Politics, Politics, Politics

 

“Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” – John F. Kennedy

Just like religion, this is one of the topics not welcome at many social gatherings.  RVers stay away from the topic most of the time.  Even though it’s usually fairly easy to know how one person may stand on one subject or another, the actual discussion of politics is normally avoided.  Now there are some codgers who have trouble avoiding this subject.  We all have trouble not talking about things that we enjoy.  Some people are just addicted to the discussion of politics and current events.  When you turn on the news politics is on every channel.  It’s not just on CNN or FOX, it’s everywhere.  Normally you can tell how a person swings by the station he watches. 

Me?  I get tired of the news channels.  I get really, really tired of them.  However, the person I live with is definitely addicted to this stuff as are some of his RVing friends.  Politics isn’t just on the news.  When your phone rings this time of year and you don’t know the number, it just might be some company taking a survey.  The surveyors asks your opinion about many issues and ends the conversation wanting to know how you plan on voting in November.  The results of these polls end up in the news.

The other morning was no different.  One channel was telling how a recent poll indicated the democrats had a slight lead.  Another poll was saying republicans had a slight lead.  So, just how accurate can these polls be?

I know periodically we get phone calls …. which we rarely answer anymore.  Just how accurate can these polls be even if 85% of cell phone owners are registered voters?  These polls are supposed to be based on folks most likely to  vote.  How do they know that?  They only poll about 1500 people and the whole election is based on an opinion of these few people.  Cell phone numbers are now even used for surveys and surveyors have no idea even what states these people are registered (or not registered) to vote in.  We also know elections aren’t determined by popular vote.

There are always those folks who vote ticket no matter what the issues are, no matter what they believe and no matter who is running. My girlfriend only votes one way. We don’t talk politics. We don’t talk religion. We’ve had a pact since high school. Well, we used to discuss these things but over the years have determined that what we say really doesn’t matter anyway so why talk about it.

With some friends these are comfortable discussions and others not so much.  Sometimes it’s easy to guess what party people belong to by where they worked and what they did.  We all stereotype  -- right or wrong.   What you can’t tell is how strong someone may feel about their party.  The safest thing is just to stay away from discussing politics.

There have been a few I have discussed liberal and conservative views with recently. We don’t really agree on everything but we’re comfortable not agreeing. It’s comfortable being comfortable.  For some …. these are fighting topics but not for me. Terry on the other hand ….. well, you know.  No topic is more fun to him than talking about politics. Meeting up with others who share his TV station news preference and ideas is just a big bonus to him.  He can have hours and hours of fun talking about the same thing over and over again and especially with a few RVing friends who don’t argue sides.  You know who you are. Of course between them they aren’t going to save the world or even change it.  They can just enjoy themselves for the moment and believe that their discussion and opinion is the correct one and everyone else is wrong.

November is just around the corner.  We will soon be able to tell how accurate these polls are.  I’m sure over the next few weeks they will be changing constantly.  What I’m still not sure about is how just a little over a thousand people can actually predict the outcome of an election when millions vote.

--- just another filler blog.

‘Tis life on the road.