One of Those Personalities
I have one of those faces. You know, the type of face that makes people say, "I swear, you look just exactly like my brother Joe's ex-girlfriend Sally." ... or, "Man, you could be my cousin Dorothy's twin." ... or, "Has anyone ever told you that you look just like [fill in blank with name of awkwardly cute celebrity of the moment like Alanis Morrissette, Fiona Apple or Linda Hamilton]."
Sometimes, I think I have one of those personalities too. I am strong but not overpowering. Open but not embracing. Flexible but not pliable. Impressionable but not easily influenced. Obstinate but not argumentative. Friendly but not gushing. Accepting but not naive. Opinionated but not always vocal.
What am I trying to say? Something like this: people often find it easy to project their own belief systems onto me and assume we are more like-minded than we actually are.
Recently, a family member was surprised to learn that I didn't vote for Bush. Considering I still can't fathom why anyone voted for Bush, I was shocked that she thought I had.
The conversation played out something like this.
Me: yada yada yada something sarcastic about "my friend" Bush.
Her: Shock, shock, surprise, no way, shock. I thought we agreed on these things. You mean you didn't vote?
Me: I voted.
Her [Incredulous]: You voted for Dumbhead?
Me: If dumbheadedness is your standard, then you voted for the wrong person. Kerry may have a lot of flaws, but he certainly wasn't the dumbest of the two.
Her: And now that Bush is in office, which of his policies are you unhappy with?
Seriously, we were keeping it lighthearted, but someone else piped in here to give the typical warning about not discussing religion or politics. So instead of debating policies, I said "all of them" and went back to discussing the fact that I am in fact a registered independent and sometimes vote moderate but usually lean toward the liberal point of view - and how surprised I was that this had escaped her attention.
But now that the question is hanging out there - which of Bush's policies am I unhappy with - I think the correct response is: You mean besides education, healthcare, foreign affairs, the budget and civil rights? Besides all that?
Well, I think the faith-based initiative was a good idea on the surface but it's not being implemented correctly. I think the President's Management Agenda has some merit and has encouraged cost cutting and more accurate reporting in a lot of agencies, but it'll be years before those results are seen in the public sphere. I think the eavesdropping business is probably blown out of proportion as are most public scandals. I think Bush has some good immigration policies but others that are absurd. I'm trying to be fair here, to point out the good things. I respect the strategy behind his Supreme Court appointees, for instance. And I think his W campaign was brilliant simplicity. But honestly, for the things that matter to me, the things I stated above, I disagree with him on all counts. And, I'm especially bothered by his theocratical leanings and his attempts to bring religion back into politics.
There's more, of course. Good and bad. I don't normally debate politics here or anywhere else (and maybe that's part of the problem), but just in case anyone else out there is laboring under the false impression that I voted for Bush, I wanted to set the record straight. I voted for Dumbhead.
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