Make a Wish

So the election is over and we have a new President elect. I hope everyone that wanted to was able to get out and vote.

I was talking to my friend veggie librarian last night and she made a pretty funny point. Do you remember when you were little and you had to make a wish for your birthday or on a shooting star? Remember how you were never supposed to tell anyone or it would not come true? V said she finds it funny that people act the same way about their choice for president. Why is it that everyone doesn't want to tell who they voted for. Are they maybe afraid it won't come true like the wishes we made in childhood? Honestly friends should be able to tell friends who they voted for and not be all secretive about it.

I found this perspective quite amusing. I began to think of reasons for why we might not want to broadcast our political choices, even to our friends. I mean logically politics and your opinions about them have no place in the work place. Therefore we can't really have conversations about our political choices with our co-workers, so we avoid the subject. I can definitely see avoiding politics at the office, but why are we still secretive with our friends? I came up with only a few good reasons. We hide our political opinion because we are afraid of retribution and potential attacks by people trying to get us to change our minds. It is either that, or we don't trust in our decisions enough to be able to defend them in an argument. I think we all know at least one person who is not afraid to give you their opinion and chastise you for not believing in the same things they do. Those people will not stop trying to criticize your choices and will constantly try to get you to see things their way. And politics are no different. There are plenty of people who are proud of their choices and who are willing to get on their soapbox at any given opportunity.

But not everyone acts this way. So why do we feel the need to hide our decisions from friends? If we are all reasonably intelligent people we should be able to accept that our friends have different opinions and embrace them even if we do not agree. Yet for some reason politics is different. Politics gets people up in arms. I suppose politics get to the core of our lives and has a effect on us all. We can all find a platform to cling to or rally against. I suppose criticising someones political choices is a little like criticising their parenting skills and you should be prepared for backlash.

So maybe we don't want to start arguments with our friends. Maybe we don't want to seem pushy. Maybe we don't want to feel pushed upon. Maybe we haven't even made a decision yet.

But maybe, just maybe we want our wish to come true.