I don't remember any family discussions around politics as a kid, but my second grade teacher conducted a mock election for president. She wrote 'Gerald Ford' on one side of the chalkboard, and 'Jimmy Carter' on the other side of the chalkboard, and we were supposed to pick one of these names.
I didn't know either one of these names, so I picked Gerald Ford.
Jimmy Carter won that election, and also the actual election, and I knew even back then that I was out of step with what was happening in politics, and I didn't really care.
How would you describe yourself politically? Are you conservative or liberal, and why?
My family was very conservative, so I sort of ended up as a conservative by osmosis, but that didn't mean I wasn't drawn to more liberal ideas from time to time.
As a teenager, a lot of the singers I listened to on the radio had more progressive and liberal themes, and these came out in their songs. Once I was listening to a song on the radio by Sting (how I loved that man!), and my father heard it and got angry, and I got a lecture on how what he was singing about was stupid. I didn't think it was stupid - what was wrong with singing about the Russians and world peace? It became one more of many wedges between us.
Today, the best way I could describe myself politically is as a centrist - I identify as neither Republican, nor Democrat. Looked into Libertarian, but I'm not that either. Too extreme. I'm right in the middle of all of these organized forces, and so I am adequately represented by exactly nobody.
There's only one public figure who even comes close to how I feel most of the time politically. His name is Arthur Brooks, and he used to be the president of a conservative think tank in Washington called AEI.
This TED talk helped me survive the last presidential election with some sort measure of hope, that maybe I wasn't the only person in the world who was centrally caught between gigantic, cataclysmic political forces in the world - the Clinton/Trump election was a year-long ordeal for me, and every election just feels like it's getting worse.
I read Arthur Brooks' book, Compassionate Conservativism. Loved it. I listen to his podcast now, and when and if he ever gets a job at a university, I would be sorely tempted to move there and take all his classes.
I don't like politics, anymore than my grandmother Lora did.
My grandmother lived during World War II, and wanted to do her bit for the war. She and the local Scouts in her area once collected newspapers for the war. They brought them to a ship with great enthusiasm, and stood and waved as the ship left the port with all of their hard work.
She and the Scouts continued to watch as the ship took their newspapers out to sea...dumped all the newspapers into the sea...and then returned to port for more newspapers.
She never trusted the government one inch after that experience, and neither do I.
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