Politics these days have become so divided and divisive that it’s become the norm to view the other side of the aisle as “the enemy”. People are being told to “pick a side” and that there’s no room for middle ground. We here at Phetasy believe that there are a lot more people in the middle than politicians and the media would have us believe.
We’re collecting stories from the ever growing number of people who are finding themselves Politically Homeless and posting them here on Substack. If you have moved from conservative to liberal, or liberal to conservative, if you feel you’ve stayed in the same place and your party has swerved drastically away from you, if you had a moment that awakened you to the insanity and hypocrisy on both sides, if you keep your mouth shut anytime a political topic comes up because you’re afraid your opinion will cause you to lose friends or your job, you’re not as alone as you might think.
Our goal is to shine a light on people’s earnest, individual experiences and show them they’re not alone.
Some letters have been edited for clarity and brevity. If you’re politically homeless and would like to share your story, please email us at iampoliticallyhomeless@gmail.com. All submissions will remain anonymous.
Letter 105:
July 24, 2024
Hi Bridget,
I'm one of those early 80s kids who graduated college in 2005 in an aeronautical engineering recession. Ended up working out pretty well as an oil and gas engineer, and I'm proud of what I do. Definitely more GenX than Millenial (dial up internet and rewinding tapes recorded from over the air TV). One of those "Xennials".
I never was very political in high school and college. We debated Gore vs. Bush in US Gov't in 12th grade, and looking back I see how absurd they both were and how we narrowly missed a Gore presidency. My main argument then was Gore sounded smart and Bush sounded dumb. Sweet summer child. In college, I don't remember much in terms of liberal protests aside from that was the popular viewpoint. The College Republicans were the ones getting teased for wearing suits to their meetings. I never felt like any mainstream party appealed to me then.
After college in California, my career took me to Wyoming. Took a while to fit in, but being from rural California helped. I learned how basically everyone there doesn't care what you do as long as you treat others well. People are nice there. BLM land was a free for all for fun, as long as you cleaned up your mess. Felt the closest to frontier as I'd experienced. Real freedom. I figured out the closest party to my leanings were the Libertarians as a result, and that had a lasting impact. I voted for Bob Barr in 2008, happily for Gary Johnson in 2012 (he appeared genuine, competent and cool), and less enthusiastically for him again in 2016 (too much weed in his system by then I think). All the D's and R's in those years were unpalatable for various reasons, economically or socially. The Obama years started the national division, and now the Democratic party is batshit insane. The Republicans are useless at effective governing when they do actually hold any power.
In 2020, I broke my Libertarian voting ways. Jo Jorgensen split the L vote with her embracing Black Lives Matter and cozying up to "woke" causes I knew were toxic to the nation's health. I voted for Trump out of spite, not because I actually liked him. I got involved casually in California Libertarian politics the last couple years, became a national party Lifetime member with the 'Mises takeover', inspired by the more hardcore economically focused wing. But then as things usually go, the 'Libertarian autists' are their own worst enemy, things happen, and now Chase Oliver is the party's candidate this round. He straight up disavows Ron Paul (I appreciate Paul more now than I used to) and is pretty obviously 'woke', and loves his Covid masks and drag shows. No thank you, and no way in hell will I vote for that.
Now I see guys like Vivek Ramaswamy gaining popularity, and JD Vance is kind of interesting. They're my age bracket and speak my political language. Maybe they're the usual political frauds. I don't know, but I don't really care at this point. I don't know if they can dismantle the administrative state save us from economic oblivion and social decay, but I'll take my chances with them. I don't know if Trump has learned any lessons, or will listen to better staff this time. The young guys seem to want to steer things in a direction that should be long term beneficial to the nation. If they fail, it doesn't really matter anyway.
So, as Matt Taibbi said recently, I'm on "Team F You".
Regards,
Politically Homeless
Some letters have been edited for clarity and brevity. If you'd like to share your story, email us at iampoliticallyhomeless@gmail.com. All submissions will remain anonymous.
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