Politics

I voted early this year and, to my delight and relief, missed most of the election week hubbub, except for the inescapable flood of Facebook posts from friends and acquaintances earnestly urging me to vote, or, even better, to vote for one candidate over another.  Ugh.  I mean, when will people learn that social media is not an appropriate way to influence voter behavior?

[Pause]

And now, for a lengthy blog post on my personal political leanings.

Just kidding. I would never do that to you.

The thing is, I really don’t like politics. I consider myself a political moderate, which makes political discussions of any stripe tiresome for me.  I get annoyed with both conservatives and liberals.  My conservative family thinks I’m a liberal and my liberal friends, I suspect, think I’m a conservative, or, if not an actual conservative, a closet conservative. I’m neither of these things, for the record.  Honestly.

I’m patriotic, not partisan!

For me, talking politics is exhausting, boring, and unproductive, so I don’t do it.  I hate the meaningless catchphrases and tropes that people rely on in political arguments.  I hate the manipulation of facts and the filtering of truth to suit any given agenda. I hate every talking head on TV. I don’t get jazzed about individual candidates unless I know them personally, and even then, I only get so jazzed.

Nonetheless, I am a registered voter (independent, thank you very much) and I have voted in every federal election since I was eighteen.  And to think, I used to be a Michigan voter! Ah, how I miss the days when my vote actually counted.  It’s frustrating to think that I went from being a swing state voter (for my first election in 2000) to voting in California (2004 and 2008), and now DC (2012).  Well, at least it feels good to vote, even if I might as well throw my ballot into a giant bonfire and cook s’mores over it for all the difference it’ll make. Mmm. S’mores.

Whether my vote made any difference or not, I woke up this morning to find that President Obama was reelected. It wasn’t until I saw it on the news that I consciously realized how much I cared about the outcome of this election and allowed myself to feel relief.  But that was all I felt: relief.  No jubilation, no exaltation, no dancing in the streets.  Like Obama said, there’s a lot of work to be done. Duh.

Now that the election’s over, I’m most looking forward to the slowing up of the deluge of obnoxious Facebook and twitter posts, both celebratory and teeth-gnashing, that I’ve had to wade through today.  These people and their political posts – the sheer nerve!

Anyway – If you’re looking for something fun and non-political to check out today, please enjoy this video of a Corgi jumping into a lake.  I promise it’ll make you smile.

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