i couldn't avoid talking about it forever...

[falcongrrl]

I'm listening to this right now, and I love it:

http://www.achtungbaby.org/mp3/7seconds.mp3

There are so many things that I want to write about here, and it feels nigh impossible to choose which topic.

But there's one that I feel that I've avoided for too long.

And I know everyone (including me) is sick of hearing about the US presidential election now, but if, in spite of that, you want to know more about my take on it, feel free to



I think anyone who knows me at least nominally knows that I am not a fan of the current administration, to say the least. D is fond of saying that I am so far left as to barely be resting on the planet, and he's a DEMOCRAT, for gods' sake. (I disagree with him, but that's a post for another time.)

I have recently been deluged by phone calls and emails by the Democrats, and I have been very vocal and positive in my support of Kerry.

Yet all the callers seem to give me variations of this speech:

"You know, if you know any undecided voters...maybe a neighbor or someone that you're standing next to in line at the post office...you might persuade...or, I mean, simply tell them why YOU are voting for Senator Kerry..."

It's like Amway, or any other pyramid scheme. Tell your friends how to vote because we need their votes.

And the thing is, I know we need the votes. I know we do. At the same time, the whole point of a democracy is that people are allowed to use their own minds, their own consciences in order to choose a candidate. Who am I, to interject myself into that whole process? What makes me conceited enough to think, first of all, that I could influence someone's vote and secondly, that this would conceivably be a good thing, if I could?

Yesterday I had lunch with foxmagic, and I had a really great time (will blog it later). But a couple of times I interjected a comment referencing the upcoming election and I thought I felt him cringe. I imagined him thinking, Here it comes, the Kerry hard sell, and I really don't want to listen to it. Let me change the subject.

Here's the rub: I don't even want to listen to the Kerry hard sell anymore. Much less spout the party line to anyone else.

But I am interested in what my friends are thinking, how they are voting, or not voting. And even though I don't pretend to understand why Bush is the best person to lead this country, I'm more than willing to sit and listen to someone's informed perspective on why it's true.

I'm still voting for Senator Kerry, though. And that's okay. I think we should all be sharing our opinions (our own, honest ones rather than our political party's)in hopes of understanding each other better, not in hopes of changing each other's minds.

The outcome of this is going to be a protracted fight, I fear, and in the end all I see is half the country deeply unsatisfied with the outcome.

At some point we're going to have to start talking to each other, really talking, which would be great. At some point we're going to have to start listening to each other, which would be even better.

A+

Comments

[koogrr.livejournal.com]

Is Youssor Ndour that singer that was in the Sky Scare stuff several months back?

being divided, not united

[druwc.livejournal.com]

Related to this topic--I just learned that I have relatives who refuse to look at my blog about the girls b/c I am pro-Kerry. How does that make sense? Cut yourself off from my kids b/c you don't like how I vote?

Sometimes I wonder where my country went.