These past two weeks, culminating in Bush's announcement yesterday, have been a wake up call.
Politics, has always been 'just' politics for myself and my partner. Something we think, read and talk about, something we participate in occasionally on a state/federal level, often on a local level, vote in every election, primary or otherwise.
We've disagreed with nearly everything Bush does or says, we get angry half the time, but after the last while and then yesterday, Mr. Bush has made it personal. (political cartoon that says it all). He has directly attacked my family.
So, no longer are we just 'political'. We were angry before, now we are something beyond angry, we are fighting mad, we are defending our children. And, in spite of the punditry to the contrary, I believe Bush just made a huge mistake. Perhaps he placated his base, but he not only just lost a few million votes from gay republicans and the 'middle', he just made a few million other people redouble their efforts to unseat him and his minions.
Just one personal example, We were going to donate a couple hundred to various causes and candidates, we felt it was all we could afford right now. But after yesterday's speech, today we have taken a large chunk from our personal savings and investments, a magnitude more than we planned before, a couple magnitudes more . We are going to take an approach we take with our investments, finding the right races and the right candidates and the right organizations and put our money where are votes have gone. Protecting this nation, protecting our family, is more important than a new car, vacation or whatever else we might have spent that money on.
a personal diary post, but I finally internalized today what I've always known
politics is personal.