I watched the President's address on Iraq tonight and it served to remind me of the current "challenge" I'm working on. From time to time, I select a topic and redirect my thoughts to that subject when I find myself thinking about unpleasant things. (An example is an earlier post, Pain Vs. Pain, in the March archives.) Right now, the PC (personal challenge) I'm thinking through is Person Vs Party in national elections.
I have always voted for the person I felt best suited for a position. So why am I rethinking that stance? It seems to me, that at this point in time, individual officeholders have conceded their personal identity to jump aboard the party bandwagon. I can't remember a time when government has been so polarized. So my dilemma is: Will an individual vote reflect his/her conscience and that of his/her constituency or will he/she vote the party line? If most representatives of the people are going to follow party line, then I must vote for the party rather than the individual. The fun in my PCs is that nothing is black or white.
When I was growing up, politics was black or white, Democrat or Republican. I grew up in a Republican household in a Republican-dominated area. (In fact, I was nineteen years old before I realized "Damn Democrat" was two words.) My husband was the opposite: his was a Democratic household in a Democratic stronghold.
Ah, the innocence of childhood! Adulthood brings such mistrust of labels.
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