Politically Homeless - Yet To Find My Tribe
Real people, real letters, real problems, no solutions.
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 22:
Thank you for the opportunity to share my story. I have yet to find my tribe. My political journey started after January 6th. My partner watches Fox News because he is from a communist country. Their points were often a lot more reasonable than the liberal media would have you believe. However, I could not understand their lack of condemnation for Donald Trump's actions on January 6th. They went as far as vilifying those who testified against him during the hearings. I understand that they felt he was their best bet, but I could not get on board with any of their defenses, or the fact that they did not drop him like a hot potato.
The man sent an angry mob to the Capitol, then watched them break in on TV. Instead of calling for backup, he then put his own VP in danger by sending out an incendiary tweet based on a lie. This brought me to seek out other news sources, such as CNN and MSNBC. I found myself agreeing with more than 50% of both conservative and liberal commentators, probably because they both point out the reasonable things of their own side and the most upsetting things from the other side (which is not hard to do in such a big country).
There is so much more to say about this, but it scares me to think that most people will never seek out the other side of the story on their own, leading everyone to become only more entrenched in their views and more hateful of the other. When I went to Twitter this conclusion was confirmed. People literally put on their profiles that they only befriend blue, for example, creating their own echo chambers. A reasonable Republican once shared that not every Republican wants to keep semi-automatic guns and ban abortion. The first reaction to her post was, "well then you are not a Republican" (posted by a Democrat).
I am thankful that people chose the middle ground in the general election, but it scared me that reasonable Republicans in the primaries were dismissed as RINO'S. We desperately need people in the middle from both sides. It appears that people feel they have to side with their team on every issue, because this country only has two parties so the stakes are high. No chance to change that at this point, because the first party that splits, loses.
At this point I feel that people watching different news channels live in completely different realities. My conservative friends call me a liberal, and my liberal friends call me a conservative. Neither of them is willing to watch the viewpoints from the other side (because "Fox/CNN lies"). I have always believed that you can come to a reasonable conclusion by discussing the actual issues, but there seems to be very little of that these days. Both sides accuse the other of being authoritarian, and both sides have elements of that (which is why we need a balance of power).
Thank you again for letting me share, the reason I have felt more alone than I probably should, is that I believe you can actually discuss policy, but then find myself jumping into a discussion where everyone is only taking one side. The people who have a more balanced perspective or something to contribute from the other side, usually shy away because they do not want to get bombarded.
Sincerely,
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.
I agree that retreating to the echo chamber is a bad idea (no matter what side it’s on). I think if we actually sat down and had a conversation about the issues, we’d find we have a lot more in common than the media makes it seem. I have many friends on both sides of it (some of whom are open to it) and have had several meaningful conversations about the issues (even coming to an agreement on solutions).
My greatest concern is the disingenuous way our government on both sides of the aisle casually lie about what they intend to do and what their political opponents are doing. I think the greatest failure of our political system is the level of transparency they are willing to offer and the use of fear to motivate people to stand with them in their position. It is obvious that both sides cannot be right. And I refuse to ‘pick a side’ to stand with people who are not accustomed to either transparency or moderation. I want neither a fascist state nor a communist paradise. I don’t want a ‘tribe’ because the nature of tribalism is to be in conflict with other ‘tribes’ who disagree or hold different ideologies. This, in a day and age when everyone getting along and working for common sense goals that benefit the greatest number of people would seem like the most reasonable way to go. I would settle for voting for an honest candidate…but they are not very popular these days. So as usual, I will vote for the lesser of two evils.