talkpolitics | Political Pet Peeve.

I'm new to the community, and, after reading a few of the posts on here, I'm quite sure no matter what I talk about it will be shunned. Although, I'm hoping not because I have not seen a topic about this, albeit I didn't dig too far into the comm.

I'm going to start off by saying that politics honestly isn't one of my favorite things to discuss. The reason for this is people have such contrasting opinions, and every discussion usually ends with one of those involved being irritated. The fact is, humans have a tendency to want to be right about everything. There are even some who feel angry walking away from a conversation knowing they did not convince the other party to believe as they do. I guess I would say I'm one of those people who say like ignoring politics and religion... Well, at least when it comes to friends.

Thus leading me to the whole point of this post: I have a friend who has an abhorrent habit of bringing up politics in the most offense ways. Now, since I know this is a political community, I don't mind sharing my opinions and thoughts on here about my political views.

Personally, I feel that we should support our government and give them a chance. Specifically meaning our president. We tend to get a new one every eight years (sometimes only four, of course) and it usually takes four of those years for the people to honestly get a feel for the new president. For example, while I did not vote for Bush, I was willing to see what he would do in office. After a while, it felt like we were following some idiot off into shitland. In fact, that's how it felt for many of those around me. I'm not trying to speak for everyone, but I feel like the government under Bush and, in fact, the entire country fell to pieces. This is a personal opinion, of course.

I started struggling financially toward the end of 2007. I continue to struggle financially today, but I see a little bit of light at the end of this long, long tunnel. After feeling like I've lost all the best opprotunities, I see more finally opening up to me. I consider myself a democrat, just so everyone understands why I voted for Obama. I also feel like things are slowly improving under him. I won't really discuss the health care reform or anything, because I honestly don't feel like I know anything about it! I've watched the news and read articles, but I still don't feel like I have enough information on it to form a valid opinion. For me, I suppose time will tell.

So about this Obama guy... I feel like so many people are throwing hissy fits about him! (WARNING: OPINIONS FOLLOWING!!!) After all, Bush came in, fucked up our economy, and it took him eight years to do it. People seem to think Obama can come in and fix it overnight. It's not gonna happen people!!!! We're in a shithole. It's going to take time to get ourselves out of it. After studying what happened under Bush Sr., I feel like we never should have elected his damn son in the first place. Between the two of them, they have sixteen years of shit! Clinton came in and saved our asses, but he didn't do it overnight did he? I feel like more people should give Obama a chance. They are writing him off far too quickly.

All right, got a little side-tracked there. I apologise. Back to what I was saying about my rude friend or what I was going to say about my rude friend. I have expressed to him many times that I dislike discussing religion and politics with people, and he has found a way around this. We do not "discuss" anything. Instead, he makes this horrible comments which he knows I won't say anything about because I'm, and I quote, "Too nice."

These comments are irritating. I will give a quick example. The other day my fiance and I were at the gas station. He found a weird coin on the ground next to my car, and he decided to bring it into the car and ask if I knew what it was. It turned out to be just a dirty peso, but that's beside the point. While we were looking at it, a black corvette pulled into the gas station parking lot. Inside the vehicle was a larger hispanic male. It was nice out and he had his top down and we had the windows all the way down. He proceeded to make some snide remark and call us dumbasses because we were just sitting in the gas station lot. Now, my truck was not on, and there was nothing to indicate we were finished at the gas station. For all this man knew, we had just pulled in as well. This had frustrated both my fiance and I, but when we told our friend his response was, "I blame Obama. He made all those damn minorities think it was okay to talk down to white people." When he said this, I nearly leaped across the room at him. (I'm sure many of our friends would have paid to see that. He's 6 ft tall and muscular. I'm a 5 ft pregnant lady.)

There are many, many things about that response that pissed me off. First of all, blaming Obama for someone being a jackass? Yes, because our president makes people act a certain way. If this were true, we would have all turned into illiterates while Bush was in office. Secondly, what the hell does him being hispanic have to do with anything? I included that bit in the story when we first told it to him because it was sort of ironic that we were looking at a peso when he pulled up. Semi-inappropriate humor I suppose. I just know it was completely ignorant for him to believe that it happened because the driver happened to be of a different race. I've met plenty of assholes on the rode who were just as white as me. It was disgusting that he'd reply this way. Now, that's really only one example of some of the ridiculous shit he's said about Obama. I could rant about the other stuff for hours.

Besides all of this, he has a tendency to misquote articles, showing only the bad side of this. I think what unnerves me the most about his behaviour is it is completely ignorant. As a matter of fact, the things he says comes from his father. The guy can't even form his own damn opinions! This drives me absolutely crazy. I grew up in a house that believed in mostly Republican viewpoints. As I got older, I started examaining the different parties and their beliefs. It was then I realised I didn't agree with my parents standpoints on a lot of issues. Therefore, I claimed myself a democrat when I turned sixteen. At first, this caused a lot of debates with my mother. Ironically, she now considers herself a democrat and has officially switched parties. It turned out she was basing her political views off of her parents'.

I have a couple of things I am interested in hearing others discuss. The first I'm sure has been done before, but what do you think of Obama vs. Bush? Also, What is your biggest political pet peeve? Mine, of course, being ignorance and the inability to form your own opinions.