Election Day

I’m a real sucker for Election Day. Politics very often frustrate the hell out of me, and politicians very often sicken me, but I’m a huge fan of democracy and this day where we all take a stand for what we believe. I get a little choked up EVERY TIME I vote.

There are a few things in this world that absolutely drive me insane. Among them: Homophobia, movies in which live animals have human voices, corporate catch phrases like “let’s take a 30,000 view” and apathy. Voter apathy really gets my goat.

I’m not saying everyone should go out and run for office, or volunteer for a candidate- it’s VOTING. It’s making a choice. I think most people agree that the system is nuts and politics is full of a lot of bullshit, but so what. There are very few things in this world that aren’t at least partially nuts and full of bullshit.

And that brings me to my family.

I come from a family in which we are all passionate about politics. Our actual voting choices span the entire political spectrum which certainly leads to some frustrating conversations and headaches, but (I think) I’m thankful for it. This mixed bag of political opinions forces me to see things from many sides. I often feel a bit defensive when my fellow progressive/liberal types immediately demonize conservatives and do that stereotyping thing we all love to do. This us/them thing is the easy cop-out. It would be so simple if every issue just had one of two very clear answers.

One of the main reasons I’m politically progressive is because my Republican parents raised me to be that way. They hammered home the point that voting is important. I grew up watching them discuss politics with each other, attend rallies for things in which they believed, and write strongly worded letters when they deemed it necessary. I learned from their example that volunteering is a way of life and it’s important to give- whether it be political campaigns or your church or your favorite charity- financially and with your time. I read from their boring selection of conservative magazines and learned the ways of political rhetoric. I did go through a conservative phase in high school, but ironically I think the Christian youth group of which I was a part, led me to be more liberal. (That’s another story entirely). When it came time for me to vote, I read and researched and talked to people and, as it turned out, those decisions led me in a much more liberal direction than my parents.

Thinking back, my parents never told me how I should vote or what I should believe. I’m pretty sure we’ve never voted the same in any election but whenever I get involved in any political event, my Mom tells me that she’s proud that I take a stand. When Bush was elected, my Mom called and said, “I’m sorry. You must be very disappointed.” I cracked up. She was so sincere.

I do recall a heated discussion with my Dad about public education in which I said, “I’m the product of public education.” He yelled, while laughing, “You’ve just proven my point!!” Touché, mon pere. Touché.

Speaking of my father, I’ve instructed him that should a gentleman ever ask for his blessing to marry me, that he is not allowed to express an opinion because whenever he is given two choices of people to vote for, he has never picked one that I agree with, so I am certainly not leaving it up to him to decide who I should spend my entire life with. (I would, however, agree with his inevitable disdain for the number of ending prepositions in that sentence).

That said, I am very thankful for my conservative parents and the part they’ve played in making me the hippy liberal that I am today.

Happy Election Day, everyone. Go vote.

P.S. Speaking of the election: My politically obsessed friend Chad and I once wrote (just in our heads) a bunch of awesome scenes for a rom com loosely (totally) based on his life about a guy trying to find love on the campaign trail. It’s called “Hanging Chad” and had a tagline along the lines of “Counting votes…for love.” (The sequel will obviously be “Pregnant Chad.”) But I just realized, it wouldn’t be a rom com- it’d be a Rahm Com. Buh dump bump.