Whose Side Are You On?

 

What Side are you on?

I have been asked that question a lot this last week.  As the mid-terms approach the talk on social media has heightened, and unlike my position in 2020, I have tried to stay away from the discussions – although not entirely with success and that fault is mine.  I have blocked friends who openly displayed hate to candidates and supporters because I realized even my attempt to calm the rhetoric was being met with even more vitriol.  And it is not just the Right as some may assume.  My friends on the Left have been just as mean and spiteful. So, when I have been asked “What Side Are You On?” The response is easy – Mine.

I truly consider myself an Independent.  When I say that I am almost always asked: “So what does that mean?”

To me it means that I look at what each candidate stands for I go online and review their voting record, and then I compare it to the values I hold.  Seldom (in fact never) has any one candidate aligned with everything I believe, so, I try and find the one whose values do best align and hopefully they have no positions against those values I hold most dear and which I will never compromise upon.

Three friends (two Republican and one Democrat) told me that I can’t do that.  That we have a two-party system and I need to choose.  My response to that is: “Not in the America I believe in and support.  The one to which I took an oath to defend.  In that America I get to choose THE INDIVIDUAL for whom I vote.”

If either party had a platform in which I believed (heck – if they even had a platform) – then I would vote party.  But sadly, that is not the case, especially in these strongly divided times where it appears to me they both decided to walk to opposite sides of a field just so they could turn around and take aim, then shoot at each other like a duel.  No attempt to find common ground because the word compromise is now synonymous with surrender.

Most people really aren’t interested in what other believe – most want an ‘Echo Chamber’.  And most, already know their opinion cannot be swayed – even by facts… or that they cannot sway others – even by facts. They just want edification for their values so they can feel better.  That is no longer a game I wish to play in a public forum.  If anyone REALLY is interested in my position on things and why I feel that way… If anyone does want to dialog and discuss (not debate) with a chance we may enlighten each other then please DM me or go see my blog (noparadigms.org).

I will close on this. Vote.
That – not the echo chamber of social media – is how your voice is truly heard.
Vote your beliefs – your personal beliefs.
For me voting is not a ‘Team Effort’ but a statement of who I am what I believe in and would stand and defend.
So whatever your beliefs – please vote.