2 Sides and Mine – A Personal Social Experiment
Why would someone with no political science understanding, who grew up stuttering, very shy and got a lot of D and C’s in English want to make a blog? I’m a nobody whom multiple teachers said I don’t know how to write, yet here we are. Why? Because I’ve always been different in almost everything I do, being different was a source of shame most of my life. Yet I thought it was worth this social experiment of taking honest accounts of both sides and trying to be as factual as possible while giving my own viewpoints that I can turn down the noise some and bring clarity to the issues.
As a former GOP member and deeply conservative and religious I carried much anger against Trump as he seemed to be the exact opposite of what I grew up viewing a kind Christian to be and it pushed me away from the political world I had knew toward this liberal, Democrat world that I previously hated and spoke against often of. This anger and ranting turned into a quest for the truth and that involved sitting down and listening to people I had assumed to be enemies but realized there is much more to be friends over.
Political Background
Since people assume I voted for Trump or Hillary Clinton depending on who I’m debating with, full disclosure I voted for neither Trump nor Hillary. I felt with all the potential America has we nominated the worst options. I wrote in Bernie Sanders as a protest vote for President. I knew Tenessee would go to Trump regardless, had I been in my home state of Ohio, I might have considered Hillary on the basis it is a swing state but that is all a hypothetical. In the past, I voted for Bush amd Obama twice.
I grew up very strongly Republican in Trump land Ohio, pretty much saw Democrats as a virus in society and then I moved to liberal Nashville and over the 15 years here I’ve changed my opinions in many areas. I was working two full-time jobs and getting laid off in 2007 and filing bankruptcy to getting on food stamps under Bush. Under Obama, I started a successful business that has outpaced the year before until 2017 which became the first downturn, happens to be under Trump. Not sure if it has anything to do with politics but interesting coincidence nevertheless.
Going from a strong Rush, Hannity, Focus on the Family and Glenn Beck to a Bernie Sanders, Obama fan took many years. Yet I haven’t forgotten the corn and bean fields of my youth as well as my friends who still live there. Having two parents who were both treasurers of their unions, a mom who was very Republican and hated the union she worked for and my dad who loved the union…until the company shut down and moved to Mexico.
What Makes Me Different
In a world of extreme viewpoints and no compromise values, I find the silent majority lives in a spectrum close to the center. People could be conservative on money matters but support gay marriage for instance. I live in the spectrum too. I have voted straight ticket Republican and Democrat and lately more mixed tickets where I don’t vote by party but by principle and merit. I’m a Christian but believe forcing America to have Christian values and to say Merry Christmas over Happy Holidays does more damage than good.
I believe in universal healthcare in a single-payer system. Some of the markups on medication is outrageous. See Adam Ruins The Hospital.
After Trump won, I got a concealed carry permit for my 9mm S&W single stack handgun while supporting common sense gun laws. I believe the 2nd Amendment people seem to care less about the 1st Amendment such as making laws that are clearly biased to Christianity values and a disregard for the Freedom of Religion. Freedom of the press is attacked as “Fake News” and Trump has advocated changing the libel laws so he could sue which would go against this very Constitution that people claim they love, but are willing to attack if convenient for party politics. While each side calls the other side ignorant, I find we all are ignorant, very few of us Constitution loving people have even read it. Many of us don’t know the history that we so easily repeat, the patriots of one group are the traitors of another.
I may live in the city now but my heart has never left the country and small-town America. Growing up I didn’t know any democrats, now all the Republicans I’m friends with are back in Ohio while my local friends are pretty much centrist to far left. It is that connection to my past and the willingness to maintain friendships across the divide in a culture of if you don’t like what how I think you can just unfriend me now.
As I watched the circus of politics over the years I realized I had the “gift” of annoying my conservative and my liberal friends with my views. Even as a strong Republican and growing up in a Fox News house, I still preferred CNN, Politifact, and Snopes or other news sources because to me Fox was very biased news reporting. Even though I agreed with their conclusions I still felt it was more Fox opinion then Fox News. I was the liberal among conservatives and the conservative among liberals. As I see my friends splitting and people on both sides are blocking or unfriending me or each other. I realized I had a unique voice but I needed an outlet that wasn’t a Facebook rant that got feathers riled up. I wanted to showcase both sides opinions and then share my unique view as well. In a culture full of opinions and negativity, maybe I can bring some sense, sanity, and education.
I find I agree most with my third party / libertarian friends when they post political opinions but yet the Progressive ideals of Bernie Sanders resonate with me well. I never fit into any one box perfectly and that is ok. I’ve been called the sheeple by many who didn’t know they too were the sheep of a different flock. Maybe if we allowed ourselves to be free thinkers rather than party doers we could get to better places as a society.
Disclaimer:
I already knew when I bought the domain for this website that my opinion was going to be wrong and people are going to tell me so. You are welcome to do so but I most likely won’t change my opinion unless you lay out facts and have a reasonable argument. I routinely will re-evaluate my viewpoints when given good evidence to do that.
I also know in a world were negative news is fake news and fake news is believed without question that I had a challenge ahead of me. I can promise you that I will try to be as truthful as possible. I know all the fact check sites like Politfact and Snopes are on your opposing political groups’ side. I know math will always be “fuzzy math” and nothing I say can make you think Obama or Trump is right. I think of the words of my grandma, opinions are like butts, everyone has one and they all stink. I know you will disagree with my views but what I do ask is that you keep an open mind and realize no one side is perfect.