No Swing State
I hate talking politics, b/c I feel like it's become such a nasty, polarizing, vitriolic subject in America. I have so many friends & family members who are registered with a different political party than myself (although I fancy myself a moderate bipartisan champion) but it's sad that I don't even feel "safe" bringing up politics w/ them, for fear of being chided ("How can you support that?") like an ignoramus. It makes me sick that working together & taking the best parts of each side has turned into something seemingly reprehensible.
But I digress... The point of this post is not to stir up the forbidden topic, but to state the *ONLY* good thing about living in states where the outcome is a foregone conclusion. It sucks that the minority of red voters in blue states & blue voters in red states are virtually disenfranchised thanks to the Electoral College; but there's one tiny bright spot: no horrific political ads running nonstop on TV! South GA & TX are solidly red, so no campaign is going to waste money on ads here. Visiting NC was a whole nother story!!!
I felt like I was being slapped in the face back & forth over & over & over by both sides every time the TV was turned on. We are very open with our kids re: national news, so they - esp. Will - take notice of politics...and these commercials were a total overload for them. Will kept asking, "Why would they say that?" for each outrageous, negative commercial he saw. It honestly broke my heart. After just 2 days (& we were there 2.5 weeks!) I told the kids to ignore every single political commercial from BOTH sides, b/c neither candidate actually wrote them; they were all done by people who wanted to pay a lot of money to make their side look better. [Seriously, how deluded must someone of voting age have to be to actually buy into ANY of that junk???]
It was gross. And disheartening. And discouraging, as an American citizen who doesn't think working together is "being a traitor to my side." I don't have a side like that. My side is positivity & loving others.
And that's why, until Election Day, I'm glad we don't live in a swing state, so I can keep watching my TV in peace! :-D
But I digress... The point of this post is not to stir up the forbidden topic, but to state the *ONLY* good thing about living in states where the outcome is a foregone conclusion. It sucks that the minority of red voters in blue states & blue voters in red states are virtually disenfranchised thanks to the Electoral College; but there's one tiny bright spot: no horrific political ads running nonstop on TV! South GA & TX are solidly red, so no campaign is going to waste money on ads here. Visiting NC was a whole nother story!!!
I felt like I was being slapped in the face back & forth over & over & over by both sides every time the TV was turned on. We are very open with our kids re: national news, so they - esp. Will - take notice of politics...and these commercials were a total overload for them. Will kept asking, "Why would they say that?" for each outrageous, negative commercial he saw. It honestly broke my heart. After just 2 days (& we were there 2.5 weeks!) I told the kids to ignore every single political commercial from BOTH sides, b/c neither candidate actually wrote them; they were all done by people who wanted to pay a lot of money to make their side look better. [Seriously, how deluded must someone of voting age have to be to actually buy into ANY of that junk???]
It was gross. And disheartening. And discouraging, as an American citizen who doesn't think working together is "being a traitor to my side." I don't have a side like that. My side is positivity & loving others.
And that's why, until Election Day, I'm glad we don't live in a swing state, so I can keep watching my TV in peace! :-D
Amen re: commercials. I agree that the electoral college disenfrancises voters of all leanings, and also perpetuates the ineffective two-party system. I agree that campaigns (and propaganda) should be based on a candidate's qualifications, not on trashing the opponent(s). My biggest beef with campaigns is funding. Until lobbying is made to be illegal (not likely, because of the ties between industry, candidates, politicans, staffers, and post-gov careers lobbying...), the process will continue to be broken. Okay, I better get off my soapbox now. :)
ReplyDeleteEXACTLY!!!!! Preach on!!!!!!
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