Why I Can't Tow a Party Line

Hi Kids!

Guess what?!

Did you know that Obama is a Muslim and that if we elect him terrorists will ransack our country? Yup.

It's true.

Just like McCain fathering an illegitimate child who is sshh... not white. Shocking, I know.

Do you believe this BS that still filters around? Or are you skeptical and researching the actual facts?

BTW, did you also know that we were all shocked and surprised by 9/11? Yeah, never saw that coming with all the warnings that went back to the Clinton administration. It wasn't our own arrogance or forgetting that we were attacked before at Pearl Harbor or anything. Nope. Can't be that. No one has ever tried to get on our shores before 2001. Which has me really wondering- Um.. why is it then that my father works in defense and for years has known about other country's making their way over here but we just never hear about it in the mainstream media. Can't be because unsuccessful attempts don't grab big headlines, could it?

Here's the thing people. I'm a moderate. Increasingly, I feel I have no place in this country. Yet, I know I am not alone. I believe that globalization is more than being about business. That it is to the point and beyond that we as a WORLD need to focus on the issues not just as "what is this going to do for me?" arrogant countries isolated and alone out there being bullied by other countries regarding oil and terrorism. I guess that makes me a bit of an idealist. I still believe that grassroots campaigns work. I believe in the power of the individual and how banded together we can really make things happen. You know, all that stuff our country was founded on. The foundations and beliefs that made this country great and had Lincoln pacing the White House hallways at night.

I am hurt by a party that isolates and continues to propagate untruths and by people who are uniformed about both sides of the coin.

I am spitting mad by uninformed voters and those who just don't care.

I am seething mad that one party chooses a VP female candidate to bring in not just the 'girly parts' vote but the sheer fact that they don't even have a 'Women's Issues' section on their own campaign website. Guess us pie bakers are too busy at home with our kids or ignoring them to actually do some research and see that we are being handed a bag full of fluff.

I am bitter and saddened when I see my husband, who served his country, be told he is unpatriotic with no morals and cannot simply support the troops because he doesn't tow one party line.

A party that has changed so much from what it used to be - small-business favored with small non-Big Brother type government and being a country that produced things and didn't whine. One that believed in itself and not placing blame on another party simply because things are not going the way we want them to. One that increasingly believes that we are futile. That our opinions overall do not matter because what difference can one person really make? That one size needs to fit all. If it doesn't, move to Canada. They are friendlier there with their universal health care and all, right?

Readers, sigh.. do me a favor. Regardless of who you think you like right now- Please, please, please go out and inform yourself beyond the talking pundits, the analysts, the convention diatribe and news networks. Look at voting records that don't come from campaign websites. Dig. Really, dig. Figure out what is important to you- pick three top issues or something! Then, find the best fit because as a nation we have never been one size fits all and are never going to be.

Then? Figure out a way to help and make a difference. You do matter. You can make a difference. The only way you don't is if you just sit back and watch the world go by while bitchin' from your chair.

You can start here.