I Guess I'm a Republican. Maybe? - Politically Homeless

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 62:

August 9th, 2023

Hey Bridget,

First off, thanks for taking the time to read this. You're doing a tremendous public service and I share every episode of Dumpster Fire as widely as I can. I'm 43, male, white, married and a father of two boys. I'm also Catholic. My wife is an officer in the National Guard and a far better woman than I deserve to have ended up with. She pushed to make sure our kids went to Catholic school in the fall of 2019. That decision ensured that our kids were able to go to school for in-person learning in the fall of 2020.

I grew up as a comedy nerd, listening to George Carlin and Bill Hicks. They set me on a path of questioning the beliefs that my parents held and their parents before them. Then the scandals of the church that had been swept under the rug were brought into the light. Suddenly, nothing was sacred and everything, culturally speaking, was up for grabs.  Smash cut to today and it seems like the progressive left sets the frame and everyone else reacts to it. We lob grenades at each other from our respective news bubbles and nothing gets fixed.

Politically speaking, if you put a gun to my head and said, "Pick a team: red or blue." I'd currently side with Republicans. But I'm left with the spirit of Bill Hicks sitting on my shoulder reminding me of all of the machinery behind the puppet out in front. Yes, Rand Paul wheels the 3,000 page omnibus bill out in his little red wagon to complain about the impending government shutdown. But the votes are counted and the bill passes every time. I don't know if I've just witnessed a defiant patriot taking a principled stand or just the guy they prop up to help sell the kayfabe they present to us plebs.

If I had to settle on a label for my current outlook, I would call it "Happy Gilmore Conservatism." Every day, I wake up, check my news feed and find out what I'm supposed to be reacting to. And my response is typically, "I know what you're doing right now, and I don't like it." As a younger man I could shrug it all off as just the typical diversions that are used to keep us fighting over nonsense. Now it has morphed into a full-blown cultural revolution and it's hitting too close to home. I have a niece who used to be my nephew and a nephew who used to be my niece. Needless to say, it's been a disruptive influence on the extended family.

Going forward, I'm choosing to readjust my priorities:

Low:           Political:     Right vs Left

Moderate:   Class:         Up vs Down

High:          Moral:         Good vs Evil

If we can agree on some of the big things in the Good vs Evil bracket, maybe we'll be alright. Again, thanks for listening.

Sincerely,

Politically Homeless