Politically Homeless - I Am Exhausted

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 28:

9/1/20

Hey Bridget!

You are one of my favorite follows: thanks for being you.

Anywho, my story: I come from a decidedly conservative Christian family, and am still a conservative Christian myself. 2016 was the first election I could vote in. I was a sophomore in college. I hated Hillary and couldn't hold my nose enough to vote for Trump. I didn't care enough to vote third party. So I didn't vote. My parents voted third party. My then-fiance, now-husband, voted for Hillary. My grandparents, who are two of my heroes, voted for Trump. I didn't have the luxury of hating people who made different voting choices. I told no one that I didn't vote except my parents, from whom I was seeking guidance for processing the election. My mom then let it slip at Thanksgiving that my fiance voted for Hillary, and my uncle basically accused him and me of not caring about unborn babies (we are both as pro-life as the day is long and volunteer at our crisis pregnancy center).

I plan on voting for Jo Jorgenson this year. Trump has been a disaster for the coarsening of political discourse and in his handling of riots and Covid. Biden has the most radical pro-abortion agenda any major candidate has ever tried. Neither of them is an option and I refuse to condone or submit to the fatalism of our two-party system. We nominated Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Really. We surveyed like 200 million eligible Americans and these two were the paragons of progress and virtue that we have to choose between?

God help us survive this November.

P.S. I can't stomach abortion, but I would've voted for Andrew Yang. He seemed like the only one on the left who sees abortion as always bad, even if he believes it is sometimes necessary. He also expressed real empathy for the concerns of Trump voters like my grandparents, instead of blaming it all on latent racism. Plus he actually seemed human in the way he enjoyed himself on stage and treated his family. Biden and Trump both treat their wives like talking props.

Follow Up:

8/30/22

These days, I am exhausted. Just plain exhausted. Covid, the election, Jan. 6, Afghanistan, Ukraine, Dobbs, student loan forgiveness... These are things you can't avoid talking about, but nobody in my family or community wants to hear my nuanced opinions on them. Either the Covid vaccine is dangerous gene therapy, or making 2-year-olds wear masks to library story time is absolutely necessary, apparently.

I try to hunker down and focus on the real people in my life who make a real difference in my day-to-day living, but those people are increasingly occupied with politics and bringing it up at church, at birthday parties, on Facebook. Now I have to be on my guard that I don't say the wrong thing (that I actually believe) in these previously apolitical or minimally political spaces. And it's just plumb exhausting.

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.