn’t be so shocking. Say if I was gay. Or Hispanic. But we’ve all been friends for so long I was a little taken aback. And honestly I’m not sure if I was more shocked that she expressed ideas or that she expressed them against someone at the table. It’s not like I didn’t know that she was not of the same thought. This friend has been deeply conservative and I should know since I’ve known her before politics even mattered. Hell I think we were friends when Perot was running (no need to Google – 1992). But it was the manner in which she did it. Addressing a subject that most of the table doesn’t know as intimately as she would know (taxes) and stating that she’s afraid that people don’t know how various decisions made by the current president will impact our economy sending it into a tailspin, thus financial ruin. I was enraged that she would not only turn birthday happy hour into a forum for her to tell my friends that they were too stupid to know any better but to do it in such a condescending manipulative manner, did not go well in my head that was slightly fuzzy from drinks eloquently named “Scorpions.” The silence that had fallen across the table begged to be rescue. Playing up the drinking and adopting a silly-yet all-knowing persona, I ended the conversation. The conversation did not come back up and the night was not ruined.

But it did leave me thinking, am I wrong? Am I stupid? Sure, there are things that I don’t know and believe me, taxes are totally one of them. But I follow my gut in this election. I make choices based on what I hope this country can be one day. And even though some would say it’s a wasted vote (like my Dad back when I did KidsVote and voted for Perot) I vote with my gut because there have to be other people out there with my thought and I want them to know that I stand with them and they are not alone. Sometimes being a Democrat in Arizona is lonely. I’m sure that my views are too idyllic but I don’t think that I’m so extreme as to put the country into a financial ruin, or any ruin whatsoever.

I admit that this post was neither entertainingly funny or have a point. It was just something that happened lately that is still roaming around my noggin. I guess it’s just interesting how much of impact people who we hold close impact our thoughts