#politicsrant

Ok, I have to talk about politics for a minute. No, I'm not going to talk about my definite stance on everything that's going on, I'm not planning on ranting forever about what's right and wrong... I just want to talk about the fact that politics has never been explained to me. Not that I'm not capable of learning about it myself, but I was never taught when I was young what and why my family has their particular beliefs. When Obama was elected president, I didn't know why my family didn't like him, I just knew that I shouldn't like him either because they said so. When this election came around, I barely heard anything except don't vote for Hillary... But I didn't hear anything about the presidential candidates who I should vote for, or why. I heard and read so many vehement discussions about opposing sides, that I didn't know who was right and who was wrong. Or if there even was a right or wrong side. I still hardly know anything about politics, and that upsets me. The only position I have is that my family is Republican, so that's what I should be, too. No one has ever told me to research for myself, and come up with my own ideas and positions. No one has ever told me that finding my own beliefs and what's true for me is a valid option. And now that I'm of legal voting age, I feel entirely inadequate to make educated decisions about who should run our country, or even who the new sheriff should be. Please don't judge me on my previous ideas about politics, because that child knew nothing about anything except what her parents had forced upon her. I'm slowly becoming my own person, and it may take a while, but I'm finally starting to realize what it means to be me.