I Am Not Who Labels Say I Am

Labels, used properly, should clearly and accurately identify the contents of the item they represent. Labeling people is a dangerous things to do. Just as soon as you think you know who someone is or what they believe based on a label…you are likely to find yourself to be completely and totally wrong.

I am a Christian. I live in Texas. I am a registered Republican. I live in the suburbs, but I am not a soccer mom.

If that is all someone knew about me they might assume that I am a right wing wack job who is a homophobic, gun-toting, bigoted red neck who wants to control women’s bodies, pollute the air with my gas gusling car, all while carrying a confederate flag.

Nope…not even close.

And yet everyday that what politicians and the media – mainstream and conservative – try to do to their listeners, viewers and voters. They polarize and demonize the other side simply to hold on to the power and influence they have worked so hard to amass.

Politics Are Ugly

Yes, I voted for Donald Trump only after he became the Republican nominee. To me the choice was not between Trump and Hilary Clinton, but between two polar opposite world views. Hilary Clinton, to me, represented the worst of the old guard political machine with a world view that I cannot agree with and whose position in the White House would only lead to a deepening of that kind of political dynasty. I feel the same way about ever electing another Bush.

I voted for Trump again in 2022. It wasn’t a vote of support, but again, the lesser of two “evils.” I believe Joe Biden was and is medically unfit to lead our country. It breaks my heart to see this man used to affect a political agenda. There are other reasons I couldn’t vote for him, but compassion was at the top of my list.

Donald Trump, brash, pushy, and egotistical, brought with him the rough street fighting personality that made him a successful business man. It was ugly and mean spirited. I hated the Tweets, the name calling and the manipulative tools he used to get his way. Though I could never fully carry the flag for Trump’s parade, he achieved something only a political outsider could accomplish, he pulled back the curtain to expose the corruption, hypocrisy, and manipulation deeply embedded in American politics. Both sides hate him for committing the ultimate sin of transparency. As the Hunter Biden laptop story continues into the main stream public’s view, big tech social media giants are revealed as co-conspirators with the political elite to control the flow of certain information, the world is getting a peek into the peep show that is American politics. They use eloquent speech while giving the illusion that we are the priority, and go about their real business in private. That fortress wall is crumbling and rightly so.

This game of corruption and power is play on both sides of the aisle. I personally believe the Democrats are better at it than the Republicans. Not more corrupt, just better at rallying their troops and standing together no matter what so there is a semblance of unity and thus being in the right. They also have a larger and stronger media base to spread their view point. The poor hapless Republicans dig their heels in and fight with each other. I truly wish I could be a registered Independent in my state, but I can’t. So I register with the side that errs on the side of stupidity rather than deviousness. I’m not sure what that says about me, but that is a topic for another day.

I have struggled to write the past few days. This is the beginning of what just flowed from my heart as I sat down at my computer. I have edited, deleted and added information then ultimately decided that I would divide the topic into two or three days. These are big issues and this is where I stand. I am taking the risk that some will agree, some will disagree but hang around, and others will disagree and run as fast as possible from me and my ideas. All are ok with me. This is what is on my mind, so I decided it needed saying. Tomorrow I will address some of the labels that could be placed on me based on the criteria I gave in the introduction.

Until tomorrow, think outside your box,

Sheryl