This reminds me of my own moment of revelation that drove me from the Republican party. Around 2006, I had written an angry, racist essay about latinos wrecking America and saved it on the family computer. My little brother found it and was so upset about it he insisted on reading it to me, and I realized what a small, hateful person I w…
This reminds me of my own moment of revelation that drove me from the Republican party. Around 2006, I had written an angry, racist essay about latinos wrecking America and saved it on the family computer. My little brother found it and was so upset about it he insisted on reading it to me, and I realized what a small, hateful person I was becoming. After that humiliation, I was determined to change.
Meg, I can relate from the other side of the aisle. Even the time frame.
If I remember correctly, 2006 was around the time that George W Bush decided he was going on a "listening tour" around the US military, for the purpose of assessing what to do about the Iraq war. At this point things were going very badly; we were losing a hundred soldiers a month, approaching the death toll of 9/11, not to mention tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. I was boiling angry and was naively hoping for the war to end. Instead, Bush ordered a surge. I was livid.
It was at that point that I realized I didn't know what to hope for. If the surge worked, I'd have to listen to people pat Bush on the back, and what's worse was that I'd at least have to give him credit for making a good call. I realized I was on the precipice of hoping for the war effort to fail, which would mean the deaths of more American soldiers. I had learned to hate my opponents as much as I cared about the soldiers and civilians whose lives were being sacrificed.
That's when I realized I needed to stop, take a deep breath, and turn down the political fury. I didn't become a conservative or anything, but I vowed to start fairly evaluating things for what they were and stop looking for reasons to become enraged and hoping for circumstances to make Republicans look bad. If Republicans did something right, I'd give them credit and be glad for it. If I was going to hope for anything, it would be for whoever was in charge to do the right thing so that I wouldn't have to hate someone as much as I'd grown to hate Bush.
Sadly, it turns out that Republicans would eventually give me every reason to be angry again, but now I am of the mindset that I would actually prefer the party heal itself rather than crash and burn, and I welcome any positive developments along those lines with open arms.
Thank you! It's embarrassing to think about, that I was ever that sort of person. I'm glad I was able to escape, and eternally thankful to my brother for holding a mirror up to what I was becoming.
This reminds me of my own moment of revelation that drove me from the Republican party. Around 2006, I had written an angry, racist essay about latinos wrecking America and saved it on the family computer. My little brother found it and was so upset about it he insisted on reading it to me, and I realized what a small, hateful person I was becoming. After that humiliation, I was determined to change.
Meg, I can relate from the other side of the aisle. Even the time frame.
If I remember correctly, 2006 was around the time that George W Bush decided he was going on a "listening tour" around the US military, for the purpose of assessing what to do about the Iraq war. At this point things were going very badly; we were losing a hundred soldiers a month, approaching the death toll of 9/11, not to mention tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians. I was boiling angry and was naively hoping for the war to end. Instead, Bush ordered a surge. I was livid.
It was at that point that I realized I didn't know what to hope for. If the surge worked, I'd have to listen to people pat Bush on the back, and what's worse was that I'd at least have to give him credit for making a good call. I realized I was on the precipice of hoping for the war effort to fail, which would mean the deaths of more American soldiers. I had learned to hate my opponents as much as I cared about the soldiers and civilians whose lives were being sacrificed.
That's when I realized I needed to stop, take a deep breath, and turn down the political fury. I didn't become a conservative or anything, but I vowed to start fairly evaluating things for what they were and stop looking for reasons to become enraged and hoping for circumstances to make Republicans look bad. If Republicans did something right, I'd give them credit and be glad for it. If I was going to hope for anything, it would be for whoever was in charge to do the right thing so that I wouldn't have to hate someone as much as I'd grown to hate Bush.
Sadly, it turns out that Republicans would eventually give me every reason to be angry again, but now I am of the mindset that I would actually prefer the party heal itself rather than crash and burn, and I welcome any positive developments along those lines with open arms.
Any day now. 😏
This is beautiful! Thank you for sharing it.
Thank you! It's embarrassing to think about, that I was ever that sort of person. I'm glad I was able to escape, and eternally thankful to my brother for holding a mirror up to what I was becoming.