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 72:
January 3rd, 2024
I have been politically homeless since 2004.
I was always an independent voter, supporting democrat, republican and libertarian candidates. “Lord willing and the creek don’t rise” 2024 will be my tenth presidential election and I have never voted for an incumbent presidential candidate. Our current executive hasn’t shown me any reason to want to keep him around. But for whom could I vote? I never voted for Trump, but neither am I a Trump hater and actually thought his administration did a fair job though I cannot agree to support him now as he remains, even his supporters must admit, a very divisive politician.
Being an independent voter, I get criticized by both sides and the argument usually goes something like this: “even if you don’t 100% like our candidate you must surely agree that we cannot allow [insert candidate name] to be elected. The very fabric of our democracy is at stake! This is the most important election of our lifetimes and if we allow [insert candidate name] to be elected, there may never be another election!!”
If either political party cannot obtain outright support for their candidate then we get the fear / guilt hard sell. While I am very disappointed with the GOP and their inability to pass any meaningful legislation and do not seem to be up to the task of opposing the democrats in our adversarial political process, the democratic party seems unrecognizable and has gone so far left that I, a moderate / centrist who is maybe a little right of center, have been called a far right extremist. I do not understand how supporting limited federal government and enforcing border security laws makes me “far right” but here we are.
I do not see either party advocating for limiting the federal government, amending federal spending policies, amending foreign policy, reducing the size and scope of the federal government, initiating term limits and securing voting integrity laws. Both sides call the other side cultists, there is virtually no existing actual political discussion as most communication is either virtue signaling or hostile rhetoric, demonizing the opposing viewpoint and there is also no viable third party. Kennedy is interesting and I think he would do better than a libertarian or green party candidate but I’m not sure that would be enough as many voters either blindly follow whatever the party says or make the lesser of two evils vote.
So I have been and remain,
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.
Politically Homeless Since 2004