I hate politics

I seriously do. It might not seem that way since I have a opinion about EVERYTHING, but I hate politics, most politicians, and most decidedly, presidential election years.

I'm sure we are all aware that Hilary Rosen went on CNN last night and said, speaking about Mitt Romney's wife, Ann: "Guess what? His wife has actually never worked a day in her life. She's never really dealt with the kinds of economic issues that a majority of the women in this country are facing." And then every news outlet and even my facebook feed has stories of indigent moms upset that the democrats think that raising kids isn't work. I get it. No one has to tell me about the "invisible work" that women do. My mom was a stay at home mom, who raised me and my 2 sisters. Most of my friends are stay at home moms and I know that what they do is not easy. I could probably even calculate the GDP figuring in women's unpaid labor in the home. I could write 20 page papers about the glass ceiling, and even tell you what the pay gap in 2009 was (77 cents for each dollar made by men). But that isn't what was said. One reason I hate politics, has to do with the way we frame conversations. Its "us-against-them", pulling things out of context to make the other side look bad. The real story, as far as I can tell, isn't that a democrat went on CNN and said that Ann Romney doesn't work. Granted, she could have made her point A LOT better, but what I believe Rosen was saying is this: Romney, in the past few days, has decided to attack Obama on the economy. Romney also has an issue with women voters because they are more likely to vote for Obama than for him, something he will need to fix if he is to beat Obama. So he says, falsely, that the economy, under Obama, 92% of the people who lost jobs were women. FALSE. Then, in interviews, he is asked about the gender gap, he says his wife should answer that question, while also saying that while his wife is on the campaign trail, she regularly reports back to him that women are concerned about he economy. So, Romney is making his wife part of the discussion, not Hilary Rosen. And the bottom line? Rosen wasn't saying that raising kids isn't work. What she was saying, although badly, is that Ann Romney is out of touch with most of America. Yes she has had her struggles, but money or unemployment aren't one of them. And in Rosen's own words: "Spare me the faux anger from the right who view the issue of women's rights and advancement as a way to score political points. When it comes to supporting policies that would actually help women, their silence has been deafening. I don't need lectures from the RNC on supporting women and fighting to increase opportunities for women; I've been doing it my whole career. If they want to attack me and distract the public's attention away from their nominee's woeful record, it just demonstrates how much they just don't get it."

And that is what most of politics is. Distraction and attacks. While I try to educate myself about a number of issues, I almost always never engage in debate with people who hold different views. Because the unfortunate reality of the situation is that most people already have their minds made up and debate or discuss only to try and change your mind or show you how wrong you are. How does that do us any good? My husband and I are as opposite as politically as can be. He is a libertarian and I'm a progressive liberal. We agree about very few things. But we discuss politics constantly. We discuss with the intent to understand each other's point of view keeping in mind the possibility that we could each be wrong. And through discussion, we have moved closer to the middle on some issues. Wish we could do that on a national scale. More good would be done, with less attacks and posturing.