26.1.10

I am a bleeding heart.

Like a lot of bleeding heart liberals, I feel the issues. I am emotional about my point of view.

The night George W. Bush was “elected” (the first time), I cried. CRIED. Even though we had to wait for Florida to “fix” the chads on the ballots. I just knew we were returning to the dark days of Ronald Reagan and George the father.

When the US went to war in Iraq (in 2003), I had a nervous breakdown. I put my disaster supplies in the trunk of my car. I was ready for the apocalypse.

I was just discussing US politics with my high school crush. (We were reunited by Facebook—it’s so magical.) I was upset to find out he's now a moderate Republican. (He's against the health bill and against any stimulus for job creation.) He replied:
I am surprised by your visceral reaction.
I know, he's amazing. But in my mind, he's like Anakin Skywalker when he goes to the dark side in "Revenge of the Sith".

Nooooooooo!

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I shared my feelings on twitter:

I was so upset that I misspelled "unrepentant".

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Edited to add: My high school crush is actually an "independent" who is worried about the deficit. Same difference.

10 comments:

Aliceson said...

I'm always shocked when I learn that friends are republicans. I want to scream, Really, do you even know what you're agreeing with considering you and your wife have been unemployed for months, your super expensive health insurance sucks and your cousin was just killed in Iraq. Oh yeah that's right your fighting for the unborn babies.... Blows my freakin' mind.

injaynesworld said...

History has proven time and again that people will vote against their own best interests. Also, people don't seem to realize that this is not the Republican party of Eisenhower -- who BTW, was the last decent, sane Republican president.

MommyPhD.org said...

How far we can travel in so little time. I'm amazed at some of the grown-up positions my high-school friends take, too. But then again, we were so young then.. I think I may have been a Republican at the time, now that I think of it, because my father was and, well, I didn't really think about it at the time!

The One and Owenly said...

It's weird. The Republican party was founded on certain ideals, and some of them are not inherently bad. The problem is that over time it seems to have mutated into this bizarre and self-contradictory beast who values obedience more than innovation.

Similarly, the Democratic party has become a shadow of its former self by attempting to absorb every possible enemy of the Republicans. This is why the Democrats have so many problems when they do gain power, they cannot agree on a single plan other than, "beat the Republicans." The Democratic party consistently snatches defeat from the jaws of victory because unlike the Republicans, they do not allow fear to turn them into ditto-heads. And the unified group of Republicans have no problem exploiting the cracks in the Democratic resolve.

*sighs*

I tend to be a bleeding heart liberal. I believe in helping people and giving everyone a fair shot. As George Harrison said, "I look at you all, and see the love that lies sleeping ..."

I am really hoping that Obama will be able to use his experience as a community organizer to get his party to shape up and fall in line. They have a majority! The Republicans did not need 60 to ram their ideas through Congress. Why should the Dems?

followthatdog said...

I, like you am a bleeding heart liberal. I recently discovered that one of my best friends in high school is now a super conservative, the kind that railed against Obama as the Muslim that would unleash a jihad against the good christian people of this country. She has a blog with lots of photos of her family, including the little kids, shooting all kinds of GIANT guns. I was truly shaken when I found this.

Casey Freeland said...

I really, really try and stay out of politics on the internet. But I feel your pain.

Jacqui said...

A friend of mine moved from Canada down to Texas and her fairly right-wing tendencies just blossomed. When I got an email from her bemoaning the fact taht she couldn't vote for Bush because he was so fabulous I literally lost all respect for her. It's odd though, I wouldn't necessarily feel that way about people who vote National here in NZ, although I think ACT would engender the same reaction! I guess politics isn't as polarised here? People seem to agree on some basic things such as social security, universal health care, even if the specifics differ. There isn't that consensus in the States.

Suzy said...

I'm totally impressed that you took a beautiful screen shot of your tweet.

Sweet Jane said...

Oh sister. I cried so hard when that blowhard was elected (selected) and then when he stole it again? Suicide watch. (I'm being dramatic for effect). But it was dark. I've lost many a FB friend based on their dumbass comments that are clearly WRONG (as in I don't agree). One click. Un-friend. Very satisfying...

Elizabeth VB said...

I will admit to being a proud Republican. I hope this admission doesn't cause you to take Sweet Jane's advice to Un-friend me because it is okay to have friends with different thoughts and ideals. Just as every really, really left-wing talking head does not represent the all Democrats, Rush Limbaugh does not represent all Republicans (not even the majority). And we are not all cold-hearted: Republicans feel issues too. And with equal emotion. Like tiggerbone, I believe in helping people and giving everybody a fair shot. That is not proprietary to Democrats. Believe it or not, Republicans want to do the same thing - we just have a different idea as to how to accomplish it.