I really can't wait until this election comes and GOES.
I'm a conservative and I make no bones about it. I keep up on politics and foreign affairs as a hobby all the time. But every 4 years, suddenly lay people who barely pay attention suddenly become political experts ready to insult the intelligence of those who disagree with them.
It's particularly annoying reading Digg, a site I usually like but is populated by left-wingers who, if asked, say that Digg is dominated by left-wingers because Digg attracts intelligent people and intelligent people tend to be liberal (despite ample evidence to the contrary gathered over the years but I digress).
I just want to be able to read tech news or whatever without having some arm-chair political analysis by "some guy" who is clueless about economics or foreign policy.
If people hold different political philosophies and opinions from you, it's not because they're necessarily ignorant or racist or stupid.
Sometimes people can look at the same data and come to a different conclusion. A little respect for other people's intelligence can go a long way.
Nothing bugs me more than when people insist that their opinions are the same as facts.
As someone who wouldn't be caught dead voting for either Obama or McCain, I am just shocked at the patronizing and arrogance directed towards other individuals purely because their political philosophies are different.
I won't vote for McCain because I don't like his political positions. But I certainly think he's "worthy" of leading the country. Similarly, while I won't vote for Obama, I don't think he's some sort of terrorist. But I think there's plenty of legitimate concern that the man has surrounded himself by people (Ayers, Wright, etc.) who overtly hate our society as it is and whose motto is "change" without defining very explicitly what he hopes to change. It certainly makes me nervous.
But I think both people are decent people and that people support these men not out of ignorance but because they believe that these men represent the way they think the United States should be administered.
If you're for Obama, you probably are unhappy with Bush's foreign policy decisions, you believe that it isn't fair that some people make so much more money than other people, and think that the federal government should ensure a basic standard of living for its citizens.
If you're for McCain, you probably support, to a certain degree, Bush's foreign policy including the invasion of Iraq. You probably believe that it is not the government's business how much people make and that generally, the federal government should try not to be involved in people's daily lives.
I hold the latter position but won't support McCain because he doesn't really have a political ideology other than getting elected (Campaign Finance Reform, poor undertanding of economics, etc.). He might make a good secretary of defense but not a very good President.
But nothing pisses me off more than seeing people showing such naked intolerance for the opinions of other individuals. Thinking Obama would be a terrible President does not make someone ignorant or evil or stupid or racist.