That’s so juvenile Jon.

I voted today so I canceled out your vote. And my husband canceled out Heather’s. So, it’s done.

Oh, you’ll be happy…I got in trouble at the polls, LOL. We have early voting for half the month and were out today getting lunch and decided just to drop in and vote since the lines were really short. I had on my “Moms for McCain/Palin” tee. I totally got in trouble and had to turn it inside out, LOL. Funny thing is that you could totally read it inside out too. So maybe my shirt swayed someone right at the last minute. My husband said that was really a sneaky move…it was right across my boobs (not that that would matter in my case) and besides that bringing attention, people looked because the words were backwards and they couldn’t make out what it said…so it drew more attention, LOL. I thought you’d find that funny. I was a bit embarrassed about having to turn the shirt inside out, but I was thankful when someone else walked in wearing an Obama shirt and had to do it too.

Then I couldn’t walk on that side of the town square because of the shirt…had to go the long way around. I felt like such a rebel, LOL.

Jon,

This is the problem. You are just as blind as you claim all the conservatives to be. You preach and talk about how wonderful your views are and your “leaders”. Whatever. Let’s just see. Hell, I’ll give Obama a chance (what frigin’ choice do I have it seems). What I can’t WAIT for is the deflate…the huge frigin’ bubble of the liberal ideal that is gonna come crashin down in about a year (if not less). There be a huge, audible “HUH?” coming from everyone who voted for Obama. HE WILL BREAK A CAMPAIGN PROMISE WITHIN A FEW MONTHS of taking office, mark my word. Me and Joe Biden say so.

He is not firm. He’s for change alright…his own on every thing he’s ever said. One week it’s this…then he gets a bit of flap and suddenly it’s something completely different or revised. Dances of wolves didn’t see so much movement!

So once all his platitudes are a thing of campaigns bygone, the reality of what he said he would do will hit the fan and the longwinded explanations of why he had to change, yet again, will start hitting Americans in the face. Then what Jon? What will you do then? Still give hope a chance. Sure, why not…we did that with Bush for two terms. Welcome to my world and enjoy your time in the sun because I hate to break it to ya, you’re gonna be just as disappointed with “the one” as I was with the “other one”…and pretty much “every other one” since like 1981!

The system is broken. And yes, jmcdonie is angry. As he should be. As we all should be. This country was not founded on people being content! It was founded on a bunch of people who were mad as hell on not gonna take it anymore. They fled their homeland because they were fed up. And thank goodness they got pissed because otherwise we wouldn’t be here. Anger is healthy. It fuels debate. It doesn’t let people get away with shit. It’s part of the checks and balances that makes this country great.

And you are WRONG about you being an elitist. I don’t care if you and Heather shop at Neiman Marcus or not. You are very upper income yuppies and you know it. You spend more on trips to rock concerts than any two people I know. I know no one whose just flown out of town to go to a rock festival…and then rented professional grade camera equipment just for the hell of it. Who can afford such luxuries? Not me. Not as often as you and Heather, that’s for sure. You guys own more camera equipment than anyone I know, and I know professional photographers! Not to mention the computers and trips to Anthropologie and purchases off Etsy. There are those in this world who don’t hop a flight just at a whim or a few times a week. There are those who’ve never been courted by the Palm Springs set for what probably will end up as a tv show or movie about their life. There are those who don’t show off their expensive pure breed dog and hand made stationery. You are not in touch with any segment of the population that you claim to champion with your views. Hmm, you sound like a politician…”I feel your pain”. Yeah right.

I’ve asked you at least two times to tell us a personal story of someone you know that is suffering right now that will benefit from Obama’s plans. So far, I’ve gotten zero from you. Why is that? Because I truly feel you don’t know anyone in those kinds of circumstanc and definitely don’t associate with anyone other than your blog trendy hipster crowd.

I have no friends who’ve been featured in the NYT. You do. I don’t know anyone who can just go away and spend a month out of country and not work. You do. Hell, I don’t know anyone who can afford to do what you and Heather do or many of your friends that are blog stars too. So while you’d love to portray yourself as some plain ole Utah native with just a modest lifestlye, you forget that you’ve been sharing a very different level of lifestyle with millions of people the past 10 years! You are not Joe Six Pack, though you do have a whole refrigerator you bought just to hold your imported stock. Give me a break.

Now, who is in denial?

Please don’t make me have to go back through Dooce archives etc. to show you the lifestyle you have SHOWN us you live versus the kind you think we can be fooled into thinking you live by your platitudes.

Jon,

I must apologize.

Recently I had a discussion of politics with an acquaintance (can’t say friend because we simply don’t know each other that well, but our husbands worked together) turn ugly. In that situation she attacked me pretty personally in a very hurtful way, ironically, in much the same way I attacked you. Just as I was about to lash out at her in defense, she wrote to me to say she was sorry.

Though I really didn’t feel like accepting the apology because of the nastiness she had written, I knew I should and did. We’ve agreed to agree to disagree, but be respectful.

So, with that, I will apologize to you for being so personal in the nature of my response to what you’d written to jmcdonie.

I think the thing that sent me “there” was that you were being very insulting in your response in terms of how you think conservatives view the world. Time and again you insinuate they are ignorant or less caring in general as a group. I know for sure that I am not those things.

As I’ve written before, I’m new to the Republican party and am in no way a poster child for it’s overall platform. So, with my new skin, I get very flustered to be called a fundamentalist anything with blanket statements like you wrote in that response. I guess I got so peeved and took it so personally that I grabbed hold of your bits about Palin and McCain being elitist or whatever.

I do really think though that many liberals have a tendency to act very superior to what they’ve deemed as a lesser class of people, conservatives, in terms of intellect etc, whicy I find very hypocritical.

I do have issues with some conservative views. In fact, when I wear my McCain/Palin shirt out and about I sort of worry people will consider me some Christian fundamentalist/anti abortion type. There’s no shirt big enough to say “Social liberal/fiscally conservative/atheist/pro-choicer for McCain/Palin”.

It’s gets very murky for me. I feel abandoned by the Democratic Party and yet not comfortable completely with the Republican Party. I would go Independent, but I don’t feel that really gives me as a voter a true voice that will result in action.

Either way, I feel trapped, by both parties and where we are in this country. I feel misrepresented and misunderstood. My casual friend seemed to understand that my passion for these debates comes from a place of good intent and thoughtful consideration. I do believe yours does too, but I so wish you would consider that when you make such devisive, blanket statements about conservatives being ignorant, selfish, dishonorable or whatever, you are grouping in a bunch of people there that don’t feel they deserve such classification.

You are well informed and well intentioned. So is Heather. So am I, and all the other commenters you have. If one thing good comes from this past year, it’s that more people are voicing a concern, a call for action and acting on that concern by campaigning, debating and voting. When I was in my 20s it seemed like this nation was giving up on even trying in terms of politics. So many people just didn’t care or even vote. We’ve definitely moved away from that. And that is a very good thing.

I have no idea what will happen. I don’t think it’s as clearcut as you’d like to think. It will be a close election. And then? Who the fuck knows. What I hope more than anything though is that people don’t leave their passion for this debate at the voting booth. Either way, as Americans, we should stay involved and concerned for whichever way this country heads. Sitting back complacently is what bites us in the ass every time.

One thing I’d like to throw out there…CNN actually did this in naming their top 10 most wanted in the economic crash…(We were number three in the list).

Along with the government, Wall Street, ACORN, banks and big business…the American people are very much to blame for this economic crisis. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to take a look at how most people live in this country…with huge amounts of debt, hardly any, if no savings to see that we are as much to blame. Having lived that way in my life in the past, never really worrying about how I’d pay it off or if it even mattered, I know we are guilty for being too selfish as a people, not just as political parties etc. I’ve changed my ways and am ashamed of ever acting that way. Hopefully this crisis will wake not only this nation up, but also the people up in this nation. All I want, seriously, is for people to be responsible for themselves.

With that, I take responsibility for being over the line and respecting your request to tone it down. Hell, only one week left. Surely, I can manage that long. If I don’t get what I want as a voter, I’ll keep my stroke to myself.