Jan 20 2009
in which things get political for about a minute
I usually try to avoid politics. I have opinions about things, don’t get me wrong, but even when I know enough facts about something to be confident of said opinions, I can rarely haul those facts from the dark recesses of my brain when I actually need them, so I pretty always come out of political debates/friendly arguments/whatever still reasonably confident that I’m right but deeply frustrated that I couldn’t prove it. I suppose I don’t so much mind writing on political topics, because then it’s a lot easier to dig up the right information and link to it as I go, but I never seem to remember stuff when I need it. I rarely do either, though, which is probably because I’m just too lazy.
Also, I’m not too keen on getting flamed.
(Wait, no…getting flamed would imply that people are actually visiting my blog, and I get UVs from people whether they agree with me or not. Okay, so the real reason is just that I’m lazy.)
But it’s kind of hard to ignore politics on a day like today.
I was in England when the actual election took place, but I sent for an absentee ballot (which actually cost me money because of international postage–probably about $5 total, so that let me feel even more superior for doing my Civic Duty and stuff), not so much because I thought my vote was so important but because I wanted to be part of what was, no matter your political views, a historic and important election. But being in England for it was weird, because people seemed to be more liberal across the board there, and even other conservatives who might normally agree with me on political topics were all for Obama. Nearly everyone I talked to seemed to assume that I was an Obama supporter just because, I don’t know, I’m American? I’m a college student?
The emphasis on politics there in general was a bit surprising, especially when it came to American politics; a bunch of people stayed up late in the pub to watch the election results come in, for instance, which I didn’t because I just couldn’t be bothered (it’s not going to change things when I find out, after all), but it was interesting that Europeans would be so interested in our political process, maybe even more so than the average American.
Of course, the most common political discussion I got roped into was one about Sarah Palin. “Ooh, Alaska–you’re from Palin country, huh?” The next question was pretty much always “What do you think of her?” except when it was “Do you know her?”, and while the latter was easy enough to answer (I’ve seen her, never met her), I barely knew my own answer to the first and didn’t really want to fumble through an explanation of why I mostly liked her when my questioners almost invariably thought she was “scary” for one reason or another. I mean, it’s kind of hard to be honest when you know exactly what the other person’s opinion is before they even tell you.
Also, notice that I’m not even saying here why I’m conservative, why I voted McCain, or why I like(d) Palin. That’s ’cause…well, mostly I just can’t be bothered right now.
