Ok, I’ll admit right up front the title is deceiving. The President didn’t really teach me anything this week but I sure did learn a lot from writing a post about him.
The post was meant to be fun. It was just poking fun at some of his positions and they aren’t even really his positions because in the interest of fun, I may have embellished them just a bit.
I could and might, write the same kind of post about Mitt but that might be like kicking a guy when he’s down. It wasn’t a serious political statement but many people, many many people, sure took it that way.
So what did I learn?
I learned I should stay out of politics. I don’t think I have the backbone for it. There are way too many people that are way too passionate about it. Not only passionate but unreasonably passionate. On both sides of the aisle.
I learned that many people who would have agreed with the post jumped to conclusions. They clearly didn’t read past the first paragraph or the title before they began to rip me on Twitter and unfollow me. These are the people that don’t want the facts to interfere with their opinion.
I learned that some people are just, if you’ll pardon the expression, whack jobs. I had several people DM me to tell me they would unfollow me immediately for “blasphemy” and that God would see me burn in hell for talking against his holy son, Obama. I can only hope these people aren’t U.S. citizens with the right to vote.
Speaking of voting, a few also said I should be banned from voting for disagreeing with the President. I guess if we did it that way all the political commercials could finally stop. Again, I can only hope those folks aren’t U.S. citizens, if there are they should immediately study the constitution to learn how silly they really sound.
But here’s the best thing I learned. The United States, and the world for that matter, is full of reasonable people who can differ with someone’s opinion and not hate them for it. I received many tweets from people saying they didn’t agree with the post, didn’t like “the tone” of the post or just thought I was plain wrong but they also said they respect my right to say it.
That’s what the United States is really all about, smart, reasonable people can disagree and still get along. No matter who wins the election in November there will be no riots, no strikes and no violence.
Despite the over zealous people on the left and on the right, the majority, the vast, vast majority of people are well balanced, well meaning people.
That should give all of us, the world over, all the hope we need to persevere.