After a couple of film related posts, here’s a bit of politics for those who are inclined to hear my thoughts on the matter. This time I not interested in a particular  event or controversy , but rather an element of modern political life that had me feeling like an outsider.

Conflicted support.

It seems from most of people I have as friends on my Facebook page, or follow along on Twitter, or know in real life have a fairly easy time deciding who is right and who is wrong on any political issue. Naturally the right/wrong axis matches pretty closely to their side and the other side. I rarely feel so certain that one philosophy or strain of through has got it all worked out.

Worse yet for me I happen to have a number of positions that end up being mutually exclusive in our crude national political culture. For example I fully support marriage equality and I also support Second Amendment rights. It’s fairly difficult to find a person to vote of that fits both those bills. (yes I know about the Libertarians  but there are aspects of modern life that requires modern governance and you can have my FDA when you are my personal Guinea pig.) This of course is not my only internal political conflict, I do not believe in progressive taxation and I do support the ACA (‘Obamacare’ for the rest of you.)

I am forced in each election to put my beliefs through a grueling grinder to produce a hierarchy  and I am always for to sacrifice some to advance others. This doesn’t make me a terribly happy person with the votes I must cast, but it the reality of the universe. You cannot let the perfect be the enemy of the good, and some progress is better than a principled stand to yields nothing.

However when I look around it seems to me that my relatives and friends and associates hardly seem to suffer this sort of conflict at all. Left is the way! Right is the Way!

I know that there is n end in sight for me. I will forever be balancing the times, my priorities, and what can be achieved, but  I dream of a day with more people will be open to their own conflicts and less religious in the certitude.