The Letter Behind the Name

Okay, it's only my third post and I'm already going to complain! So much for appearing to be the ever graceful Jackie Kennedy-style wife of a political candidate.

As you know from my first post, I consider myself an independent. Because of this, I generally don't pay too much attention to the letter behind the candidates name ('D' for Democrat and 'R' for Republican). I pay attention to where each candidate stands on the issues, and which issues are important to me at the time of the election. I'm beginning to realize that not everyone votes the same way. There are a large number of people that vote simply because of the letter behind the candidates name.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that this is a bad thing. For voters that align with their respective party on almost every issue, this is why we have political parties. For voters like myself, we have to do a bit more work because we don't align with one particular party.

The action that frustrates me is voters that get irate at a candidate because of the letter behind the name. Over the past months, my husband and some of his volunteers have been berated at the door simply because my husband is a GOP endorsed candidate. My question to these voters is what exactly is it about the GOP that gets you this angry? After answering this question, how do you know if my husband agrees or disagrees with this issue if you immediately demean him instead of asking him about his stance?

I have no doubt that there are probably a handful of Republicans that do the same thing to my husband's opponent, but because my husband is a Republican, I'm speaking about anti-Republicans in this post.

Yes, the people that do this are most certainly are in the minority. For every angry voter that my husband runs into, he meets 100, even 200 open and inquiring voters. So why am I complaining? I am the type of person that takes criticism personally. I understand that politicians and anyone in the public light needs to have a bit of a thick skin, but I don't. I guess this is something I'm going to have to develop.

It amazes me that my husband is able to take the actions of these people and apply it to make himself better instead of being hurt by this. I suppose some of this has to do with his time in professional athletics, and I suppose some of it simply has to do with his personality. He's sees these run-ins as a positive rather than a negative. Free speech or something:)

I, obviously, have a different view of my husband than just the letter behind his name. This campaign is giving me a different perspective on politicians and political candidates. They are real people. While I have never shouted at a candidate because of their political affiliation, I suppose I do judge them some based on where they stand on certain issues.

So while I'm complaining about a small minority of voters, I should also thank these people. Without them, I wouldn't completely understand what someone is up against when they decide they want to represent and fight for the people.