[Today’s run: 2 miles]
I spent way to much time over the last 6 months thinking about the presidential election. I did the same thing in 2008 also.
I’m not sure why I get caught up in it so much.
One of my personality faults (I said one!) is that I’d really like other people to be happy; happy with me in particular. That’s a childish desire but I easily fall into it. It leads to various problems, mostly of a kind where I state my beliefs then backtrack when people seem to be surprised or offended.
In politics compromise is the key, and a lot of life is politics. And of lot of my beliefs are wavery and not very well supported. So I end up saying things then backtracking… speaking before thinking.
We had the election yesterday and I cannot complain about how the day went. Voting was easy and my neighbors were kind and polite. It can’t be much better than that. Local and state races turned out OK, in my view. I frankly haven’t lived here long enough to know the sub-texts and history. But I’m glad that our state is in opposition to the national trend these days.
I woke up this morning and checked the results and was kind of depressed about it for a while. I’m feeling better now. I don’t think the status-quo was the best choice, but that is what we’ve voted for.
I have some friends, small business owners, who are pretty upset. I can see their point. But nothing in politics stays the same for long: if the local barber shop closes up because of Obamacare then changes will be made.
I did have a bit of an education while talking to people before the election. The whole “War on Women” thing looked so transparently bogus to me. But that is a hot button for a lot of women. There seems to be a large minority of women who really most sincerely are afraid of men. I can’t say they’re wrong to be. But just another eye-opener, like the day you realize that you would love to pick up that hitch hiker in the rain but because of the evil of men painted with a broad brush, you have some of that paint on you too and it limits you.
5 replies on “Election disappointment”
I’d be “afraid of men” too, in a political sense if there was congressional committee on birth control and not one woman was asked to be there. It was, at the least, disrespectful.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/birth-control-hearing-was-like-stepping-into-a-time-machine/
In the election there were two senate candidates, Akin and Mourdock, who said thoughtless things about women and rape. They both lost. To me that is small wonder.
Romney wanted to close Planned Parenthood…
I wrote a snappy comeback, but I’ve deleted it.
Needless to say, I think these items are part of the
air that was pumped into the “war on women” to make
fearful women vote the way they did.
We apparently know two different types of women. The women I know were appalled by these things (and things similar – there have been several). And I can see why. This does not require that anything be pumped. It only requires observation.
These are the “fearful women.” The brave women must be ignoring these things out of (willfull) ignorance or they simply do not care.
(“Pumped” and “fearful” could be seen as a lexicon of an antiquated era.)
I think you must be right. I’m not even sure we speak the same
version of English. If they are appalled by political stunts,
do they save any superlatives for car crashes and earthquakes?
As for the brave women, I don’t think they are ignorant or
apathetic. Maybe they just don’t like jumping in reply to every dog whistle.
But we have wandered far from my original statement. I was
lamenting that some women (with cause to be fearful) are so
easily manipulated. And there are leaders who are glad to push
their buttons.
I won’t lament Romney losing the election. I think people voted
the way they saw fit to vote. Obama’s campaign pulled out the stops
to smear anyone who needed smearing. No big surprise there.
He has his desired position now. I think he has about 90
days to prove whether there is a statesmanlike bone in his body.
I see such as reasonable people with concern for issues that affect them. They pay attention to what is said and done. They are critical thinkers. (This implies I think they have a brain and use it.)
You see them as being manipulated.
If Romney’s threat to defund Planed Parenthood was a stunt, who was he stunting to/for?