I started out this morning writing my first political blog. It started out being about economics, personal and national. Then I started writing about the American Way of Life, then about basic life style and people’s rights. Every time I’d write a sentence, I would think about another side to the idea I was trying to present. I hit “save draft” three times and started over. I finally gave up and decided to talk about talking about politics.
I have this problem. I am not a person who thinks I know it all, ever. I know that for everything I know there is some idea out there in the universe waiting to correct or even change my thinking. Usually, when I listen to someone talking about politics, I hear something in what they are saying as true, even when I don’t agree 100%. To be nice, I will express my agreement with the one or two ideas I agree with and that usually makes them very happy. But when I share an idea that is contradictory to what they have been saying, I sometimes get stomped on. Then I get defensive, angry, frustrated and will clam up.
As I said, I don’t think I know everything, but I do give my beliefs a lot of thought before I believe them. I do a lot of reading about history and world affairs, listen to a lot of opinions, and weigh ideas against my own developing values. So I like to think my ideas have some worth. I don’t necessarily want a listener to clam up and hope I will go away. That is what I do to them, and frankly, that isn’t all that helpful. What I want is to be heard as a thoughtful person with a considerable amount of life experience and learning with a valid perspective about the affairs of the world.
Clearly I have something to get over in order to be political commentator. I like to talk politics but, like most folks, I feel best talking to people who already agree with me or don’t know one iota and will believe anything.