I don't know about you, but I'm all for a good civilised discussion.
One where no silly words are used, one where all opinions are respected. Maybe not agreed on, but respected.
Is it a good idea to have political discussions with your friends?
Is it a cop out to have them on Facebook where you can simply post a picture of who you side with and let that be it?
The truth is that nothing is black or white. Except for the President. Ok, that was a lame joke, but I couldn't help myself.
Anyways, do we really know enough or everything about the presidential candidates? Or do we make up our minds based on a few key points?
It's hard for me to even think that some of my friends would vote for Romney, but I keep telling myself that they're having just as hard a time about me voting for Obama. Not that I can vote as I'm not American, but you know what I mean.
When I lived in the U.S, more specific The South, it was really hard, actually impossible to have a discussion about politics. Women would stick their fingers in their ears and sing "lalalalalallalalalala" sort of to say, "Let's not talk about this, if we do we can't be friends".
It was easier in the North, but still not that easy.
Why is that? Why are we so afraid of hearing other people's opinions? Is it because we are scared that we will think differently about them afterwards?
I don't know what it is, but I know it's important to talk about both sides of the story.
Like I said, I can't vote (anywhere in the World, that is, not even Denmark where I was born, not even the U.K where I live, not even the U.S where I hold a Green Card and pay taxes), but if I could I would really have to learn a lot beforehand.
I took one of those "who do you side with" quizzes on Facebook. I side 89% with Obama.
I don't know if I actually do that in real life. I just know that I don't agree 100% with any of the candidates, but there are a few key points that are extremely important to me and those points happen to be the ones the Republicans disagree with and that's enough for me.
The next upsetting point, to me, is that there is no separation of church and state. There's supposed to be, but there isn't and in my eyes that's wrong. It is nobody's business but your own what your religion is or isn't. If you feel comfortable talking about it, fine, but do not mix religion and politics. They don't go together.
Some of the issues that come up again and again are, of course, abortion and gay marriage. First of all, why should a man decide what a woman can and can not do with her body?
Gay marriage? Is that really still an issue? Who gives a hoot what the gender is of people who love each other? Maybe those you don't have love themselves? Take religion and the bible out of these issues and then have a think about it.
Lastly, if you are one of those people, like I am myself, who like to stir the pot a bit by posting a laughable picture of the opposition, you have to able to take it if you dish it. This is how we get through election season. With humour. Otherwise we might as well just sit down and cry. Cry over the amount of money spent (wasted) on campaigns when we could have built a school or two or helped someone who might need it. I don't think people still recovering from hurricane Katrina gives a rat's ass about thousands of balloons and signage at the conventions, I'm sure they would rather have a place to live....which they still don't. 7 years later.
It doesn't matter who you vote for or who wins the election, what matters is that when the result comes in, you respect it and you learn to live with it.
And for those of you who don't even vote even though you can and therefore should, take your complaining somewhere else.
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