Election Thoughts...Be Nice

Every Halloween I look up and down the aisle at all of the ridiculously skimpy costumes for sale, and I wonder how Halloween became a free pass for women to dress so inappropriately. I'm all for dressing up, but you still need to be just as smart about your choices as any other night, maybe even more so.

I now watch election season unfold, and I wonder how election season became a free pass to be so hateful a disrespectful to one another. I'm not even talking about political adds. You would think that at a time where people hold these issues so close to their hearts, people would take special precaution with what they say as to not hurt each other. Instead the very opposite happens. I understand that politics are passionate. We should get fired up about such a crucial decision as who is going to lead our country. However, this does not mean that it is okay to be unkind to people who have opposing views to our own.

By my own family members, I have been called uneducated, and through facebook, a cry baby, and a moron. I'm not going to pretend that didn't hurt, especially since I don't post political things over facebook unless I think they are pretty safe. I watched family members dish out much worse to each other. I have even seen someone wish death to a candidate. 

I want to turn to these people and ask them, "Do you really believe that I don't want the best for America? Not just the best for me, but the best for you as well. Do you really believe I don't educate myself about the candidates and the issues? Do you really believe I would make my choice just because that's what my parents did or that I just don't get it? Finally, do you really believe that when you make your unkind comments to me, or really to anyone who believes the same things I do, that I'm not invested enough in my decision that your comment didn't hurt?"

Hear this. I take great care in forming my political views, and I vote the way I do because I truly and passionately believe it would be the very best choice for the whole country. Most importantly I believe the same is true of you. I believe that you made your decision (even when it is different than mine) because you believe that it is best for the country. I do not think that you are uneducated, or that you simply don't get it. I believe that you have put thought into your decision, and I respect you for it.

I am not afraid to declare that I believe Mitt Romney is best choice for the 2012 election. I feel very strongly about this decision that I have made, and I am very fearful for what America might look like after eight years of Obama. I hope that if you are voting for Obama you feel just as passionate about your decision as I do about mine, and I believe that you do.

I want you to support your candidate on facebook, twitter, and where ever. We absolutely should be advocating for what/whom we believe in. I am just so very weary of watching what could be a respectful discussion turn into words that are hurtful and unkind. Can we all agree to be a little more respectful of each other? Before we post or comment, lets choose to believe that we each want whats best for the country, we just believe that we will get there on different paths.

One thing that is certain, is that every four years there are millions of Americans that are disappointed, because the candidate that they fought so very hard for was not elected. Still, we progress. Yes there are ups and downs to our history, but if past Democrats and Republicans, Federalists and Whigs, and even the Bull Moose found a way to survive what they thought was certainly the ruin of our country, so can we. Whoever we turns out to be.