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The haircut that I get. The kind of job that I have. The things I do for entertainment. My friends. The books that I read. The kind of car that drive. All those are my politics.
The way I raise my children. How I feel about hunting. How I feel about war. The things that make me laugh. The things that make me cry. The food I eat. What I think about the sexes. What I think about SEX. All those are my politics.
Whether I love or despise my parents. My addictions. My marital status. The status of my marriage. Whether or not I own pets and how I think of them and how I treat them. The kind of house that I own and how I keep it. The clothes I wear or don’t wear. My accent. My education level. My core and fundamental priorities. All of these are my politics.
This list could go on out past the horizon, And it would be filled with my politics – the things in my life, chosen and not chosen by myself, that make me Hayduke. (Even the nom de plume ‘Hayduke!’ Come to think of it, even the use of the words ‘nom de plume’ is part of my politics!)
In my mind, politics are those things that make us exactly what we are. How we think. How we love. How we live every day. Our dreams for the future. Our pasts. Our life experiences. They are all our politics.
I guess what I’m trying to say here is that who we vote for in the presidential elections is also our politics, and it is as much a part of who we are as who we fall in love with. In other words, how I vote is a direct result of WHO I AM. I am going to vote for (or NOT vote for) Candidate X in the November General Election because of the way that my life has shaped my thoughts, my body, my likes, my dislikes.
So, we must be careful when harshly criticizing others for their political beliefs because their beliefs are a deeply ingrained part of them.
That’s why, to my way of thinking, folks like Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, and their liberal counterparts are so destructive. Their comments are designed to divide people and pander to their listeners, all for the sake of market share, sponsors and the almighty dollar.
It has been said that people vote their pocketbooks. I disagree. I think that people vote their guts.
Now, I spent a long time lying awake last night thinking about this because a blogging friend of mineis contemplating leaving MyBloggers.com due to harsh criticisms that others have endured because of their beliefs.
Something is wrong with that. I thought that America was the place where you COULD have differing opinions and feel safe to express them. I thought that THAT was what this country was all about.
There is a difference between disagreeing with another person and attacking that person.
Some of my best friends in the whole world hold political opinions that are diametrically opposed to my beliefs. Yet we can have discussions about these things as reasonable people, respect each other’s views, and still walk away as friends.
Instead of viewing somebody with differing outlooks as “the enemyâ€, why can’t we see them as “the loyal opposition?†Can’t reasonable, intelligent, good people disagree on issues?
When Chris (oombutu) and I get together at The Main Street Pub, lift a few pints together, and discuss politics, sometimes I come away with a different point of view than when we began. Sometimes he does. Sometimes neither of us has changed. Do I still respect the man? Uh-huh. Do we still share laughs? Yes. Do we poke fun at each other in a good-natured way? Yup. Do we still help each other out, as good friends do? (He with fixing my computer, and me with helping him move into his new home.) Of course! Because, first and foremost, we are friends!
Isn’t that the way it should be? Don’t we, as a people, allow for differences any more? Don’t we grow and learn from other people’s views?
It saddens me to think that we are becoming a nation of intolerant people who draw battle lines and only allow our own narrow perspectives to be considered.
Who could be so arrogant as to believe that he or she has ALL the right answers? Not me. Not my friends. As my wife Mary Ellen always says, “I’m never positive about anything. Only fools are positive.â€
First of all, Jim... I thought I would never reach this box! Second of all... it sounds as if you're saying that you believe in predestination... that every experience in your life affects you, so your actions and choices are inevitable. The reason that I kind of came to this conclusion is that that's the way I feel about life. This is one reason that I pretty much accept people as they are. They are what they are and they always will be. They'll come across other influences that will change them, but they'll change because and only because these influences had an impact on them. I am what I am. I accept that, too. 
