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 86:
March 24, 2024
As a freelancer, I’ve never felt the loneliness that some complain about—by nature, I’m a lone wolf who runs with the pack only when needed. Family, close friends, and daily interactions with clients have generally been plenty over the past two-plus decades.
But around 2010, I recognized that it would be smart career-wise to have some connection to the broader industry. I joined a few professional editing organizations and wrote a couple of books about the business of freelancing, which I parlayed into speaking gigs. At conferences, I made real-life friends with people I’d known for years on Facebook and various forums for word dorks. I felt like I’d found my pack.
Dear Reader, I’ll let you guess what year things got weird. The usual conference seminars about language or running a business careened into stuff like gender, racism, and sensitivity reading. Buttons on the tables that you could stick to your lanyard, proclaiming your pronouns or professing your allegiance to some political cause. Keynote speakers saying nasty things about conservatives to smug laughter. At one breakout session, people went around the table and said why they’d gotten into the media. More than a few said “To change the world.”
Mission accomplished, I guess.
For the first time since going into business for myself, I felt lonely. In an industry where the default assumption is that Left=Smart and Good, these people loathed me for pulling a voting booth lever once every four years. But like John Goodman’s soliloquy in The Gambler, I live life from a position of “Fuck you.” A few years ago, I didn’t renew any of my memberships, except the one organization that had stayed apolitical.
Professionally, I keep my yap shut about politics. There’s nothing to gain. I lean right on economic matters, centrist on social ones, and my clients are all over the board. Few of my colleagues know where I stand. The perceptive ones, if they see this, might guess my identity.
Even if we’re in the this-is-why-we-can’t-have-nice-things portion of the program, I’m an optimist. If I can point to a bright spot, it’s the fight against AB5, the PRO Act, new Department of Labor rules, and the gamut of anti-independent contractor initiatives driven by the Democrat Party and unions. (Props to Bridget for speaking out about this on the regular.) In the process, I’ve seen people coming together from across the political spectrum to fend off government overreach and protect our livelihoods. It’s been heartening, in that respect.
In a 90% left-leaning industry, however, a lot of my colleagues have a hard decision to make this fall: Are you willing to support a party and administration that wants to wreck your business and make life worse for your clients? You may not be interested in politics, but it’s interested in you.
Sincerely,
Denless Wolf
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.
You May Not Be Interested In Politics, But It’s Interested In You